JohnHowardReid Conflict is the essence of great entertain¬ment. Here we have not only conflict between young and old, but between go-ahead and conservative, between the money-grubbing and idealistic. The characters are cleverly shaded, their opposing points of view made more palatable and sympathetic by giving them human qualities with which audiences can identify. The old priest may be a bit crusty and cantankerous, he may be over-set in his ways, he may be naive and even simplistic, but his heart runneth over with pure gold. All the same, he is somewhat refreshingly removed from Hollywood's usual conception of the do-gooder priest. His young colleague is much more the smilingly humanitarian stereotype - though even he is allowed a few unusual quirks. For instance, he sings, (You have to remember that although we now completely accept Crosby in a priestly role, such casting was a major deviation from the norm back in 1944. Although time has now diminished the dramatic impact of this mind-boggling break with tradition, McCarey deserves a great deal of credit for pushing ahead with this unthinkable innovation despite the strenuous objections of Paramount executives).The casting of Crosby and Fitzgerald could not have been more felicitous. Although Crosby's career was already in full swing (in 1943 he was voted by U.S. exhibitors as the country's number four box-office star), Going My Way catapulted him into super-star status. From 1944 to 1948 he was the most popular star in America (and Australia as well), only dropping into second position in 1949 due to the huge success of Bob Hope's The Paleface. In fact, Going My Way was second only to The Paleface as Paramount's most popular Australian release of the 1940's.For Fitzgerald, Going My Way lifted his career from the character-player league to major star.The other players lend excellent support, although the film failed to make any appreciable impact on their overall careers. It is Crosby's and Fitzgerald's movie. Although Stevens takes time out to sing Carmen, she doesn't stay in the memory. It's Crosby's jaunty air, his crooning of "Too-ra-loo-ra", his swinging on a star and his breaking down of Fitzgerald's distrust and antipathy that we remember.As might be expected, the movie is superbly crafted in all departments. In fact, in his book on The Films of Bing Crosby, Robert Bookbinder wisely points out that the very excellence of Crosby and Fitzgerald in his picture's leading roles tends to overshadow McCarey's contribution. Some critics would argue that this is as it should be: the more perfect a director's work, the more unobtrusive. On this basis, McCarey certainly deserved his Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' award for Directing as well as his award for Original Story.

SimonJack "Going My Way" was released in May 1944 - a month before the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches in war-torn Europe. This down to earth and homey comedy and drama, with music, struck a chord with audiences in the U.S. I couldn't find anything about its release in England. It was released in Sweden in December of that year, but not in France, Austria and Denmark until after the war - in 1946. It was released in Australia on Feb. 2, 1945. The film received great reviews and was the highest grossing movie in 1944. It won seven of 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director and best actor and supporting actor. Its U.S. box office of $16.3 million would be more than $225 million in 2017. There are just two scenes with anything about the war that was going on at the time. The first of those is lighthearted and the second has comedy. The film is regarded as one of Bing Crosby's best, if not the best. He and Barry Fitzgerald strike a warmth of collaboration as two men that no other film or performance matches. For modern audiences, the film may seem a little slow, especially in the early scenes. But the interest should pick up as the plot builds about a third of the way into the movie. Most people know the story, so I'll close these comments with some favorite lines of a clever, crisp and chipper script. Ted Haines Sr., "Where have you been the last two weeks?" Ted Haines Jr., "Well, dad, I've been in a blue heaven dancing on a pink cloud. She came in on a moonbeam." Ted Haines Sr., "That's a lie. I had you followed." Ted Haines Jr., "That wasn't cricket, dad. When you were my age, I didn't follow you around." As Father Fitzgibbons goes to chip a golf shot out of a sand trap, Father Chuck O'Malley says, "Keep your head down now, father. And watch your language." Father Fitzgibbons, "Hope? You know, Chuck, when you're young, it's easy to keep the fires of hope burning bright. But at my age, you're lucky if the pilot light doesn't go out."Father Fitzgibbons, "Well, did you make your parish calls?" Father Chuck O'Malley, "Oh, yes. Mrs. McGonigle's rheumatism is kicking up again. I told her to bury a potato in the back yard." Father Fitzgibbons, "That's for warts." Father Chuck O'Malley, "That's what she said."

lasttimeisaw It is galling that this vintage Oscar BEST PICTURE winner (7 wins, including BEST DIRECTOR, BEST LEADING and SUPPORTING ACTORs) might be best remembered for the sole happenstance in the Oscar history when Barry Fitzgerald was nominated in both LEADING ACTOR and SUPPORTING ACTOR categories for the same performance (which he won the latter), although the Academy speedily changed the rules to stave off any future embarrassment, nevertheless, it belies the perpetually ongoing category placement controversy which has been widespread until today.Directed by the prominent comedy maestro Leo McCarey, and green-lit as a Bing Crosby showcase, GOING MY WAY tells the story of a young and forthcoming priest Father Charles O'Malley (Crosby), aka. Chuck, who is commissioned by the bishop to take over the parish in NYC from an elder pastor Father Fitzgibbon (Fitzgerald), who has presided over the church since day one, for almost 45 years, only now, the church has been in the mire of financial difficulties, and Father Charles is sent to straighten out the problem and make the transition as smooth as possible.So, a major plot device is that Father Fitzgibbon has no inkling of the function transference in the first place, Chuck is introduced simply as his assistant, so when the lid is blown off, a dramatic collision is what viewers would expect. However, against the hype, in McCarey's staunch execution, the revelation comes quite early in the storyline, and is rendered with utter aplomb and mutual understanding, as two mature clergymen, there is no need of making a scene, albeit their different approaches (the blasé traditional vs. unorthodox tug-of-war, only milder), they are fighting for the same honorable cause, it may sound like church propaganda on paper, yet in the film, the cordial atmosphere and contagious compassion is superbly tangible.There are no villain or whatsoever in the story, the parishioners, from a juvenile street gang lead by Tony (Clements) to a young maiden Carol (Heather), who has run away from home and resolves to find her footing in one way or another, music is wielded as the ultimate gospel, Chuck forms a boy choir and hones up their skills, eventually it will pay back lucratively to save the church from its dire situation. The romance between Carol and Ted Haines Jr. (Brown), the son of the church's mortgage-holder, Ted Haines Sr. (Lockhart), has also keenly and timely goaded through Chuck's music, the titular tune GOING MY WAY, into marriage instead of living in a sinful status. And a completely platonic friendship between Chuck and his old-time girlfriend Jenny (the mezzo- soprano Risë Stevens), never risks betraying any carnal attachment and Jenny's one-sided munificence can be only justified by her hail-fellow-well-met good nature.For my money, Fitzgerald and Crosby are the two co-leads here, and the former doesn't has recourse to singing bent to win over audience, on the contrary, Fitzgerald's performance is decidedly more evocative of sympathy, laughter and esteem than Crosby's pristine, but comparatively stale apotheosis of a stand-up guy who is aggravatingly flawless and is tailor-made to elicit nonjudgmental bonhomie, but the truth is, Crosby is such a nonpareil crooner, that's where lies the abiding charm of the picture if its gently preachy modus operandi tends to be rather impertinent and spoon-feeding by today's yardstick.In sum, GONIG MY WAY is a beatific but regressively antiseptic tribute of Catholic church's noble vocation and suggests a more liberal viewpoint in its progress, as though it were the cure-all for all our mundane problems, indeed, the biggest accomplishment of the movie is that it makes us wish only if it were true!

richard-1787 Yes, this is often a very sentimental film, one that can make even embarrassed grown men get teary-eyed. (The scene where Ted and his new bride smile after what was evidently another night of honeymoon bliss while Ted's father berates him for being irresponsible, only to discover that his "irresponsible" son has joined the Army Airforce - remember, we were in World War II at the time, so joining the military meant being sent to war - is one such scene.) But if you can look past that - or sometimes at that with an objective eye - you can see what makes this a very good movie, one that was indeed worthy of Oscar consideration. (No, it's not *Citizen Kane*, but most movies aren't.) There are lots of moments done with a very quiet simplicity that makes them particularly powerful.Take, for example, the last scene of the movie, when Risë Stevens brings the elderly priest's mother in to see him. (She has just arrived from Ireland.) Nothing is said by either of them. It's "just" acting with the face and the body. No orchestral swells, nothing like that. And yet, it's deeply moving. Remember, too, that when this movie was made, long before Skype, etc., and low-cost transatlantic airlines, it was very difficult for non-wealthy Americans to see relatives in Europe.Other movies could have turned "If you like to swing on a star" into some sort of elaborate production number. Here it's done very simply, but is all that much more effective as a result.This is not the sort of movie that will be studied in a film class. There's nothing particularly innovative about it. But its simple restraint is sometimes very moving. And there is much to be said for that.