When Going My Way is mentioned by film historians (if it's mentioned at all) it is seen as a fufilling a certain need at a certain time. The general theory is that during the heights of World War II, seeing a pleasant, low-key movie was important to homefront audinences at a time when being pleasant and low-key was a luxury that no one could afford in their real lives. And that's the only way I can figure out why this enjoyable but leightweight movie was such a monster sucess. Not only was it the highest grossing film of the year, it also won the Oscar for the Best Picture of 1944, along with Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Song. Did it deserve and of these? Maybe in 1944.
The movie is a series of episodes around the character of Father Charles "Chuck" O'Malley (Bing Crosby), an easy going (like almost everyone in this movie) priest who has just been assigned to save St. Dominic's, a troubled parish in New York City. There are lots of problems- the church owes a lot of money to a mean banker who owns the morgage (Gene Lockhart), Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald), the parish priest, is getting old and ineffective, and there is some low-grade juvinelle deliquency in the neighborhood. Father O'Malley wastes no time in getting down to the nitty-gritty- he solves the deliquency problem right by getting all the neighboorhood kids to sing in his choir (why didn't anyone else think of that?). He tires to solve the money problem by writing a hit song, but no one will publish it, until one day by coincidence he meets his old girlfriend (Rise Stevens) who just happens to be a star at the Metropolitan Opera. You don't think there is a chance that she could...no, I wouldn't want to give that incredibly surprising plot twist away!
I know, I know, this movie sounds like garbage, and it's impossible for me to write about it without coming off like even more of a smarta** as usual, but the movie is too laidback to be over-the-top. None of this stuff as hammered in to the audince, and the film is very, very hard not to like. And lest you think that this is my pro-Catholic bais coming out, the film is more about the experince of being in a religious community than any set of actual beleifs. From a theological standpoint, the movie might as well be about Rabbi Rabinowitz, because there almost zero theology. Surprisingly, given the subject matter and the Jello-like softness of the plot, the film is not preachy. I enjoyed watching it, although the songs (aside from the Oscar-winning tune, "Swing On a Star"), are boring and a waste of time.
That's not to say that this is anything close to being required veiwing for anyone but the staunchiest Bing Crosby maniac (are there any left alive?). The movie is kind of like a visit to your elderly great aunt Tilda by marrige- you're never really bored, but there are a lot more exciting ways to spend an afternoon (and unlike Tilda, the movie isn't glad you watched it). But it's better than no other film I've seen to watch at one o'clock in the morning when you can't sleep. That might sound like faint praise, but hey, distinctivenss counts for something.
Going My Way (1944)