\u201cGoing My Way\u201d is a comedy drama that took a bunch of Oscars and was the biggest box office draw in 1944.\u00a0 And since it starred Bing Crosby it unsurprisingly had several musical numbers spread through the movie.\u00a0 It\u2019s the story of Father Chuck O\u2019Malley (Crosby) a Catholic priest sent by the bishop to rescue a New York City parish; St Dominic\u2019s, from the overwhelmed exhaustion of its present elderly pastor; Father Fitzgibbon (played by Barry Fitzgerald).\u00a0 With a supporting cast that includes such veteran character actors as Gene Lockart, Timothy O\u2019Dowd and William Frawley the film drops any pretense at reality and has Father O\u2019Malley manage to reform a local gang of New York City teenagers and converts them into a church choir.\u00a0 He manages to raise enough money to pay off the mortgage by selling a song to a music producer.\u00a0 He saves a runaway teenager from trouble with the police and even manages to reunite Father Fitzgibbon with his ninety-year-old mother by finding a way to pay for her trip from Ireland.<\/p>\n
Now clearly this movie has nothing to do with reality.\u00a0 Having grown up in a New York City Roman Catholic parish I can assure you that no priest of Father O\u2019Malley\u2019s caliber has ever been seen.\u00a0 But treat the movie as a fantasy from a much more innocent time and enjoy it for its virtues.\u00a0 Crosby comes across as eminently likeable and the whole movie is a feel-good experience that can be watched around the holiday season to try and believe that there are still good people walking this Earth.<\/p>\n
Now the interesting thing is this movie has the distinction of being one of only a very few good movies that had an even better sequel.\u00a0 The next year (1945) Crosby returned as O\u2019Malley, paired with Ingrid Bergman as a nun in the movie, \u201cThe Bells of St Mary\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with or without the sequel, \u201cGoing My Way\u201d is a heartwarming and well-made film that I can highly recommend to anyone who still wants to believe in the possibility of human goodness and hope.\u00a0 There is comedy, human feeling and a sense of optimism in the face of hardship.\u00a0 A classic.<\/p>\n