Going My Way (1944)

“A golf course is nothing but a poolroom moved outdoors.” – Father Fitzsimmons

Number of Times Seen – 1  (9 Oct 2013)

Brief Synopsis – A young energetic priest is sent to an aging parish to replace the elderly priest already there and try and reinvigorate it.

My Take on it – Here is another Best Picture winner that I had never seen and now I know why,

This movie completely lacks a coherent plot. It is basically many small anecdotes peppered with musical numbers sung by Bing Crosby throughout.

From this movie alone, you can see that Crosby had talent both as an actor and as a singer.  Three of the songs he croons are “Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral (That’s an Irish Lullaby)”, the title song “Going My Way” and the Oscar winner “Swinging on a star.”

This movie is light-hearted and interesting but it could have been so much better had they thought to add a plot.

Winner of 7 Oscars (of 10):  Picture, Director, Actor (Crosby), Supporting actor (Barry Fitgerald), Song, Screenplay, Original story.

It lost 3: Cinematography, Film Editing and Actor (Barry Fitzgerald).

No, that isn’t a typo, Barry Fitzgerald is the only actor to ever get nominations as Actor and Supporting actor for the same role in the same year.  The academy has changed their rules so it won’t ever happen again.

After having reviewed Wilson (1944) earlier this week, I’m now quite surprised this movie beat it.

Guess we can chalk that up to two reasons

1) this movie was better received by the audience

and

2) During a war, audiences like lighter fluff.

Bottom Line – Weak best picture winner, but the music makes it bearable and entertaining.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy