Taglines: In love with love! Jim Brown and Jean Heather!
Going My Way movie storyline. Father Fitzgibbon has been the parish priest at St. Dominic’s in New York City for forty five years. The parish faces financial and social problems which the diocese believes cannot be solved by Father Fitzgibbon’s traditional and conservative approach to running the parish. The bishop appoints progressive Father O’Malley, originally from St. Louis, to, on the surface, assist Father Fitzgibbon at St. Dominic’s.
In reality, Father O’Malley has been appointed to lead the parish out of these problems, something that Father Fitzgibbon is unaware, and something that Father O’Malley does not want to divulge in letting Father Fitzgibbon continue his work in dignity. Father O’Malley’s task is made all the more difficult as Father Fitzgibbon does not approve of Father O’Malley’s ways, both as priest and as a person.
In general, Father Fitzgibbon takes a rather strict approach typical to the traditional ways of the church, whereas Father O’Malley takes a more compassionate humanistic approach, he who wants to bring people back to the church through more contemporary means rather than the old “fire and brimstone” preachings. However, even Father O’Malley’s humanism may not be able to deal with the fact that Ted Haines Sr., representing the Knickerbocker Savings and Loan, is thinking of foreclosing on the church’s mortgage for non-payment, money which the church does not have and which it needs to get out of this problem.
Going My Way is a 1944 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. Based on a story by Leo McCarey, the film is about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran. Crosby sings five songs in the film, with other songs performed onscreen by Metropolitan Opera’s star mezzo-soprano, Risë Stevens (in the role of a famous Metropolitan Opera performer) as well as the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir (in the role of juvenile deliquents turned into a choir). Going My Way was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary’s.
Going My Way was the highest-grossing picture of 1944, and was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning seven, including Best Picture. Its success helped to make movie exhibitors choose Crosby as the biggest box-office draw of the year, a record he would hold for the remainder of the 1940s. After World War II, Bing Crosby and Leo McCarey presented a copy of the motion picture to Pope Pius XII at the Vatican.
At the 17th Academy Awards, Going My Way was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including two for Barry Fitzgerald, whose work on the film was nominated for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. (Subsequently, the rules were changed to prevent a recurrence.) It won seven, including Best Picture.
Going My Way (1944)
Directed by: Leo McCarey
Starring: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown, Gene Lockhart, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Fortunio Bonanova, Eily Malyon, Robert Mitchell, Risë Stevens, Stanley Clements
Screenplay by: Frank Butler, Frank Cavett
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Lionel Lindon, John F. Seitz
Film Editing by: LeRoy Stone
Costume Design by: Edith Head
Set Decoration by: Stephen Seymour
Art Direction by: Hans Dreier, William Flannery
Music by: Robert Emmett Dolan
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: May 3, 1944 (USA)
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