Going My Way/Holiday Inn (1944)

Going My Way
This irresistible Oscar winner from writer-director Leo McCarey (An Affair to Remember) stars Bing Crosby as a low-key, crooning priest who joins the parish of a no-nonsense but sweet old Irish man of the cloth (Barry Fitzgerald). While Bing turns local toughs into a choir, the elder priest worries over the church building fund and whether he'll get a chance to see his old mother back in Ireland before she dies. One would have to have a heart of stone not to be won over by this charmer, with a lovely ending guaranteed to make you bawl for a week. --Tom Keogh

Holiday Inn
This perennial, Christmas-season favorite from 1942 teamed Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as entertainers (and rival suitors of Marjorie Reynolds) running an inn that is only open on holidays. It's a great excuse for lots of singing and dancing, seamlessly wrapped in a catchy story, and Astaire's frequent director Mark Sandrich (Top Hat, Shall We Dance) doesn't let us down. The Irving Berlin numbers (each one connected to a different holiday) are winners, with Crosby's warm performance of "White Christmas" a movie touchstone. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com essential video

delivered as promised

Watching "Going My Way" was a holiday tradition for my husband. When we lost our old VHS copy to a flooded basement, I thought it was over. But I was able to order the DVD from you on 12/17 and have it in time for Christmas. Thanks for the great service. January 19, 2008

Bing Crosby Double Feature

Conceived from an idea by composer Irving Berlin, Mark Sandrich's "Holiday Inn" is a humorous, festive Crosby/Astaire musical that finds both performers in tip-top, toe-tapping form. Famous for introducing "White Christmas," the best-selling single of all time and an instant favorite with troops overseas, "Inn" is consistently tuneful and entertaining with a sublime Berlin score that covers not just Christmas, but all major holidays. Watch for the July 4th rave-up "Let's Say It With Firecrackers," one of many musical highlights. June 22, 2007

A true Christmas Gem

Going My Way deservedly won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Story. It is such a warm story written and directed by Leo McCarey (who also wrote Love Affair, Bells of St. Mary's and An Affair to Remember as well as directed the latter two).

The movie's warmth owed much to the wonderful performance of Barry Fitzgerald (Best Actor in a Supporting Role), as the lovable and respectable elderly Father Fitzgibbon, despite his old school of strict rules and hardships expected of a clergyman. And Bing Crosby(Best Actor), as Father O'Malley, came to rescue the old church with utmost regard of Father Fitzgibbon's delicate feeling. Bing Crosby's portrayal of a sensible, upright Father who enjoyed a close relationship with the younger generation was most impressive. The joyful and buoyant Father O'Dowd (Frank McHugh) provided the optimistic mood often needed to uplift the morale of the other two Fathers. The personal sacrifice made by Fitzgibbon, his longing to see his mother far away, the subplots of a radiant contralto of Metropolitan Opera Association (Rise Stevens) with a gold heart, the father and son money lenders, a naïve run away 18-year old (Jean Heather) all make a wonderful story.

In addition, there is much good music performed by Bing Crosby (Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra, Silent Night, Swinging on a star - Best Original Music) and Rise Stevens (Ave Maria, Habanera of Carmen)with the Robert Mitchell Boychoir. There is just a right balance between the good Christmas spirit and delightful Christmas music. It leaves you adoring the kindness and integrity of these good characters while humming the beautful tones.

For a different kind of light and highly entertaining holiday treat, Holiday Inn must be the one. White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby, first solo followed by duet with Marjorie Reynolds, in the first half hour of the movie alone is a classic number not to be missed. However, the movie offers much more than meets the eye.

The idea of having a holiday inn which opened for 15 holidays throughout the year is ingenious. In no more natural setting can numbers be inserted at Christmas, Lincoln's birthday, Valentine's Day, Washington's birthday, Easter Parade, Independence Day as in this movie. The elegant and radiant Marjorie Reynolds sang beautifully with Bing Crosby and danced gracefully with Fred Astaire, so was Virginia Dale. Added to it the lively performance of the trio's agent (Walter Abel) and Bing Crosby's cook Mamie(Louise Beavers) with two cute child actors. This is such a warm and delightful holiday movie that one can enjoy all 100 minutes of singing and dancing. December 27, 2006

Old-fashioned sentimentality at its best

(GOING MY WAY reviewed as a single feature on videocassette.)

We are in an entertainment age of rampant violence, language, and sexuality. On a recent Monday, I watched two tapes worth of HBO shows. I could actually feel my soul corroding from violence in the admittedly well acted THE SOPRANOS, very strong language in the beautifully designed DEADWOOD, and sex scenes with full nudity in the new BIG LOVE. They make me want to cancel my subscription to HBO and go back to bygone Hollywood on Turner Classic Movies.

Producer/director/co-writer Leo McCarey's GOING MY WAY (1944) won a whopping seven Oscars the same year as such powerhouses as DOUBLE INDEMNITY, LAURA, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, and SINCE YOU WENT AWAY. It is a sweet and likeable movie. Not great art, but very pleasant and soul-restoring. We have Oscar winners Bing Crosby as progressive young Father O'Malley and Barry Fitzgerald as the aging conservative Father Fitzgibbon interacting at venerable St. Dominick's.

GOING MY WAY runs an overlong 126 minutes and is constructed as a series of interacting plot strands. G-rated juvenile delinquents become members of the church choir and (off-screen) go with Father O'Malley to a baseball game. They later sing a song for Rise Stevens (of the Metropolitan Opera) as Genevieve Linden. Father O'Malley was the first person to praise Genevieve, who in turn gives encouragement to the boys, who subsequently sing the lovely and Oscar-winning "Swinging on a Star."

Fitzgerald's Father Fitzgibbon is an endearing character who has a bottle of whiskey hilariously hidden inside a bookcase music box that plays "Toora, Loora, Loora" all the time. The same lovely, sentimental song figures prominently in the very poignant final scene. Watch Father Fitzgibbon's expression when he realizes he has eaten a stolen turkey (by two of the boys) at Thanksgiving. And watch him play golf with Father O'Malley and mistakenly, happily think he has gotten a really good score.

Then there is Carol (pretty Jean Heather), a runaway teenager who eventually marries a World War Two (1944 movie) soldier named Ted, whose father (Gene Lockhart) holds the mortgage on St. Dominick's. Lockhart does something nice with that mortage at Christmas time in the final reel. Ted asks dad to "look after Carol while [he is] away. She'll grow on you." On the sidelines is Frank McHugh, always fun, as Father O'Dowd.

I like GOING MY WAY quite a lot. It is very sentimental, but (to rewrite the final line of Preston Sturges' great 1941 SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS) there is a lot to be said for sentimentality and old-fashioned virtues in our frenzied and cynical computer age.


March 19, 2006

Going My Way/Holiday Inn

Going My Way is a wonderful movie. All the actors are great to watch. The story keeps your interest. I love listening to Bing
Crosby sing. His voice is so easy to listen to.

Holiday Inn is a wonderful entertaining movie. It's not only a musical, it has very funny parts in it. It's a wonderful Holiday or anytime movie. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are fabulous actors. February 24, 2006

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