Going My Way (1944, Musical)

Starring: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald and Jean Heather

Director: Leo McCarcey

Winning Best Picture for 1944 and a score of other Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Directing, and Best Original Song, this movie warms one's heart and reminds the the viewer that there are good people in this world. There are people like Father O'Malley, who just wants to help others. It is his selfless charity that awakens this slumbering parish. I do believe that the Academy Awards can be politically motivated, and I can see the Academy giving this warm and fuzzy movie the Best Picture statuette just after World War II has ended. The American public needs to have their faith renewed in organized religion and humanity. They have just witnessed destruction; they have just experienced the brutality of death; they need a renewal of hope for the future, and music is the best way to energize a depressed person, as I have determined. The arias sung by Jean Heather are absolutely magical. Her voice is intoxicating! I have to give Bing Crosby credit for his "Would You Like to Swing on a Star" -- it was cleverly written and wonderfully performed by the Boy's Choir that Father O'Malley has started with a bunch of rowdy troublemakers. Great movie! :-)