When Leo McCarey won the Best Director award for The Awful Truth in 1937, he said they gave it to him for the wrong film, referring to the heart-wrenching Make Way For Tomorrow of the same year. I don't know what better film he made in 1944, but it must have been very good to earn Going My Way 7 Oscars. This is far from his best work, but admittedly there's little wrong with it, it's just inoffensive and harmless to a fault. It's damn near void of meaningful conflict outside of its opening and closing 10 minutes. It tries to start an argument about the old vs. the new and independence vs. guidance but neither idea is fully fleshed out besides briefly in a titular song. Instead it opts for toothless pleasantness, ideal to cater to soft hearts during the end of World War II. In that case, I guess it would have been decent company in a volatile world.
But today, it's just far-fetched that a bunch of ragtag boys would suddenly reform into a church choir without much disagreement. That's more or less the bulk of the film so to have it so undeveloped leaves it unsatisfying. The film hinges on Bing Crosby's warmth and familiar songs and I can see how it can be intoxicating, but it can't exist on that plane alone. Barry Fitzgerald gets a lot of credit for the film's enduring success - and he's famous for being the only actor nominated twice for the same performance at the Oscars - but his mannerisms were more irritating than heartwarming. The film is handsomely shot for its time at least, but it didn't win an award for that department somehow. It's a shame it hasn't had the staying power of other Best Pictures that resonate like All Quiet on the Western Front and Casablanca, but it was the Academy's early days.
6/10
But today, it's just far-fetched that a bunch of ragtag boys would suddenly reform into a church choir without much disagreement. That's more or less the bulk of the film so to have it so undeveloped leaves it unsatisfying. The film hinges on Bing Crosby's warmth and familiar songs and I can see how it can be intoxicating, but it can't exist on that plane alone. Barry Fitzgerald gets a lot of credit for the film's enduring success - and he's famous for being the only actor nominated twice for the same performance at the Oscars - but his mannerisms were more irritating than heartwarming. The film is handsomely shot for its time at least, but it didn't win an award for that department somehow. It's a shame it hasn't had the staying power of other Best Pictures that resonate like All Quiet on the Western Front and Casablanca, but it was the Academy's early days.
6/10