Going My Way

(Leo McCarey, US 1944, 126 min., DCP)

Crooner Bing Crosby stars as father Charles “Chuck” O’Malley, the easygoing priest who comes from East St. Louis to New York City to bring St. Dominic’s Church out of the dumps. In a clash between the old and the new, O’Malley goes head-to-head with the conservative Father Fitzgibbon, who views O’Malley as barely one step up from the local hoods. O’Malley eventually proves himself worthy when he organizes the local delinquents into a street choir for a fundraiser that pulls the church out of debt. Going My Way won Best Picture at the 1944 Academy Awards, and Crosby won Best Actor for the role he would reprise just one year later in The Bells of St. Mary’s.