Going My Way (1944)
Going My Way (1944)
This Academy Award Best Picture winner is a charming story about a new priest played by Bing Crosby who is sent to replace an older priest played by Barry Fitzgerald but insists on doing it his way. The combination of these two actors is so sentimental that both won Oscars for their roles (Fitzgerald won the Supporting Oscar though he too was nominated for Best Actor!). They interact with and/or help others including Frank McHugh James Brown Gene Lockhart Jean Heather Porter Hall and Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer who appears uncredited as does William Frawley. Its director Leo McCarey and the song "Swinging on a Star" (#37 on AFI’s 100 Top Movie Songs of All Time) also won Oscars and the film also picked up both Writing Oscars Screenplay (Frank Butler Wake Island (1942) & Frank Cavett) and Original Story (again McCarey). Cinematographer Lionel Lindon picked up his first nomination editor LeRoy Stone his only. Added to the National Film Registry in 2004.