25 Greatest Christmas Films: #5 — Going My Way (1944)/The Bells Of St. Mary’s (1945)
by John NolteBoth films are listed together because they belong together, one fitting snugly against the other, offering a seamless double-feature capable of brightening your whole world for a few hours, and maybe a little longer if you can avoid leaving the house after they’re over.
Going My Way won seven well-deserved Oscars including best picture, actor (Bing Crosby), supporting actor (a sweet and crusty Barry Fitzgerald), director (Leo McCarey), screenplay, and song (Swingin’ On a Star). The story is a gentle and moving one about Father Chuck O’Malley (Crosby), a seemingly low-key, even lazy priest who’s really a fixer for the diocese with an uncanny ability to effortlessly maneuver everyone into under-estimating him.
At first this includes the elderly Father Fitzgibbon (Fitzgerald), who’s no longer able to efficiently run his parish and thisclose to losing a crumbling church to bankruptcy. The heart of Going My Way is the complicated road both men walk until they finally reach a warm and rich friendship.
There are no bad guys in Going My Way, just those in need of a little faith, direction and love. All of which Father O’Malley delivers with great empathy, understanding, charm and, of course, song. The genius of Crosby’s iconic portrayal of the Irish priest we now measure all by is in how easy he makes it all seem. Learn your lines and don’t bump into the furniture, right? If you believe as I do that great acting results in a natural, convincing characterization that doesn’t show the strings of “technique,” then you’ll agree Crosby had few equals and that late-career Meryl Streep sucks.
There are too many beautiful scenes to inventory, but what sticks out most is the boy’s choir singing Ave Maria, Bing’s gentle Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra lullaby sung to a heart and homesick Father Fitzgibbon and the unforgettably touching reunion with the old priest and his aged mother.
The scene that always moves me more than any other, though, might not have seemed like such a big deal in 1944 when Hollywood still believed America was a country worth fighting for, but the look of pride on landlord Gene Lockhart’s face when his son presents himself in military uniform and announces he’s enlisted to fight for his country (a country currently embroiled in WWII) is unforgettable. Will even a trace of this Hollywood ever be allowed to return?
Going My Way is a rarity, a film without flaw, and its 1945 sequel, The Bells Of St. Mary’s, is a worthy follow-up. Critics unfairly accuse Bells of being little more than a remake of its predecessor with Bing’s Father O’Malley once again the fixer sent to gently nudge the person in charge aside. And this time it’s Ingrid Bergman’s Sister Mary Benedict whose Catholic school is falling down around her. But the critics are wrong. These films have little to do with plot and everything to do with relationships, and in the relationship department the situation here is much more complicated than before. This time Father O’Malley has something to learn.
If there was ever a more beautiful nun than Ingrid Bergman, it could only have been Audrey Hepburn or Deborah Kerr. Again we have too many memorable moments to list, but Sister Mary giving a bullied student boxing lessons, Father O’Malley leaning on the school bell, the title song, and Bergman’s speech to a young girl about what it is to become a nun, all stand out.
However, Bells has my all-time favorite scene from either film, a simple, innocent and endearing reminder of what Christmas is really about.
Happy Birthday, Jesus:
Read the full countdown here.
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21 Comments
Okay, It's A Wonderful Life has not been mentioned, so that should be #1, but I will admit that I have to quibble that these films are nore 2&3……
Thanks for the fun John, and no more strange quotes on Facebook; I realized they were from movies, but thought that the choices reflected a little too much eggnog, too early in the season.
A bit of a cheat to put two films in one spot, John. Not that I disapprove; they are wonderful and most-deserving. Although it has been far too long since I've watched either. Going My Way is on TBN on Thursday at 5:00 PM Eastern. Bells is not scheduled on any channel I get.
Just saw Going My Way for the first time ever last night. I did not enjoy it.
Good choice; I recently saw Going My Way for the first time. The irony of using Carl Switzer in a choir was brilliant, I thought (everyone knows Alfalfa can't sing). I'm still looking forward to Bells of St. Mary's.
Its ironic, I won't see a movie with Penn, Clooney a whole raft of folks of their ilk
because of there politics and their fondness for shoving it in my face.
I don't hold a star to the same standard just because a "Mommy Dearest" type of book
written by his son made Bing look like an animal with regards to his children.
I did Joan Crawford because I didn't care for her to begin with.
Do you have other evidence of Crosby's behavior that would change my opinion or are you
just considering his son's book?
Seems like an odd forum to admit that you're dead inside… but hey, whatever floats it.
My father was in the boy's choir (Mitchell's Boy's Choir) in this movie. It's a christmas ritual in my family. He actually had a line in the scene where O'Malley gets the neighborhood boys into the basement for the first choir rehearsal. When O'Malley has the boys sing in sections, one voice is cracking (due to puberty) and O'Malley asks who it is. My dad says, " I guess dat's me, Fadda." and O'malley has him move to the lower-voiced section. My dad was in about 26 movies while in this choir but this movie was the biggest success. His opinion of Switzer (Alfalfa) was that he was a jerk. Switzer was killed during a burglery attempt a few years later.
The gentleness and warmth of movies like this has been eliminated from movies for decades and I really miss it. I've been to a movie in a theater only twice in the last 20 years. It seems that movies like this tended to uplift the expectations of society. Later films only seem to tear down moral expectations by reveling in moral ambiguity. I call it the "hitman with a heart of gold" effect.
Frankly I can't imagine modern Hollywood making a movie about a priest which doesn't involve him screwing someone. If he's sorry about it, he's a hypocrite and gets exposed and/or killed; if he's unapologetic he's the hero and gets praised for his courage. Seriously, priests in modern films get more action than pimps. Is this some sort of clever reverse-psychology Catholic recruiting technique?
Where are numbers 1-4?
it's hard to like films with Bing Crosby in them when you don't like Bing Crosby…
The "Road' films with Bob Hope were good- well, because Hope was great. Crosby always left us cold, and his presence in these films hurts them. Shame, too, because otherwise they're decent flicks.
Why the problem with Der Bingle? He didn't have a sincere bone in his body, that's why…
I'm going to have to be Scrooge her and say that I've always hated the scene in "Bells of St. Mary" where priest Crosby tells nun Bergman that she should pass the little girl who had failed her test, giving as a reason the story of a classmate of his who everyone thought was a lazy bum, but later became the most successful person in his class. Sorry, Der Bingle, but about 99% of the time when everyone thinks somebody is a lazy bum, it's because they are a lazy bum and it only gives excuses to other lazy bums to pretend otherwise.
"Luther? What's he doing here?"
That's such a coarse thing to say, especially at this time of year. This is a place of opinions and expressions. However, your comment is simply evil.
I wrote this the other night-
All these years of classic films, Bing Crosby and such and I had never seen this film before.
It ran tonight w/o commercials or interruptions on TBN, the religious station.
But I didn't enjoy it. I like Crosby very much, but I was not connecting with this film at all. Barry Fitzgerald was irking me. Crosby was his usual fine self. Frank McHugh and William Frawley – thumbs up. Most everyone else – thumbs down.
The songs – I've never liked "Going My Way" much, same with "Swingin' On a Star". "Tooralooraloora" – pleasant enough. The rest? I can't remember.
I think I dozed off just before the kids were supposed to go to a ball game. Next thing I remember the kids were coming out of a building and getting on a bus.
There were a few nice scenes, but near all the sub-plots did not hold my interest.
"Hot turkey" – haha – a good quip there.
The 2 young lovers were not appealing to me. Rise Stevens? That was a real stretch and she seemed out of place.
Then the church burns down. Oh, well. BF speaking like BC has passed on was funny as was the look FM gave to him.
I'd try it again b/c everyone else seems to love it.
Haven't seen "Bells of St. Mary's," but have always laughed at the way it's referenced on the movie theater marquee in "It's A Wonderful Life" (Henry Travers was in both films).
I'm ok with Crosby, it's Danny Kaye I never got much out of. In White Christmas he tried so hard to be funny he came off as stupid.
guess we have to agree with you there- Danny Kaye was a real talent, and had a nice career. But he was frenetic and forced, much like Jerry Lewis but without the improv chops… not fans…
not particularly. He was knownto be a cold, aloof and distant fellow. His business with his family is speculation and no one knows how true it is.
Our problem is with him as a performer. He just never came alive on screen. Measured, and skilled- but wooden and uninspired. Personal taste…
Or facetious.
I'll guess that it is not the flood of films Bing did in the 1930s. These films are highly entertaining and define his screen character. His forties films and especially his 50s and beyond releases give little clue as to why America fell in live with him during the Depression.
not sure which films he did in the 30's that were any better; undoubtedly you know more on this topic than we- suffice to say that unless it was great ensemble work we found him to be less than scintillating. But open to any suggestions…
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