Jun. 02, 2002 - 11:14 pm
Best Picture 1944. only 9 left i believe. as i was telling a friend earlier, the thing about going through these movie lists that i do is that you end up finding a lot of really amazing films that you wonder why you haven't heard more about. unfortunately, you also end up seeing a lot of just mediocre or even bad films along with it. at least it helps you have an intelligent film conversation though when you've seen so many classics.
Going My Way gets 5/10. it had only one really good song in it. "Swinging on a Star" - also got the Best Song Oscar. the title song is just ok. this movie is billed as a comedy, but never made me laugh, so i think of it as a musical. it had nearly 10 musical numbers in it anyway. and the lead is of course Bing Crosby. so there ya go. the bad thing was i felt the plot was basically revolving around the music. without it, it would've been somewhat uneventful plotwise.
basic plot. a priest comes to help a church that's in financial trouble. he organizes a boys choir, helps the old priest there find a bit of his lost youth, and writes some songs which he gets published to raise money. then he leaves after the church gets back on its feet.
so we've got Bing Crosby for Best Actor and Barry Fitzgerald for Best Supporting Actor. Barry Fitzgerald was also nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Bing. This is the only time EVER that someone was nominated for their role as both a leading and supporting role. i can see why. that's a stupid thing to do. couldn't they make a decision or what?
this movie is also directed by Leo McCarey (Best Director). he used to direct a lot of comedy films in the early days of Hollywood. W.C. Fields, Marx Brothers, and Laurel & Hardy. one of his films that is great: Duck Soup (1933). hmmm...he also directed Love Affair (1939). i should really see that too.