Has not aged well at all. How Bing won the Oscar for this performance escapes me. The film is now considered schmaltz even though winning multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

While Bing Crosby shines this movie is too long and boring but it's also doesn't deserve the best picture Oscar Win

It's a crowded field to decide the worst winner of an Oscar best picture but this is a strong contender. Pretty much just an excuse for Bing to do loads of singing. This weird gang of kids whore led by a much older kid, really odd, are immediately reformed into choir boys. Priest Bing is just a nice man working with a grouchy Irishman. There's pretty much nothing to see here, no edge to the film, no real angle. The moral of the story seems to be.... be nice. It's weak.

Although the plot is almost non-existent, the stars are good, the songs lovely and lively and the singing is just wonderful!

Not much really happens over the course of 2+ hours. I can only recommend if you're a fan of Crosby's singing.

Very sweet film but like other best pictures films up to this time the story just kind of wonders around. But everyone is quite lovable and I understand why this film won in the middle WW2. And Bing Crosby has a wonderful voice.

Father Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby) signs up to become the assistant to Father Fitzgibbons (Barry Fitzgerald) in St. Dominic's church in New York. In this failing church, he organizes an altar choir from destructive roguish boys, which at first annoys Fitzgibbons but then he changes his mind once his church is financially secure. It's safe to say that I really enjoyed this movie. Although the premise is entirely simple, this is the type of movie where the main focus is the songs, which are really catchy and oftentimes heart-warming. As much as I love Bing Crosby's soothing voice, my favorite songs in the picture are sung by mezzo-soprano opera singer Rise Stevens as Genevieve Linden. As soon as she got up to sing "Habanera" and "Ave Maria," I was immediately glued to her luminous, soulful voice. On top of that, there were some funny moments in the movie as well. The running gag where Fitzgibbons gets interrupted every time he asks someone about his priesthood is amusing, but I laughed even harder when Tony (Stanley Clements) repeatedly smacked Herman's (Carl Switzer) face for running away from the choir group. The quick pacing, brilliant timing, and the immature nature of the two teens makes the slapstick more effective. Going My Way is one of the most charming films I've seen in a long time. Sure, it is no masterpiece and it obviously was tailor-made for Crosby's talents, but the music, the comedy and the performances all make this movie worth the watch. (4 St. Louis Jackets out of 5)

Pleasant but nothing special.

'Cool Youth Pastor - The Movie'. Crosby was a great crooner and could do enough to collect a paycheck in front of a camera, but his film career was virtually entirely surface-level crowd pleasers, and Going My Way is no different. It's difficult to even refer to this film as a musical in the conventional sense; the songs are simple affairs, usually Crosby solos (no choreography or visual elements), and the narrative is really just a means to get the man to a piano periodically (which, to be fair, is where the film's strength lies). The story is simpering and naive, but maybe it's what the country was looking for in '44 instead of newsreels of the Western Front. Regardless, it hasn't aged well. (2.5/5)

Bing Crosby plays Father Chuck O'Malley, a character I was already familiar with from the movie, "The Bells of St. Mary's". This was his first outing with the character and it garnered him a Best Actor Oscar as well. In all the film achieved six Oscars. Oddly, Barry Fitzgerald (Father Fitzgibbon) was nominated both for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same role. The Academy would later amend its rules regarding dual nominations for the same role. The story revolves around a younger, "modern" priest being sent to assist an older, stuck in his ways, curmudgeon priest who is having financial troubles with his parish. The new priest convinces some neighborhood ne'er do wells to form a choir, and convinces a former childhood friend (who now happens to be a famous opera singer) to perform with his new choir. The majority of the neighborhood kids are really members of Robert Mitchell Boys Choir with a few "actors" thrown in. One of those actors being a matured Carl Dean Switzer (Alfalfa from the "Our Gang" series). The opera singer is portrayed by the Metropolitan Opera's star Rise Stevens. Through the musical efforts of all these players, the church is brought out of debt and the two priests develop a true friendship. It's a sentimental tale that for me completely lacked any luster and at times was rather slow moving. I've never been a Bing Crosby fan and this didn't turn me into one. If I want to watch a nice movie about modern vs older religious characters, with some good music and delightful acting, I'll watch "Sister Act". I believe that being a nation at war at the time this was released, that the movie's purity, innocence and goodwill were part of its immense appeal of the day. That would explain how this film could win best picture over "Gaslight" and "Double Indemnity", both of which I would consider much better flicks.

Its a sweet movie with a good heart. Bing Crosby is as always very watchable and the film enables him to put his amazing singing voice into fully use. There are many great songs which are the highlight of the film. But winner of 7 Oscars seems far too many. Barry Fitzgerald is very odd and funny in his turn as the older Father. Its very sentimental and its nice to watch. Ultimately the film does not have a lot to say and its very slow. The film does look very dated and cant compare to many films of its era. Some of the scenes you have to suspend your belief. The young boys going from playing baseball and annoying people to becoming a great singing group. The golf scene was amusing but again i found it very random. It showed that the older Father had many years left. Its nice and for 2 hours there is nothing offensive and nothing too exciting. Its sweet but maybe a bit sickly at times.

I have loved this movie since I was a kid. It never gets old.

Slow moving, mushily sentimental, needing but not getting some genuinely humorous moments. I'd stick with "Meet Me in St. Louis" for a far better mix of music, drama and humor.

The plot was weak and the acting by Barry Fitzgerald was certainly not the best of his career in this movie. I think the only highlight and main reason for watching this movie it is to see Bing Crosby sing "Swinging on a Star". The movie no doubt carries a good message, but it's hardly worth watching the entire 2 hour and 6 minutes of it just to see Bing Crosby sing one of his best songs.

A sickly-sweet tale of goodness and charity, I think, Going My Way was a smash hit back in its time, but now looks downright empty and pointless. The film boasts an impressive cast, tender moments and plenty of feelgood sentimentality, but really it's so lightweight you could blow it away by sneezing. Bing Crosby goes from one slow scene to the next, imparting curiously unprofound wisdom, and when its over its hard to remember what he actually did, or what his mission was. I liked how well he played off the tenured curmudgeon Barry Fitzgerald, and how there's no big, showy confrontations, just a slow bond that develops between, and Bing does nothing to force him to change his ways. Were it nominated for Best Picture today, it would have been laughed out the door, but back in 1944 it must have struck a chord with audiences. I don't quite know what they seen in it, but its hard to look upon it now as anything other than a mediocre crowd pleaser.

Sweet and warm little flick, which obviously meant a lot to folks needing an uplift in WWII. As long as Crosby and Fitzgerald are on screen together its entertaining, and skillfully directed. The boy choir bits are cute but not special. The subplots of a young couple and the opera singer are garbage. Bing’s Oscar is one of The Academy’s greatest silly moments. He ‘acts’ in this about as much as he would in his hokey Christmas specials decades later. The last scene and a fee others make me tolerate it’s Best Pic win (barely).

The idea of a "hip" priest seems pretty unlikely to me and the sight of Bing Crosby, who I associate with an older generation, as an unruly youngster was almost disconcerting. The director of this film, Leo McCarey, made one of my favorite films Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) so I was excited to see what else he had done. When I realized this was a musical my expectations dropped off sharply but I watched Gigi (1958), an unexpected delight, in the same day so I thought there might be some hope for this strange film. Unfortunately, I found this film to be dreary and it's focus on religion alienated me because I am an atheist and I found the figures who work for the church in this film to be incredibly dull. Father Chuck O'Malley, Bing Crosby, is an uncouth young priest who has an unconventional way of going about his business and when he is sent to a small parish in New York City to take charge of the church he clashes with the current pastor Father Fitzgibbon, Barry Fitzgerald. The church is under threat because evil banker Ted Haines Sr., Gene Lockhart, will foreclose it if they are not able to pay off their debts in time. O'Malley and Fitzgibbon manage to grow close after Fitzgibbon reveals that he has not been able to see his Irish mother in years. O'Malley has a love interest of sorts in his ex-girlfriend turned superstar opera singer Genevieve Linden, Risë Stevens, while unruly teenager Carol James, Jean Heather, begins a relationship with Ted Haines Jr., James Brown, that O'Malley disapproves of. The biggest issue with the film, to me, was it's religious messaging. It was simply ridiculous hearing Crosby spout off about the lack of morality in today's world as he attempts to counsel his parishioners into living the ideal Christian life. When he lectures Carol and Ted Jr. about their sinning and sings the titular song "Going My Way" to drive home the point that they should not have premarital sexual relations. I assume at the time that most audiences agreed with the message of the film as people were religious and more sexually conservative but today the social mores that our protagonist is in support of make him seem like a spoil sport. Carol and Haines Jr. were the characters I was most interested in, not just because they are played by the most attractive actors by today's standards, as they appeal to the teenage girl in me that wants some forbidden romance. This is not a film made for teenage girls, I assume it was made for families, and that may be why there is not one ounce of sex appeal in Bing Crosby's performance. I understand that he was meant to be fairly humorous in this role as we watch him have slapstick problems in the film and later adopt a sarcastic tone in his consultations. The "jokes" did not elicit laughter and although I doubt most actors of the era could have done much better Crosby does very little with the material. Considering the fact that McCarey wrote the screenplay I was disappointed, he seemed to get lost during the middle of the film and relied on clichà (C)s and sudden plot twists to excite. I wanted more out of the performances and dialogue because the songs certainly weren't getting me through the picture and because I had such high expectations of McCarey after loving Make Way for Tomorrow so much. The only musical number that I even mildly engaged with was "Ave Maria" and that was not an original song written for the soundtrack. The idea of going to church fills me with horror and fear but I do find some religious music to be of merit and the sight of a choir comprised of children performing a decent song was enough to move me. This is not a film I would recommend, watch Gigi (1958) instead, because it contains bad music, it's performances and screenplay have not aged well and it misuses it's most interesting characters. Double Indemnity (1944) is clearly better than this film and it's influence still looms large while nobody really remembers this film therefore Double Indemnity should have won Best Picture in 1945.

Another lost flixster rating. Winner of best picture and some of the catchiest songs ever written. A real wholesome feel good flick. If only I was as smart and approachable as Crosby.

barely misleading or off the track.. Going My Way McCarey's in-and-out mission on stabilizing the messed up civilization is undoubtedly impressive and charming. His drama is much more responsive with the audience than the humor is, and fortunately he is well aware of it and doesn't uses it unnecessarily. The narration flows and is kept to-the-point without any monkey business. Butler and Cavett's screenplay is not provocative but adaptive and gripping. It doesn't over chew the concept it has hold on to, the material isn't taken for granted. And even though it falls deeper and deeper into the semantics of it, it never fails to flaunt in his high pitched dramatic sequences. The characters are well taken care of. All of them gets to invest equally onto the biggest picture. The storytelling doesn't grab onto the lead characters, the supporting characters have their own tales to tell. And amongst all such sub-plots the best bit would be James's love track that is beautifully crafted and has a fresh perspective to offer to its audience. The musical acts are kept mellow yet at a certain point, that is what the feature thrives upon, especially Crosby's character. The concept is genuinely moving in context to the reflection of the society and the structure of the script that is barely misleading or off the track. Crosby has done a fine job on depicting various equations with different range of characters. But the best one would be the primary relationship of his with Fitzgerald whose stellar performance elevates the equation much more. James's track may not be inspiring as anticipated, but it surely is soothing to encounter it on screen. McCarey's world was awaiting for an angel and they didn't know about it, similar to all the sub-plot that is carried out in here. Going My Way is an amalgamation of generation gap with strains and sweat until there isn't left any, that bridge is performed brilliantly by Crosby.

I’ve always loved Bing Crosby, and any movie where he gets to sing a few songs is automatically going to be one that I want to watch. I just wish the plot of Going My Way worked a little better so I could enjoy those songs more. The idea of a progressive young priest shaking things up in a struggling parish should work, and I think they could have used that plot to drive a truly heart-wrenching story. But this one gets bogged down in side plots and other nonsense that draw the focus away from the financial difficulties of the church. I didn’t feel the magnitude of their struggles, because I’m busy watching the trouble-making kids and the flighty young girl who runs away from home. It doesn’t help that Crosby never acts like there’s anything to worry about. When the finale comes, I didn’t get that swell of emotions that I should have experienced when things turn around in this type of movie. I do love the songs, and Barry Fitzgerald is delightful. Sadly, those things aren’t enough to make Going My Way a film I connect with as much as other musicals from that era.