Going My Way

Going My Way is a 1944 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. Based on a story by Leo McCarey, the film is about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran. Crosby sings five songs in the film.Going My Way was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's.

Going My Way was the highest-grossing picture of 1944, and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning 7, including Best Picture. Its success helped to make movie exhibitors choose Crosby as the biggest box-office draw of the year, a record he would hold for the remainder of the 1940s. After World War II, Bing Crosby and Leo McCarey presented a copy of the motion picture to Pope Pius XII at the Vatican.

Plot

Father Charles “Chuck” O’Malley (Bing Crosby), an incoming priest from East St. Louis, arrives in New York City with an unconventional style that will transform the parish life of St. Dominic’s Church.

On his first day, O'Malley gets into a series of mishaps; his informal appearance and attitude make a poor impression with the elder pastor, Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The very traditional Fitzgibbon is further put off by O’Malley’s recreational habits – particularly his golf-playing – and his friendship with the even more casual Father Timmy O’Dowd (Frank McHugh). In a discussion between O'Malley and O'Dowd without Fitzgibbon present, it is revealed that O’Malley was sent by the bishop to take charge of the affairs of the parish, but that Fitzgibbon is to remain as pastor. To spare Fitzgibbon’s feelings, the older pastor is kept unaware of this arrangement and believes that O’Malley is simply his assistant.

Going My Way (TV series)

Going My Way is an American comedy-drama series starring dancer and actor Gene Kelly. Based on the 1944 film of the same name starring Bing Crosby, the series aired on ABC with new episodes from October 3, 1962 to April 24, 1963. The program was Kelly's first and only attempt at a weekly television series. The series was canceled after one season of thirty episodes.

The series was produced by Revue Studios (now Universal Television), as parent company MCA owned the rights to the original film through its subsidiary, EMKA, Ltd., which in 1957 bought Going My Way and many other pre-1950 sound feature films from Paramount Pictures.

Synopsis

Kelly stars as Father Chuck O'Malley, a Roman Catholic priest who is sent to St. Dominic's Parish located in a lower-class section of New York City. Leo G. Carroll co-starred as the elderly pastor, Father Fitzgibbons, the Barry Fitzgerald role in the film. Dick York, later of Bewitched, portrayed Chuck's boyhood friend, Tom Colwell, the director of a secular neighborhood youth center. Nydia Westman played Mrs. Featherstone, the housekeeper of the rectory. Episodes focus on Father O'Malley's attempts to connect with the congregation and his relationship with the elderly Father Fitzgibbons.