Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1944

The Contenders:

Billy Wilder: Double Indemnity
Leo McCarey: Going My Way (winner)
Otto Preminger: Laura
Alfred Hitchcock: Lifeboat
Henry King: Wilson

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1944

The Contenders:

Charles Boyer: Gaslight
Bing Crosby: Going My Way (winner)
Barry Fitzgerald: Going My Way
Cary Grant: None but the Lonely Heart
Alexander Knox: Wilson

Oscar Got It Wrong: Best Picture 1944

The Contenders:

Double Indemnity
Gaslight
Going My Way (winner)
Since You Went Away
Wilson

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 1944

The Contenders:

Double Indemnity
Gaslight
Going My Way (winner)
Laura
Meet Me in St. Louis

Watching Oscar: Going My Way

Film: Going My Way
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

This is a film I vaguely remember as a kid. The local Chicago station (WGN, channel 9) would run family movies on Sundays, and Going My Way was a part of its regular rotation. I have fond memories of many of those movies. I don’t have particularly fond memories of Going My Way. That’s not really fair; the truth is that while I know this is a film I’d seen before, my memories of it are limited pretty much to the song “Swingin’ on a Star” and Der Bingle wearing a priest’s collar.

So I knew heading in that Going My Way was going to be a rough ride for me. There’s a lot in this film that was going to make things difficult for me. First and foremost, it’s a musical, and a musical of the traditional style, starring Bing Crosby, no less. Second, good ol’ Bing plays a priest, which means it’s going to be filled to bursting with God, Jesus, and all the saints. My suspicions were confirmed in the opening couple of minutes when our ultra-Irish main character, Father O’Malley (Crosby) wanders into his new ultra-Irish parish and encounters an angry atheist. Big damn sigh.