Evening star., 1944-07-14

the young priest, Farther Chuck
O,Malley, a chap skilled in sports,
talented in music and highly gifted
in making people like him. The
last Is his most useful gift in his
relations with Father Fitzgibbon
FitzgeraldD, an irascible old parish
priest, who combines a disdaln for
youth and new methods with a rich
sentimentality that makes him like
everything and everyone in the end.
Fitzgerald's performance is easily
the seasons most brilliant and
that Crosby matches the master step
for step is one of the great appeals
of Going My Way" You tell your
self all the time that it can't be
done, but you will leave the Palace
knowing that 1t was.
4 4 X \
Although the songs he sings are
not the usual Crosby screen fare,
they are just as engaging and more
varied. He is his old romantic min
strel self only in DAY After For
ever" but he is much more of q
versatile musician in the number
from which the show gets its title,
his Silent Night" and Ave Maria, I"
In the latter two of which he is
impressively supported by a boys
choir. Mxsically, also, the picture
is enhanced by the voice of the
Metropolitan's Rise Stevens in a
spirited. though not well recorded,
aria from Carmen" and by a more
torchish item sung by Jean Heather.
Going My Way" does very well in
deed by the feeling of Director Nc
Carey that happy people should
break into song any time they feel
like it. 1t comes off so much hap
pier that way than in any musical
you have run across in months of
moviegoing. =
The story which engages the large
and winning cast Of Going NV
Way" finds its background in st.
Dominic's parish in New York. For
As years Father Fitzgibbon has been
building st. Dominica S, but his people
are poor, the mortgage is heavy and
the elderly priest has long ago lost
the drive that enabled him to carry
its burdens The bishop sends him
an assistant, young Chuck OMalley,
and instantly the fun-for the audi
ence-begins
The old man cannot conceive of
such a person as athletic, game
loving, singing-hearted Chuck as
the material out of which a priest
can be made. In his sly way he
fights it out with the young man,
crossing him at every twist of the
congregations life, always oblivious
OF the fact that he actually is the
second In command. When he grows
weary he goes to the bishop and
learns the temporarily shattering
truth that he Is no longer in charge.
HesicAllY poignant. the conflict
is masked by several score merry
asides., among the best of which are
the old priests final capitulation to
the sinful game Of golf, the night
he runs away and returns as a had
little boy. his two drinks with Father
O'Malley out of q. bottle hidden in
his room behind THE Life of Ulys-
ses S. Grant"
McCarey's direction of Going NV
Way" Is one of the most brilliant
jobs OF a career that always has
been one of the brightest in Holly
wood. His shifts from laughter to
poignance. but always back to
laughter, are among the most neatly
contrived a comedy ever had.
The most glittering single element
in Going My Way" however, is its
complete proof of a point that has
been concealed from the movie
public for years, namely that Barry
Fitzgerald is the finest actor In the
English-or any other-laneuage