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As Christmas approaches and the advent season beckons us to prepare for the coming of the baby Jesus, God incarnate, our minds go back to old Christmas movies with soul-searing moments full of the tenderness, mercy and good cheer. These classics epitomize the reason for the season.
Films like Going My Way (1944), The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and 3 Godfathers (1948) directed by three of Hollywood’s truly great directors, Leo McCarey (1898-1969), Frank Capra (1897-1991) and John Ford (1894-1973).
Three amazing Catholic filmmakers
Born in Los Angeles, Bisacquino, Italy and Cape Elizabeth, Maine, respectively, all three directors were hard-charging, successful Hollywood filmmakers who knew cinema was the perfect marriage of art and commerce and, at its best, takes our often-drab lives and infuse them with something magical—our better angels and a sense of life’s promise and possibility.
Overlaying that formula was the happy circumstance that all three directors were also formed in the Catholic faith and brought Catholic sensibilities to their art, knowing that, no matter how debased our nature is, or, precisely, because of that reality, the true, the good and the beautiful will always sell — if wrapped in just the right emotional and psychological trappings.
Today we’ll focus on Leo McCarey’s classic Going My Way and its sequel The Bells of St. Mary’s, both starring Bing Crosby. These two wonderful films exemplify the above traits perfectly.
Going My Way
St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California, one of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ largest churches, erected in 1925, served as McCarey’s inspiration for Going My Way. Bill Flanagan of Sirius Radio (formerly with Rolling Stone and CBS News) has called this heart-warming film the best Christmas movie of all time.
Winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Bing Crosby), Best Supporting Actor (Barry Fitzgerald) Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Song (“Swinging on a Star”) the story features a young priest, Fr. Chuck O’Malley, played by Crosby.
He breathes new life into both St. Dominic’s, a failing inner-city parish, and its elder priest, Fr. Fitzgibbons, played by Barry Fitzgerald. The old man views O’Malley as a brash interloper, especially when his friend, Fr. Timothy O’Dowd (played by Frank McHugh), enters the picture.
A worldly-wise priest
The addition of Risë Stevens, a former girlfriend and real-life Metropolitan Opera star, is a lovely grace note. She puzzles over why Chuck lost touch until his Roman collar solves the puzzle. Also noteworthy is Jean Heather as a young woman in danger of becoming a floozy, even as she strives to break into singing; she is juxtaposed with old Mrs. Quimp, who complains when the banker’s son gives a financial break to this young lovely.
Fr. O’Malley is worldly-wise, having “led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy, but his level gaze and twinkling eyes make it clear that he knows he made the right choice.” On cue, he starts directing a gang of kids toward constructive pursuits, not unlike the plot device in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), leading them in a beautiful rendition of “Silent Night.”
O’Mally also nimbly straightens out the church’s business affairs and its building fund, in the process melting Fr. Fitzgibbon’s crusty heart.
“The Bells of St. Mary’s”
The Bells of St. Mary’s, an equally touching tale, winning one Oscar for Best Sound, Recording, once again stars Crosby reprising his role as Father O'Malley, this time at a run-down parochial school poised for condemnation. He and Sister Benedict, played by Ingrid Bergman, develop a plan to save the school though two distinct approaches, which leads to spirited disagreements resolved by heavenly intervention and worldly wisdom.
The gorgeous scene with the rich benefactor, Horace P. Bogardus, played by Henry Travers, as he ponders dropping his quest to turn the school into a parking lot — the kids are always bashing his windows playing softball — underscores why this film, too, was such a big hit, the Academy’s yawn at the redux notwithstanding.
Passing this way but once
One day, Bogardus runs into Fr. O’Malley, who recognize he is not his self. “I’m not father. I just came from my doctor,” says Bogardus. He has a heart ailment, then begins opining, “You know there’s great beauty in this world if you just have the eyes to see it.” On cue, he gives money to a blind panhandler sitting on the sidewalk. “Oh yes, life can be very beautiful,” he says, while noting Fr. O’Malley has devoted his life to helping others and asking him how his heart is. “Fine,” the priest responds, and Mr. Bogardus says, “That’s what I mean.”
Bogardus asks if it would be OK if he went into the church, a request which Fr. O’Malley happily grants, leaving him with this parting thought: “I shall pass this way but once. If there’s any good I can do for anyone, let me do it now and not put it off for I shall not pass this way again.”
Stunning.
Going May Way and The Bells of St. Mary’s are available on DVD and Blu-ray, and also available to stream on most major streaming services. Tomorrow we will look at two more Christmas classics!
