Although only part of the movie takes place during Christmas, it is often shown during the holiday season due to its religious themes and sentimental storyline. Bing plays Father O'Malley, a young priest who is assigned to take over a struggling parish. Throughout the story, O'Malley faces many challenges, including reforming a gang of neighborhood toughs, keeping a confused young woman on a straight and narrow path, and above all, forging a working relationship with crusty and curmudgeonly Father Fitzgibbons (played by Barry Fitzgerald).
The film runs from light comedy to melodrama to soap opera, and there are times when it is hard to keep a tear from your eye, especially in the final moments of the film, when O'Malley arranges a surprise for Father Fitzgibbons.
Where there is Bing, there is music, and fine music it is. Among the songs are "Silent Night", "The Day After Forever" and the Oscar winning "Swinging on a Star". Metropolitan Opera star Risë Stevens sings the title song and Schubert’s "Ave Maria".
The cast is uniformly wonderful and includes former Our Gang member Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and stalwart character actors Gene Lockhart, William Frawley and Frank McHugh. Crosby himself won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Father O'Malley, and GOING MY WAY was chosen as best picture of 1944. Crosby definitely won the award – a looser, warmer performance is hard to imagine.
Crosby and McCarey teamed again in 1945 for a sequel, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S, another holiday favorite. One of the few sequels that is as enjoyable as its predecessor, THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S finds Father O'Malley assigned to yet another struggling parish, this time headed by the beautiful Ingrid Bergman as the Sister Superior. Again, only part of the story takes place at Christmas, but it is one of the films most memorable scenes, as first graders put on an unintentionally funny Nativity pageant.
The music in this film is not quite up to par with GOING MY WAY, with Crosby's "Aren't You Glad You're You?" an obvious attempt at recreating the magic of "Swinging on a Star". But Bergman and Crosby make a marvelous team (though Bergman and anybody would make a marvelous team) and Henry Travers scores as a somewhat Scrooge-like figure whose heart is changed by the end of the film.
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