Oscars flashback to 1944: ‘Going My Way’ sweeps, Ingrid Bergman wins first of three

World War II was still raging in May 1944. The allied invasion of Normandy — aka D-Day — was just around the corner on June 6th. Americans kept the home fires burning and escaped from the global conflict by going to the movies. Two of the biggest films of the year, Leo McCarey’s “Going My Way” and George Cukor’s “Gaslight,” recently celebrated their 80th anniversaries.

Actually, “Going My Way” had a special “Fighting Front” premiere on April 27th: 65 prints were shipped to battle fronts and shown “from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The sentimental comedy-drama-musical arrived in New York on May 3rd.

And it was just the uplifting film audiences needed. Bing Crosby starred as Father O’Malley, a laid-back young priest who arrives at a debt-ridden New York City church that is run by the older, set-in-his ways Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald).  The elder priest initially isn’t happy with O’Malley’s newfangled ways, but soon he and the rest of the parish realize O’Malley is someone special.

Though not specifically a musical, Crosby does sing the title tune as well as “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and duets on “Ava Marie” with his co-star, Metropolitan Opera soprano Rise Stevens. The fun “Swinging on a Star” by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke, which Crosby sings with Robert Mitchell Boy Choir, became a huge hit for Crosby. The ending was a real four-hankie weepie moment as O’Malley reunites Fitzgibbon with his elderly mother.

The New York Times’ Bosley Crother was besotted with “Going My Way” calling it a “tonic delight,” adding that Crosby “is giving the best show of his career” …” he has been beautifully presented by Mr. McCarey.” The top box office attraction of 1944, “Going My Way” turned Crosby into the No. 1 box office star and proved he was more than comedic actor playing “pat-a-cake” with Bob Hope in the popular “Road” films.

“Going My Way” had strong competition at the Academy Awards most notably from Billy Wilder’s crackling film noir “Double Indemnity,” which earned seven nominations. But “Going My Way” won by a knockout leaving “Double Indemnity” in the dust. “Going My Way” earned seven Oscars including best film, director, song, actor for Crosby and supporting actor for Fitzgerald. And for the first and only time in Oscar history, Fitzgerald was also nominated for best actor.

Crosby would be the first actor to earn an Oscar nomination for reprising a role. The following year, he returned to the Academy Awards’ race in the beloved sequel “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” which earned eight Oscar nominations winning for best recording. Ironically, Wilder’s dark “The Lost Weekend” was the big winner at the 1946 ceremony.

Also nominated for “The Bells of St. Mary’s” was Ingrid Bergman, who played Sister Mary Benedict. Just as with Crosby, 1944 was also a watershed year for Bergman, the Swedish actress who made her first Hollywood film “Intermezzo” in 1939. The beloved romantic war drama “Casablanca,” in which she played Ilsa opposite Humphrey Bogart’s Rick, was named best film of 1943 at the 1944 Oscar ceremony. And Bergman earned her first Oscar nomination for lead actress in the hit “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” And then came “Gaslight,” which opened the day after “Going My Way.”

Based on Patrick Hamilton’s thriller “Gas Light” which was a hit both on the London and Broadway stage where it was retitled “Angel Street.” In fact, “Angel Street,” which opened in New York in 1941, was still running on Broadway when “Gaslight” opened. Handsomely produced by MGM, “Gaslight” finds Bergman playing Paula, a newlywed who is being driven mad by her handsome and mysterious husband Gregory (Charles Boyer). And who wouldn’t be driven mad living in the same where her aunt had been murdered a decade before? Teenage Angela Lansbury made her film debut as the flirtatious, cheeky maid, and Joseph Cotton also stars as a sympathetic Scotland Yard detective.

Mayer initially wanted Hedy Lamarr to play Paula, but Cukor pushed for Bergman. But the actress didn’t think she could express the fear needed for the part. Cukor later explained: “She wasn’t normally a timid woman; she was healthy. To reduce someone like that to a scared, jittering creature is interesting and dramatic. It would have been dangerous to cast the kind of actress you’d expect to go mad, the kind you know from the first moment you’re in for a big mad scene.’

Cukor’s hunch paid off. The film did well at the box office and was nominated for seven Oscars including best picture, best actor for Boyer and supporting actress for Lansbury. Bergman won the first of her three Oscars as Paula, and the film was honored for its black-and-white art direction and interior decoration.

MGM’s “Gaslight” isn’t the only version made of Hamilton’s play. Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard starred in a well-received British version that was released in England in 1940. MGM, though, didn’t want any competition. The New York Times reported in 1944 that MGM had destroyed the negative and copy of the British version save for possibly a forgotten copy at the British Film Institute. Who knows how many were destroyed because the British version was finally released in the U.S. as “Angel Street” in 1952.

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