BING’S “LITTLE ANGELS” – THE ROUGHEST GANG THIS SIDE OF REFORM SCHOOL!
Father O’Malley (Bing Crosby) arrives at a church in New York City where his unconventional style worries the elder pastor (Barry Fitzgerald).
In the 1940s, Leo McCarey focused on message movies, often of a religious nature, and this was his most successful, charming its wartime audience, with a perfect part for Crosby as the easy-going pastor who knows how to connect with the rowdy kids in the neighborhood. The star’s scenes together with Fitzgerald are among the best in a film that also gets a boost from the song score.
The story may be thin and episodic, but the sentimentality has its effective moments, as in the finale.
1944-U.S. 126 min. B/W. Production, Direction, Story: Leo McCarey. Screenplay: Frank Butler, Frank Cavett. Song: ”Swinging on a Star” (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke). Cast: Bing Crosby (Father Charles ”Chuck” O’Malley), Barry Fitzgerald (Father Fitzgibbon), Frank McHugh (Father Timothy O’Dowd), James Brown, Gene Lockhart, Jean Heather.
Trivia: Followed by The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945); later a TV series, Going My Way (1962-1963).
Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Crosby), Supporting Actor (Fitzgerald), Original Story, Screenplay, Original Song. Golden Globes: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Fitzgerald).
Last word: “What we were told to do by Leo McCarthy was write the Ten Commandments in a song, have [Crosby] sing to the kids. That’s all he told us. We were at dinner with Bing at the time at his house and he was having a little tussle with [his son] Gary, trying to handle four Irish kids. You know, all got minds of their own, as he did when he was young. Some remark precipitated the approach to the song. I had already written the tune. At dinner, Bing said something to Gary, “So you’re gonna be a mule, you’re gonna be stubborn about it?’ He said it in his cute way and it lit a bulb. And Johnny [Burke] had it. And by gosh, we wrote it in a couple of days.” (Van Heusen on writing ‘Swinging on a Star’, Pop Chronicles)
