Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Titanic (1953) not to be confused with Titanic (1997), though both films share much similarities. Titanic (1953) was a big Hollywood film that won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. I use to think this was my favorite older version of the ship called R.M.S. Titanic but after watching A Night To Remember (1957) a few days ago I realized that film was superior to this one. However this is still a good film and well worth watching.


This one tells the story as a backdrop to an older couple's martial problems. The wife played by Barbara Stanwyck wants to take her two children back to her small hometown in America. The husband (Clifton Webb) is a snobbish, well-to-do tycoon who wants his children raised in the lap of luxury and class in Europe. I didn't think their martial problems were all that interesting. To make matters worse Clifton Webb plays a heartless father and husband who's so cold that you don't mind seeing him take a dip in the North Atlantic.


A secondary romance is between the older teen daughter (Audrey Dalton) and a young Robert Wagner, who's a breath of fresh air to the otherwise stuffy characters. The young couple are interesting and of course the doomed ship threatens their newly found love.

Elvis and Anabelle is a small Indie film, the type that didn't get a big theater release and so is not well known today. It starts out with a rather catchy, albeit dark song that seems to set the tone of the film. But don't be fooled, as the film goes along the light creeps in and just maybe love will save the day.


Oh that's Keith Carradine as the step dad who's suppose to be a creep when he's drunk, only we never see that, but Anabelle does say that to Elvis.

I do have one complaint, and that is Max Minghella's character. Max is probably a good actor but he's ill suited to this movie. I'm talking zero chemistry with Blake. He plays his character so damn negative, that he made Oscar Levant look like a charmer....Which is sad, as if another actor had been hired that could do both lonely outcast and likable underdog, then this movie might have been a cult classic. Thus helping the effervescent Blake Lively to go onto bigger and better things. But as it is Max Minghella's character is such a weird downer that you don't want him to wind up with the down to earth beauty queen.

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Director: Leo McCarey
Writers: Frank Butler & Frank Cavett (screenplay)
Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, Jean Heather, Gene Lockhart
Genre: Comedy Drama

Going My Way was a huge success back in 1944. It was the highest grossing film of that year and was nominated for a whooping 10 Academy Awards!
It spawned a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's, which also featured Bing as Father O'Malley and starred Ingrid Bergman.

But back to Going My Way, I thought this was a gem! It's one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in a long time. It weaves several stories of the troubled people in the parish, along with the main story of the two Fathers. The characters are three dimensional and very human. The film is sentimental, but...not too much, it has just enough humanistic qualities to make the story captivating.



Two of the stories are about a group of delinquent kids from the poor streets of the parish. They're always getting in trouble and stealing stuff. The younger Father decides the best way to help them is to teach them to sing, so he forms a boys choir. The second story involves a pretty young woman who runs away from home and is mistaken by the police as a street walker. Father O'Malley gives her some advice on singing, as she sings too, and helps set her on the correct course in life.

Bing is quite good in this, but it's Barry Fitzgerald who steals the show. He's perfectly suited to his role. He's played other priest before but his performance here is my all time favorite of his.

Going My Way...I love this film! They don't make them this anymore.
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