Schmaltzy, but who minds?
This is a wonderfully sentimental depiction of public school life in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and beyond. Chipping, like so many other schoolmasters of the time, lives a cloistered life on which the outer world only occasionally impinges -- mostly during wartime.
In the film, he ventures out on only one other memorable occasion -- a holiday with the school German teacher to the Tyrol where he meets the handsome Greer Garson (in her first movie appearance), who somewhat improbably falls for him. This sets off a chain of sentimental events: marriage, introductions to the common room, tea with the boys, her death through childbirth, and a never-ending cycle of Colleys (played by the same actor, but with a slightly different haircut for each generation). The school hymn is also designed to pluck the heart stings.
The movie was actually filmed at Repton. I went to a similarly confined, all-boys, English public school, set in a country town miles from anywhere else, though...
When the Movie tops the Book
There aren't many cases where the movie is better than the book, but "Goodbye Mr. Chips" is one of them. James Hilton tossed together his barely over 100 pages of big type in about a week. The scriptwriters for the film fleshed out a good story line with much more detail. Well-directed and just superbly acted by Robert Donat in the title role, this film is an endearing classic.
The basic story is that of a traditional English schoolmaster, set in a period from mid-Victorian to pre-WWII. It's a gentle tale of the meaning of a man's life and how we can rise to excellence in our modest professions and touch the lives of many. Mr. Chipping ("Chips" as his students affectionately know him) leads a rich life, although also fraught with sorrows.
There is still much relevance to the film--the tragedy of war, the importance of a balanced education, and the evils of caste.
Yes, the film is sentimental and a little manipulative, but you will probably not...
BEST ACTOR AA FOR 1939.
The excellent film version of James Hilton's sentimental novellette. The tribute to the English public school system and to one Mr. Chipping is done with immaculate care in every respect; it is a serene, tenderly heart-warming story. Like the story, the film is nostalgic: if we never knew a Mr. Chips, we should have - he belongs in every young man's past. Robert Donat gives an incredibly fine charactisation of the much-loved schoolmaster. Donat's performance is noteworthy not merely for his uncanny ability to make a convincing transition from young schoolmaster to octogenarian, but for his subtle underlining (if underlining can be subtle) of the dramatic moments in an essentially undramatic life. Chips was a shy person; like an iceberg, two-thirds of him was always subsurface. Donat wisely understated him playing him softly which doubled his poignance. It is only when he is seen as a crotchety old man scattering across campus in his tattered robe - that Donat went a TRIFLE...
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