Auf Wiedersehen, Mr. Chips

The more I read on IMDB the more I realise that so many people interested in movies do not consider films more than 25 years or so old. I suspect that this is because most users of IMDB are aged 30 - 40 ish. Goodbye Mr Chips is exactly (on first sight) the type of movie that many of you would not even consider viewing. It has no special effects, cost peanuts to make, no clever camera work but it does have those three essentials - superb story, great script and staggeringly good acting from Donat. The movie is about life, relationships, about despair and decency and the power of love. What more could anybody ask for in a movie? If this film doesn't move and inspire you then truly nothing will.

P.S. the Peter O'Toole version is pretty dire!!

Here's another one of those old-fashioned movies in which people are all nice: no villains. It's a refreshing change of pace, once in a while, at least for me.

Sometimes it's relaxing just to just kick back with a story that just makes you feel good, doesn't upset you at any time. There are some touching scenes with some sadness in here, too, however, but the sincere story and great acting make you glad you watched it.

Robert Donat, as Mr. Chippings, is a pleasure to watch, particularly when he plays the character in his declining years. Greer Garson gets equal if not top billing, but that's not right. Her role is not that big in this picture.

Another nice feature you don't see much, at least in post-1960 films - all respectful kids in here, with manners. Nice adults, nice kids, nice story - probably too corny for most people of today in our cynical world. Too bad. Their loss.

As a classic film buff, I consider "Goodbye, Mr Chips" one of the best I have ever seen. In part, that is due to Robert Donat's incredible performance as,"Chips." He WAS Chips, and it was silly to try and remake a proven classic, though Peter O'Toole was not a bad choice in casting.

Donat captured the essence of Chips' shy personna and his love for "his boys," in one of the most sensitive performances I've ever had the pleasure to watch. In a year that arguably produced some of the greatest movies in film in history, "Goodbye, Mr Chips" ranks in the top 5 of all time.

I give it a 10!

In the top TEN films of all time, I want to believe that Mr Chips exists for all school-children, that his spirit still hovers around places of learning waiting to guide those who might follow his lead as to decency, strength of character, gentility of nature and spiritual purity. Alas, Mr Chips is not required in 2001!

This film, the story of a gentle English teacher at a British Boarding school, is so timeless and emotionally involving, I find it hard to write about it without having to control my own feelings. Not a wuss by one hell of a long shot, and having last openly cried probably the last time I saw this film, I can only say that exposure to Robert Donat's performance here in the role which won him the most deserving of Academy Awards, is perhaps one of the greatest things can happen in your life. If you think I might be exaggerating, do me a favor - don't watch it! If you watch it and aren't moved, especially when his wife dies, then your life is meaningless!

GOODBYE MR CHIPS is probably the most beautiful film of all time and is a reminder of what we are all really here for. It's not that new pair of trendy shoes, the Rolex, the yellow drop-top with twin exhaust, that sharp Armani suit, the Chanel parfum, the 50,000 shares you picked up for a song last week, your blonde-tipped rinse, Nike shoes or $100 tie.....its for what Mr Chips STOOD for in 1939...and I got news for you, he's still here with his text-book open at the next lesson!

Director Sam Woods (`Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman,' `King's Row,' `For Whom the Bell Tolls') 1939 film `Goodbye Mr. Chips' features a top-notch performance by Robert Donat as the somewhat stuffy English prep school teacher, Mr. Chippings. Chippings early career difficulties are overcome, as is his shyness after he meets Greer Garson (`Mrs. Miniver') in the Alps while on holiday. Garson is able to show the stodgy Chips how to live life and her effect on him lasts throughout the rest of his life, although Garson is not around for long.

The film uses recurring patterns to show the passage of time, namely the showing of the boys arriving at the school each year in the autumn. These segments often contained little historical snippets between the boys, such as `we now have telephones, do you know how to use one?' and mention of Queen Victoria's death and the remark that `it is going to be strange to have a King.' Other historical comments occurred between the teachers such as the remark on a book by a new author, H.G. Wells and how he will never last because his writing is too fantastic. Sadly, Chip's historical error occurs when he comments to the boys that they will not have to go off to World War I as the war cannot possibly last more than a few weeks. So many of the teachers and students end up losing their lives in the Great War. Some other scenes from this film have been parodied through the years in comedies, most noticeably the scenes in the great hall when the headmasters are speaking to the boys is sent up hilariously by John Cleese in `Monty Python's the Meaning of Life' and the scene where Chips canes an insolent student (it is filmed as a shadow against the wall) is later parodied when a punisher is reprimanded for whipping the shadow, not the victim (my memory is failing me here, but I think this is in 1969s `Take the Money and Run' by Woody Allen, I could be wrong as a part of me also thinks that this could be in Mel Brooks' `Blazing Saddles.')

Donat aptly handles the complex role of Chips through the years, from about his mid-20s until his 80s. This may be one of the earlier movies that so aptly chronicles the life and times of a person through such an expanse of years, Dustin Hoffman in `Little Big Man' also performs n this manner, as does Al Pacino in `The Godfather Trilogy,' albeit over the length of three long movies. Even more outstanding and interesting about Donat and his character is that he covers so much of a common man's existence; Chips is a teacher, not a King, general, messiah or Mafia chieftain.