Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a romantic drama, based on James Hilton’s book of the same name and directed by Sam Wood and Sidney Franklin.
An
old classics teacher, and former headmaster of Brookfield School, “Mr Chips”
(Robert Donat) looks back over his long career, remembering pupils and
colleagues, and above all the idyllic courtship and marriage to Katherine
(Greer Garson), who he met in the Alps while on holiday with his friend and
colleague Staefel (Paul Henreid), and that meeting transformed his life, and
the effect she had on him lasted throughout his life.
Robert
Donat deftly handles the role of Chips through the years, from his arrival at
the school as a young man in his mid-20s until he lays on his death bed in his
80s.
A
wonderful film that cleverly marks the passage of time with snippets of conversation
between boys or masters as they return to school in the autumn mentioning keys
events, such as Queen Victoria's death, the advent of the telephone, a book by
a new author, H.G. Wells, and of course the Great War.
It
is a sentimental story, but it is also poignant and thought provoking and is
essentially a chronicle of a common man's existence as he touches the lives of
hundreds.
No comments:
Post a Comment