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.
