Simply Perfect

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Based upon James Hilton's excellent novella of the same name, "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" is a now-overlooked masterpiece of both comic and dramatic filmmaking. Telling the tale of a life well lived, this is a heartfelt character study produced with the utmost excellence. Directed by underrated classic filmmaker Sam wood (the director of "A Night at the Opera", another one of my *FAVORITE*, and I do not use that term lightly, films of all time) the tender classic is adapted well to the screen. Both works are equal in quality, as Hilton's wonderful and witty writings come to life with even more depth than they originally contained. The cast all delivers marvelous performances, and even the numerous child actors are realistic and delightful to watch (something too rarely seen in the movies, especially back in 1939!). Of course, the main attraction (in terms of acting, anyway) is the leading performance by classical Hollywood celebrity Robert Donat. Donat embodies the unforgettable character of Mr. Chips with all of the humor and melancholy desperately required for the role. sometimes he comes across as a bumbling, goofy old man, and at other times he comes across as a sweet and sensitive lover. This film traces the highlights of his career as a schoolteacher and it does so in a way that made tears flow from my eyes like a steady stream (of embarrassment) and laughter fly from my throat like a speeding train (similes are hard to think of sometimes, okay?). Anyway, the point is: go see this movie, it is at once hilarious, heartwarming, sad, and, in the end, truly hopeful and surprisingly inspiring. The acting is great on all fronts (I did not even mention the lovely Greer Garson, whose performance makes her character as charming and likable as she is beautiful) and the story is adapted in such a way that the original story is not at all ruined and is, instead, made even better! After forcing any possible reader to struggle through my parenthesis addiction (see, I just did it again!), I can only ask that you all forgive me and run out to read the classic novella and immediately view this beautiful and comic film adaptation. Those who bare sensitive souls and healthy hearts will surely lack any disappointment and leave the film with tears in their eyes and a smile on their face!

In 1969 I went on a field trip with my seventh grade class to see the motion picture Goodbye Mr. Chips staring Peter O'Toole as the Schoolmaster Chipping. I found that version quite dry. The O'Toole character played more of an arrogant professor than an aloof, vulnerable one his predecessor plays in the original. Plus there was no chemistry between O'Toole and his co-Star wife Petula Clark who also makes the story more caustic by breaking out into song and dance. Not that the performances were bad, It didn't fit the story. I ended up at the snack bar for the duration. One of my many bouts with insomnia lead me to catch the original movie of Goodbye Mr. Chips on a late Tuesday early Wednesday morn on TCM. This movie is about the life and career of fictitious Latin Schoolmaster Charles Edward Chipping played by Robert Donat. Our story begins in the year 1870 at a prestigious English boarding school with a rich tradition dating back to the fifteenth century. Enter a young, green, entry level Chipping who is faced with an unruly bunch of students in his first day of class. Chipping comes down on his boys which makes Chipping unpopular as he is disliked by the students but over time becomes a polished professor with the hopes of attaining the position of Housemaster.Chipping is crestfallen as he learned that he was passed over for the position. Just before Holiday break, friend and colleague German Master Max Staeffel (Paul Henreid)invites him to his native Austria and some mountain air to forget about his disappointment. Chipping reluctantly agrees as the two set off to the alps. Chipping gets more than he bargained for on this holiday in the hills. Chipping on a mountainside meets enthusiastic, vibrant Kathy Ellis (Greer Garson) who is also on a biking holiday. Romance permeates inside the foggy Alps as the two bond. Then separate and meet again in Vienna where they dance and stroll along the Blue Danube. I particularly enjoyed the train scene when they part. Kathy agrees to Marry the elder Chipping and Becomes the Schoolmaster's Wife at the boarding school. Kathy gains popularity with the students known now as Mrs. Chips fits right in with the curriculum as she plays surrogate Mum to the boys there. A blessed event turns to tragedy as Kathy dies in child birth. Chipping of course is devastated but continues onward in someday becoming the school's Housemaster as Kathy predicted he would be some day. New students join the old and another term unfolds as we hope that Mr. Chips gets his appointment. So heartwarming was the role of Robert Donat as you see his human side shine through every scene. You can't help but ring his door bell and join him for some tea and cake. Director Sam Wood captures the warmth and depth of the players in this film about a teachers devotion to his students as Chips Preaches to paraphrase, We are not here to create snobbish money making machines of our students. Director Sam Wood always knew a good leading man when he saw one. Great closing line by Donat but you'll have to matriculate into the film.

If you are reading these reviews because you wonder if you should bother watching this movie, read no further. Instead, treat yourself to it, and you will experience a wonderful, warm glow that only the greatest works of art can offer.But please understand: this is by no means what they now call a "feel good movie," filled with facile sentiment and easy tears. Not at all. It is a brilliantly written, masterfully acted and directed movie that contains truly joyous moments, yes, but also deeply painful ones.During the course of its two hours, you will have the great pleasure of watching a great actor, Robert Donat, develop a thoroughly three-dimensional character, Mr. Chips. Because Donat was a great actor, and because this movie has a great script, his Chips is not a lovable curmudgeon, or a silly old man, or any of the other facile, two-dimensional caricatures that could so easily have been offered. No, Donat's Chips is a very understandable, very real human being, an ideal to which many would love to be able to live up.Supporting him in her first movie role is the here truly luminous Greer Garson. Her kindness to Chips, her understanding of his shyness, is one of the many wonderful things in this movie.But enough of my words. None of them, try as I might, will even begin to give you an idea of how wonderful this movie will make you feel. Watch it when you can devote yourself to it completely, because it is worth your complete attention and will reward it a thousandfold.-------------------------I saw this movie again tonight. I don't know how many times I have seen it over the years, but that doesn't really matter. It is never boring, never too familiar. It is always just right. This is a flawless movie.

If you watch this expecting a kind of topical biography of a teacher at an English school for boys, a gentle and unspectacular story, with romance, a growing acceptance of one's fate, and a lot of sentiment, you'll get what you expect.They run these sort of movies out from time to time. "It's a Wonderful Life," "Mr. Holland's Opus," "The Long Grey Line." The narratives tend to span generations. I found this one rather interesting and it's not surprising that it received so much public acclaim that Michael Redgrave was able to do a loony impression of Robert Donat's Mr. Chips in "The Lady Vanishes." You can't help liking it.Donat begins his teaching career as a nervous wreck, uncertain and stiff. But then he runs into Greer Garson in an improbable setting. Their marriage brings him a bit of ego strength. Of course, Garson (and the baby she's been carrying) have to die in order to boost the ratio of sentiment to everything else.Donat has one funny moment -- aside from his awkwardness. The Headmaster wants him to switch from the received pronunciation of Latin, in which "c" is pronounced "see", to the new modified and older version in which "c" is pronounce like "k". By this time, the middle-aged Mr. Chips has become defiantly laggard, declares hotly that he will never bring himself to pronounce Cicero as Kikero, and storms out the door.Yet, it's far from a comic story. If you like love, romance, tragedy, small triumphs, you'll love it.