“GOODBYE MR CHIPS"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1940, Page 3

“GOODBYE MR CHIPS"

A FAMOUS PICTURE. "Whatever may yet come to the' screen the presentation of James ton’s famous story, ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips will always remain one of its finest masterpieces. It is a picture which reaches sublime heights in cinematographic art. It is. perhaps, the most moving of its kind that any producer has submitted,” says the “Sidney Morning Herald.” It is no exaggeration to acclaim it as a supreme vindication of the films. Magnificently balanced and directed by Sam Wood with an unusually sensitive appreciation of its varying moods, this beautifully directed story of an English schoolmaster, showing his life from the time he enters Brookfield School until he dies there many years after, will make any "old boy” of any old school unashamedly wipe away a tear. And those in the audience around him will wipe away many. For, although it is general in appeal, “Goodbye. Mr Chips” is sentimental ,the screen has never made sentiment more touching.

As produced by Victor Saville (who also made “The Citadel") this film truly reveals what lies behind that often derided tradition, “the old school tie,” something at which no one will want to smile again after having been introduced to “old Chipping,” as Mr Chips was known to his elders until the girl he met in the Tyrol came back with him to college as his wife, thus inspiring confidence in the once shy and diffident, but now supremely happy, man. These Tyrol sequences are among the finest in the film, and have as great an air of authenticity as those which develop within the mellow walls of a school which came into being the year Columbus discovered America; which had Sir Francis Drake as a pupil, and to which families for generations sent their sons. Some of these generations passed Mr Chips, who finally became almost as great a tradition as the school itself. No one had a more trying time than Mr Chipping at the commencement of

his career. He overcame those difficul- 1 ties, as well as his shyness, and his : sense of frustration. Time and again a ■ coveted position eluded his ambition. 1 Accepted with amused but kindly toleration by his intimates, the news that Chipping had brought home a wife from the Continent stunned them. It was fantastic, unbelievable. But her unexpected beauty captured them and henceforth the hitherto lonely Chipping not only begot great happiness, but also confidence, plus a very mild sense of humour. Then his wife dies with her babe in child-birth. Mr Chips walks dazedly to his classroom and quietly asks his boys, “Will you please turn to page 29?” But being April Fool’s Day the boys have played a joke on him. Every envelope he opens on his desk is as empty and blank as his life at that moment. Amidst the hilarity a boy enters and hurriedly whispers to another. The whisper spreads. The boys know what Mr Chips knows. Tremulously they commence their Latin lesson. This is one of the poignant scenes that strike a tragic note in a narrative that generally flows as gently to its end as a placid English stream. The school setting is so excellent that one becomes submerged in its atmosphere just as one becomes one of Mr Chip’s pupils, as one follows his career and learns the true significance of toleration, dignity, gentleness, and restraint. But Mr Chips is no sentimental weakling, for he could use a cane to advantage, even though he could not sum up enough courage to tell his beloved Kathie the night she persuaded him to dance with her that he loved her. And he could listen without bitterness or retaliation to conversation that hurt him deeply just as he could climb the mist-bound Alps without thought of the danger to himself when he imagined someone was in peril. When Mr Chips passes on the audience lose a friend whom they seem to have loved all their lives. When Kathie dies everyone feels unutterable pity for her and her sadly shocked husband. When he gets his long-deferred ambition all experience the pride and joy he himself feels. When, the picture ended on its opening night there was a burst of applause. This was for a superb film, superbly acted. All that need be said of Robert donat's “Mr Chips” is that no character has ever held an audience so enraptured. No other screen impersonation has created such affection. Although one must get used to it. Mr Donat's makeup as the octogenarian is astonishingly realistic, as is the portrait of the middle-aged Chips. If Mr Donat has never before been acclaimed as a great character actor he is now. As for Greer Garson, who makes a magnificent de-

but as Katherine, to say that she makes as great an impression as Robert Donat himself is the highest praise that can be bestowed upon this very brilliant, cultured and charming actress. Terry Kilburn who plays a youthful Colley through various generations, brings an irresistible personality to his roles, particularly that of Peter Colley HI. Outstanding is Paul von Hernied as the German master and close friend of Mr Chips. Every character, in fact, in this impressive picture has been perfectly cast down to the last schoolboy. Every one of the excellent scenes in this moving narrative fits pefectly. “Goodbye, Mr Chips” with its superb characterisation, poignancy, and quiet stream of humour, had a record run in Sydney, for the picture fully justified the unusually laudatory notices that preceded it.