libertysanders I first saw this movie while still in high school. There were no DVR's in those days and I was held captive and forced to endure the dreadful, trite musical numbers that degrade the film and reduce it from what COULD have been a first-rate film into a mediocre one. One of the great misconceptions is that if you string together words with a few musical notes that you have music. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Peter O'Toole is excellent, as usual. Any man who can portray T.E. Lawrence and Mr. Chipping with equal facility is an astonishing actor. Petula Clark is adequate when she is not singing.I am now viewing the film on TCM having recorded it on DVR which allows me to gleefully advance through the unbearable "musical" numbers. It should never be viewed any other way.

ptb-8 I first saw this 1969 remake of GOODBYE MR CHIPS on a double feature with HOT MILLIONS... and CHIPS had been edited down from 150 minutes to 109 minutes by the local Australian MGM distributor, itself about to be edited out of business. People in the cinema were audibly aghast when they realised the film was cut as I presume they had seen the full version in first release 6 months prior. Now that I have finally seen the proper version running 155 minutes on Australian TV as it was yesterday afternoon, I can agree that any cutting of this glorious romantic drama is vandalism. GOODBYE MR CHIPS is MGM craftsmanship in it's sunset years, all perfectly realised and sophisticated, presented majestically and for most satisfying for mature tastes. In 1970 there seemed to be a crazed corporate fad for trimming musicals down to pretend they are not musicals, thus crippling the reason why they were made in the first place and thus irritating the very audience they were intended for. STAR was cut from 180 to 120 mins, THE BOYFRIEND cut from 135 to 109 mins and CHIPS was hacked and ruined. The casting in this 1969 remake is perfect, the script witty and warm, the art direction and set design and costumes lavish MGM standard. However, the weak songs to allow critics to really be cruel. CHIPS 1969 has a lot in common with THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE and STAR so if you love the MGM British 60s you are in for a treat. I loved it and recommend it highly.

bkoganbing Although MGM spent a lot of money to remake Goodbye Mr. Chips the film is good, but doesn't come close to the spirit of the classic version that got Robert Donat an Oscar amidst the shower of Oscars that Gone With The Wind got in 1939. Yet the best thing this film has going for it is Peter O'Toole cast against type as Mr. Chipping of Brookfield school.Two things were radically different from this and the Donat version. First the book by James Hilton and the Donat version cover a period from before the Boer War until after World War I. This Goodbye Mr. Chips starts in The Roaring Twenties and ends post World War II a totally different period than the one Hilton was writing about. James Hilton was 14 years gone when this film came out, I wonder what he would have thought of the change in time period.Secondly the marriage of Chips is a small part of the original story because the character of the wife dies young and in childbirth. Chips is a saddened widower for most the time the story covers which is a very radical change that Terrence Rattigan made to the original story.Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark have a great deal more time together than Robert Donat and Greer Garson did in the original film. I guess the reason for that is to give Petula Clark a lot of songs. As she's a singer and O'Toole does his songs in the manner originated by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, this is one area where she blows him off the screen. The best numbers in the score by Leslie Bricusse are the production numbers London Is London and later on the one that Petula does with the Brookfield boys, School Days.Michael Redgrave has a nice turn as the kind, but somewhat traditional schoolmaster. And although she only has a few scenes, Sian Phillips is brilliant as the Bohemian type actress who is a friend of Petula Clark's and a closer friend to Lord George Baker who is trying to get O'Toole sacked from Brookfield. Phillips's character might well have been based on Gertrude Lawrence.When James Hilton wrote his best known stories Hollywood was fortunate to have a pair of actors who were born to play Hilton heroes, Robert Donat and Ronald Colman. They both exemplify the way the British see themselves, purveyors of civilization, sportsmanship, and fair play to the world. Despite the uphill battle to come close to what Donat gave us with his Mr. Chips, O'Toole did get a nomination for Best Actor, but lost to John Wayne for True Grit. Goodbye Mr. Chips also got a nomination for Best Musical Scoring for Leslie Bricusse and John Williams. We may yet see another big screen adaption of Goodbye Mr. Chips and maybe this one will be set in modern times if such a film could be made. Sounds like a perfect part for Anthony Hopkins.

lcheetham_cheesy Great acting is best rewarded by pairing with a melodramatic script which truly elevates the human spirit. To all those minions who toil each and every day, take heart! your patience is virtuous. Your forbearance and decency will evidence, in ways you will never anticipate. This is your Great Story. I do not believe you can watch through to the end without a wisp of moisture in that hardened eye. Or, can you? For me, it would not be so... the story is relentless! The idealist, denied his due. Will anyone speak up? Ah! but you will need to see the show yourselves! observe the schoolmaster in his prime, without the notice and peerage the observer would certainly expect. And why does he continue so? Yes! you must watch O'Toole's performance for yourselves! I can only wish it were still 'in print' to purchase, then present to my friends as my evidence of respect for their faithful lives.