Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)

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.

As someone who loves the Robert Donat and Martin Clunes versions, and having heard a lot of negativity around this film there was some intrepidation but considering that Peter O' Toole was a great actor I really did feel it deserved a chance. This film does have a fair number of problems and is a very distant least favourite of the three Goodbye, Mr. Chips versions, but it was to me still a decent film and much better than its reputation. The weak link are the songs, You and I is lovely but most of them are forgettable with insipid lyrics and added little if anything to the story. It was interesting initially to have the songs as a kind of voiced thought process, but it was overused and slowed things down. A lot of the second half drags too, loved the final assembly scene but the dialogue came across at times as sketchy and contrived(with a feeling of Terrence Rattigan running out of ideas and not being interested anymore), making the film longer than it needed to be(and the length in personal opinion was overlong and overblown by the second half). Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a great film to look at, the colours are wonderfully rich, the scenery is eye-catching and there's always something interesting to see regarding the photography. The songs didn't work but John Williams' score did, the harmonies and orchestration just soar to thrilling effect and any theme of any song included is given much more richness, colour and nuance as orchestrated than when it's sung. While the second half lags the first half is good, there is some fun dialogue and there are amusing and thoughtful moments. The romance is affecting and very charming, I for one didn't think it was rushed, and throughout the film there is a great deal of emotion, the assembly scene near the end was genuinely touching. The direction from Herbert Ross is not so bad for a directorial debut, though he did go on to better things. The performances are good, the singing is not mind-blowing, neither is it terrible(unlike something like Man of La Mancha the performers don't try to sing out of their ranges). Petula Clark is radiant and excels brilliantly at being sympathetic, her character is not the best developed but still memorable. The main reason to see Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the performance of the late Peter O' Toole, which is dignified and very moving, also one of his most subtle performances. In conclusion, very flawed but is so much better than I expected it to be. 6/10 Bethany Cox

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.

Musicalized version of James Hilton's popular novel concerns a stuffy schoolmaster at a British academy for boys in 1924 meeting a musical comedy actress while on holiday in Pompeii. With Hilton's story having been published in 1933--and the first film-version being released in 1939--one has to wonder why this remake need take place in the 1920s. Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark are both so obviously modern in their charms--and Clark's phrasing in her songs is so unmistakably of the '60s era--that the anachronisms are oddly dislocating. Director Herbert Ross (making his debut) doesn't spend a whole lot of time in the classroom, which is surprising and refreshing, yet the romance which blooms between the two principles fails to come off. O'Toole's Mr. Chips is seen at first to be strict, set in his ways, lonely perhaps yet unwilling to change; before the film is fifteen minutes old however, he's being taken to the theatre to see the latest "hit", and it doesn't ring true for the character. Ross relies on Leslie Bricusse's songs to fill us in on Mr. Chips' feelings, but what happened to his background? Where does he live, what does his flat look like? For Ross, it's all about a romantic travelogue, and a grand meeting of two different worlds (one side sacrificing itself to be adjoined with the other). Within this universe, it's nearly impossible for the actors to create real, breathing people--although the overblown running-time would certainly seem to give them that opportunity. O'Toole was Oscar-nominated and, though he cannot sing, he gives a controlled, purposefully mundane performance; Clark also has fine acting moments, and the supporting cast is capable if not memorable (much like the picture itself). ** from ****