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Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) (DVD-2005)
Warner Home
Video
Reviewed by Dennis Kwiatkowski
Goodbye Mr. Chips
was remade during the late 1960’s as a semi-musical with Peter O’Toole.
That version is not available on DVD. But the original version of
the film, made in 1939, has just been released on a Warner Bros. DVD.
1939 was
the year of so many great films: Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Rules of
the Game, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, to name a few. Add to the list Goodbye Mr. Chips, a superlative production with poignant and brilliant performances. It will forever be remembered as being the film whose lead actor, Robert Donat, beat
out Gone with the Wind’s Clark Gable to win the Oscar for Best Actor.
Set at Brookfield
Boys School in the
late 1800’s, Donat portrays Charles Chipping, a shy and awkward British schoolmaster who guides several generations
of young boys to manhood. Chipping is nicknamed Mr. Chips. His marriage to Katherine (played by Greer Garson in her first film role) brings him out of his shell and
he is converted by love into an inspirational molder of lives. In his final years at the school, he attains the status of
a beloved elder statesman.
Donat’s
performance was indeed deserving of the Oscar. Portraying Chipping from his early
bumbling days as a school teacher, throughout the decades, and into the twilight of his life, Donat gives a masterful performance. So effective is his accomplishment, that the viewer is moved seemingly inexplicably
at times by the nuances of his performance.
Donat suffered
from asthma throughout his life which limited the roles he was able to undertake and the fame he might have achieved. Even so, critic David Thompson writes that as an actor, Donat was more masculine than
Leslie Howard, more restrained than Olivier and that he acted with a sense of contained riches rare for an English stage-trained
actor. Thompson further related that Donat has a great quality where he was able
to draw viewers further into himself by his very modesty.
Made at MGM’s
short–lived British studio in the late 1930’s, and based on the novel by James Hilton, Goodbye Mr. Chips is an impeccable production. Perhaps the DVD package itself best sums up the film when it states:
All who treasure the memory of a beloved teacher will treasure Goodbye Mr. Chips.
Listen to the
MP3 (1.9 mb)
Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) (DVD-2005) Warner Home Video
Reviewed by Dennis Kwiatkowski
Goodbye Mr. Chips
was remade during the late 1960’s as a semi-musical with Peter O’Toole. That
version is not available on DVD. But the original version of the film, made in 1939,
has just been released on a Warner Bros. DVD.
1939 was
the year of so many great films: Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Rules of
the Game, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, to name a few. Add to the list Goodbye Mr. Chips, a superlative production with poignant and brilliant performances. It will forever be remembered as being the film whose lead actor, Robert Donat, beat out Gone with the Wind’s Clark Gable to win the Oscar for Best Actor.
Set at
Brookfield Boys School in the late 1800’s, Donat portrays Charles Chipping, a shy and awkward British
schoolmaster who guides several generations of young boys to manhood. Chipping is
nicknamed Mr. Chips. His marriage to Katherine (played by Greer Garson in her first
film role) brings him out of his shell and he is converted by love into an inspirational molder of lives. In his final years
at the school, he attains the status of a beloved elder statesman.
Donat’s
performance was indeed deserving of the Oscar. Portraying Chipping from his early
bumbling days as a school teacher, throughout the decades, and into the twilight of his life, Donat gives a masterful performance. So effective is his accomplishment, that the viewer is moved seemingly inexplicably at
times by the nuances of his performance.
Donat suffered
from asthma throughout his life which limited the roles he was able to undertake and the fame he might have achieved. Even so, critic David Thompson writes that as an actor, Donat was more masculine than Leslie
Howard, more restrained than Olivier and that he acted with a sense of contained riches rare for an English stage-trained
actor. Thompson further related that Donat has a great quality where he was able to
draw viewers further into himself by his very modesty.
Made at
MGM’s short–lived British studio in the late 1930’s, and based on the novel by James Hilton, Goodbye Mr. Chips is an impeccable production. Perhaps the DVD package itself best sums up the film when it states:
All who treasure the memory of a beloved teacher will treasure Goodbye Mr. Chips.
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