Goodbye, Mr. Chips

[Hollis]

Good morning all,

Maybe it's just me, but over the last several months it seems that the musical version of "Goodbye, Mr Chips" has been shown more than a few times to the exclusion of the original starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson, which I find superior in every way. Don't get me wrong, Peter O'Toole is a fine actor and among my favorites but I don't understand why the earlier version hasn't been aired in quite some time. I'm curious to know what my fellow members think of the two films and which they prefer and why. Thanks once again.

As always,

Hollis

[Mr. Arkadin]

I'm in total agreement Hollis. I find O'Toole's version quite poor in comparison and even he will tell you he cannot sing. Donat won an Oscar for his role in this film and it's well deserved. Truly one of the most touching works of the golden year of film.

[mrsl]

Hollis:

All of the sentiment, compassion, and sense of love of tradition etc., is lost in the newer version. All those elements and the warmth displayed between Greer Garson and Donat are what make the original so appealing, and able to transverse all these years

Tradition is essential to Goodbye Mr. Chips, and the new version kind of ignored it. People who experience tradition whether in their school, annual holiday plans or any other form know how important it is, yet the director seemed to feel he could do away with it. Last week we saw The Long Grey Line which again testifies how vital tradition is, and the closest I've seen another film come to that realization was The Emperor's Club.

Trashing the old stuff is fine in many ways, but some things should be left to survive as well as they can in this modern world.

Anne

[Hollis]

Hello all.

Someone must have been eavesdropping ~ The Robert Donat/Greer Garson version of "Goodbye Mr Chips" airs this Wednesday at 12:30am EST! I must have overlooked it in the program guide.

As always,

Hollis

[Bogie]

testing....

Ah well I love the original version of Goodbye Mr. Chips. The musical just doesn't have the emotional punch of the original. I find myself getting tearing eyed at the end of the original film. After one viewing of the original it instantly became one of my favourite films of all time.

[Moraldo Rubini]

testing....

Ah well I love the original version of Goodbye Mr. Chips. The musical just doesn't have the emotional punch of the original. I find myself getting tearing eyed at the end of the original film. After one viewing of the original it instantly became one of my favourite films of all time.

Yea! A new province heard from! You passed the test. Good to see you here.

I saw the remake in the theatre (as I recall it was a roadshow), and still haven't seen the original all the way through. My parents are the ones who took me to the cinema for the remake and I remember them speaking nostalgically for the first one. I was just a kid, and the remake seemed fine to me; but my Dad informed me that when the first one played there wasn't a dry eye in the house. This remake was panned by the critics and considered to be a bomb. I'm curious to see both.

[sugarpuss]

I'm interested to see the original as well. The other night, TCM showed a 40 minute long featurette showcasing scenes from the remake and let me tell you, 40 minutes was enough. I was ready to scratch my eyes out. I think it's Petula Clark: the only other musical I've seen her in was "Finian's Rainbow" and I thought that movie was "ehhhhhhh."

I always wonder why the studios kept doing musical remakes. Not that I mind, as I love musicals but I've always wondered about that.

[movieman1957]

My wife cried like a baby the first she saw it. I thought she fell asleep when it came on so I left. She came back two hours later crying and yelling "Why didn't you ever tell me about this movie?" She loved it so much we had to go buy a copy the next day.

It's a lovely movie. Greer Garson is wonderful in her short part. Donat is brilliant. A fine film.

[moira finnie]

Hey guys,
The majority of y'all, the critics and audiences don't seem to be the only ones who rejected the inferior, musical remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). Then again, could that particular earthshaking, iconoclastic year of '69 have been less auspicious for presenting any film that celebrated loyalty, tradition and perseverance?

Based on a TCM segment that I saw recently very early one morning, Peter O'Toole, (looking every inch his 70+ years, but mentally chipper), in which the actor decried his attempts to sing when he could not and act a role that belongs to Robert Donat. I think that the lead actor in this debacle shared your general opinion of its failings.

O'Toole's humility in this promotional spot was ingratiating and, having seen major parts of his version of Chips during broadcasts in the past, the limitations of the film are impossible to ignore, but O'Toole does have moments of gentle underplaying that I found touching. But he's quite right--he can't sing, even when he tries to go for that Rex Harrison sprechgesang-style that worked so well for his Higgins in My Fair Lady. I also have to give some points to O'Toole for his fearlessness. The guy's never afraid to pull out all the stops, risk failure and foolishness, and go for an effect, as evident in the weird and sometimes entertaining work he could produce, (1972's The Ruling Class may be the prime example of this eccentrically theatrical quality).

Also, this musical remake and the actor's attempted performance is saddled with a truly elephantine production style that seems to be more appropriate for a film about The Fall of the Roman Empire, (though, come to think of it, that '60s film was pretty restrained by comparison). I also found Petula Clark's false eyelashes pretty distracting throughout the movie and the music and songs from John Williams & Leslie Bricusse just didn't add anything to the relatively simple storyline.

At the end of O'Toole's TCM segment reminiscing about the times when his film failures almost shuttered a studio for good, he sheepishly explains that the script, by no less than an apparently uncredited Terence Rattigan, (Separate Tables, The Deep Blue Sea, The Browning Version), was the real pull for him. No word on whether the script was actually followed during the production, though.

The Academy apparently was sufficiently impressed with his performance, (or could it have been the amount of MGM money spilled for this film?), to nominate Mr. O'T. for another one of his seven missed Oscars.

Btw, a special "welcome & hiya!" to SPTO, who's recently joined us. I knew we'd get a bit more life on our little site when the Fall rolled around!

[Bogie]

Btw, a special "welcome & hiya!" to SPTO, who's recently joined us. I knew we'd get a bit more life on our little site when the Fall rolled around!

Thanks! It's good to browse and dabble in discussion with people who will talk about the movies rather then the scandalous. (tho I admit one of my last topics at TCM was about a scandal oops!)

BTW this topic has me thinking about a movie that was very similar in tone to the original Mr. Chips. The movie starred Tyrone Power and was called The Long Gray Line. I saw it on TCM recently and that movie felt like a far better progenitor to the Donat film even though it focused on another, and real life person you couldn't help but see that the script must've been inspired in tone by Mr. Chips.

Are there other movies that focus on the main character through the years such as those two films?

[mrsl]

When I mentioned The Long Grey Line, I was talking in terms of tradition and how important it is of course, but as for presenting a catalog of life long devotion, it also is one of the best.

There are many more, but off the top of my head, my three favorites are Three Cheers for Miss Bishop, 1941 - Martha Scott, Good Morning Miss Dove, 1955 - Jennifer Jones, and again The Emperors Club, 2002 - Kevin Kline.

One of my most appreciated plot lines is the life of the main character from young to older such as Yankee Doodle Dandy, and It's a Wonderful Life. I don't care if they are fictional or not, but I do prefer when they cover from childhood through adulthood, rather than just one chunk of a career, like most of the sports and musical figures. I like to get an idea how they became interested in their future career.

Anne

[Mr. Arkadin]

Hey guys,
The majority of y'all, the critics and audiences don't seem to be the only ones who rejected the inferior, musical remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). Then again, could that particular earthshaking, iconoclastic year of '69 have been less auspicious for presenting any film that celebrated loyalty, tradition and perseverance?

Based on a TCM segment that I saw recently very early one morning, Peter O'Toole, (looking every inch his 70+ years, but mentally chipper), in which the actor decried his attempts to sing when he could not and act a role that belongs to Robert Donat. I think that the lead actor in this debacle shared your general opinion of its failings.

O'Toole's humility in this promotional spot was ingratiating and, having seen major parts of his version of Chips during broadcasts in the past, the limitations of the film are impossible to ignore, but O'Toole does have moments of gentle underplaying that I found touching. But he's quite right--he can't sing, even when he tries to go for that Rex Harrison sprechgesang-style that worked so well for his Higgins in My Fair Lady. I also have to give some points to O'Toole for his fearlessness. The guy's never afraid to pull out all the stops, risk failure and foolishness, and go for an effect, as evident in the weird and sometimes entertaining work he could produce, (1972's The Ruling Class may be the prime example of this eccentrically theatrical quality).

I would agree here. O' Toole is very humble about his abilities. I remember an interview where he talked about his singing in Man From La Mancha and other such works and said he "couldn't sing a note, but he'd always give it a try." While I won't say he's the most versatile actor, there are very few people who could play the parts that he has shone in over the years.

[sandykaypax]

Anne mentioned Good Morning Miss Dove --it will be on Fox Movie Channel tomorrow morning, Wed. Sept. 5, along with the Claudette Colbert film, Remember the Day (also about a teacher).

I believe that TCM will be showing the original Goodbye, Mr. Chips later this month as part of their Class Act theme.

So many good films as part of the classroom/teacher theme! I have a special fondness for that sub-genre.

Sandy K

[mrsl]

There are times when I'm really unhappy about not getting FOX, because so many other stars are available on that channel. Of course they don't have all the little 5 and 10 minute bios that TCM does, but you're still able to see actors we don't even think of because of "Out of Sight, Out of Mind".

For anyone who hasn't seen Good Morning Miss Dove, it is a nice little piece of Americana. Set your timers and you might be happily surprised. This is another one where the students grow up to adulthood, and we see the results of Miss Dove's teaching skills. Robert Stack is the main character after Miss Dove, and Chuck Connors has quite an interesting role just before his Rifleman duties start.

Anne

[mrsl]

Although I haven't sat and watched all night, I have been clicking back and forth checking in on three fine movies about teachers. - Sir, Mr. Holland, and Mr. Chips.

Sir is a great exposition of teenagers being the same, no matter what decade, century, or country they are in. You can change the clothing, the make-up, the music, the hair, even the way they talk, but they're all the same underneath.

Mr. Holland is a fine adaptation of life in the swinging sixties, and seventies, and a man who cannot get away from what he was created for, although he doesn't want to admit it.

And of course, Mr. Chips is a heart tugger from the first scene. They played the musical version this afternoon, but the late night Donat/Garson is the only one as far as I'm concerned.

If you haven't seen any of these movies, I certainly hope you taped them (by that I mean Tivo'd, DVD, etc. - whatever means you use).

Anne