I’m a (relatively) young classic movie fan who’s been lurking here for a while and finally decided to register so I could contribute to these discussions. I’ve been watching “old” movies since I was in elementary school. My parents (especially my mom) are movie buffs and were always sharing their favorite movies and loved discussing them with me. I’ve continued to watch these movies as an adult (love the Criterion Channel!) and while I’m no expert, I have seen a lot of classic movies. I’m pretty sure my love of these films influenced my choice to pursue a career in the arts, specifically dance.
The Red Shoes is a favorite of mine.
I’m high-strung by nature, and watching these movies always seem to help restore my sense of serenity in this chaotic and often distressing world we live in.
Sertraline helps too . . .
I just re-watched a favorite movie of mine since childhood,
Goodbye, Mr. Chips from MGM in 1939. It gets better every time I see it. Robert Donat, in a Best Actor Oscar-winning performance, plays the title character, Mr. Chipping, a Latin teacher at a boys’ boarding school in England from the beginning of his career until his 80s, a span of over 60 years. The movie actually starts out with Chipping as an old man with most of the story told in flashback. Honest to God, I thought a different actor played the elderly Chipping the first time I saw the movie. In my defense, I was 9 years old at the time. How great that the Academy gave an Oscar to such a non-showy performance.
Mr. Chipping, shy by nature, gets off to a bad start at the school despite his love for teaching. One of my favorite parts early in the movie is when the students in his first class try to trick him into saying the word “virgin.” By the time he’s in middle-age, he’s become disheartened that he’s not beloved by the students like some of his colleagues and is disappointed that he’s passed over for a house master position despite his tenure with the school. His life changes when a fellow teacher invites him to join him on a walking tour of Austria. This is the point where one of my favorite performers makes her movie debut. That performer is the wonderful Greer Garson!
The sequence where Donat’s Mr. Chipping and Garson’s Kathy Ellis meet while climbing the Austrian mountain is one of my favorite movie sequences. It never fails to make me tear up a bit. I always look forward to Greer Garson’s “Hello!” emanating from the mountain mist and to her sharing her sandwiches with Robert Donat’s character. You really believe that these two people are falling in love (or at least I do). Another favorite part is when Chipping, hoping to track down Kathy after their first meeting, thinks he’s found her and her traveling companion in Vienna, only to learn that there are two (
very) different English ladies who are also bicycling through Austria!
Greer Garson was nominated for (but didn’t win) a Best Actress Oscar for her movie debut. (A few years later she would receive the award for her performance in the title role in
Mrs. Miniver, another favorite of mine.) It is Garson’s character who gives Mr. Chipping the nickname “Chips.” After Kathy and Chips marry and return to the school, her encouragement and support help him to become comfortable sharing his personality with his students (including his Latin jokes). He soon becomes the school’s beloved Mr. Chips and eventually a school institution.
Some technical notes: The movie does a good job showing the passage of time through montages of “call overs”, with different groups of boys stating their names throughout the years. Terry Kilburn (who had previously played Tiny Tim in 1938’s
A Christmas Carol) plays multiple generations of Colley boys taught by Mr. Chipping.
I also find it interesting that a lot of these early MGM movies have their opening credits with the same generic drawing of a seated lion in the background.
![Image](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ex_qpnEHLwY/VHIoLxcUw5I/AAAAAAAAAQ4/3ofyiHXBRaw/s1600/goodbyemrchips5.jpg)