REGENT THEATRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20184, 29 February 1940, Page 3

REGENT THEATRE

LAST DAY: “THE WIZARD OF OZ” Brilliant Technicolour enhances the spectacular effects of the ingenious fantasy, “Wizard of Oz,” which will be screened for the last time at the Regent Theatre to-day. Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, 'jack Haley and Billie Burke head a large cast. —To-morrow: Robert Donat in “Goodbvc Mr. Chips”— When Mr. Chipping (later known as “Chips") joined the teaching staff of Brookfield College, founded in the fifteenth century, he felt as near breaking down as did the new boy who wept at the sight of the grim, grey college walls. A teacher who faces his first class is perhaps as much to be pitied as is the worst dunce in front of him: and the failure of "Chips” to maintain discipline nearly cost him his job. But by and by he gained the upper hand, forgot his early qualms, and became an efficient college master. He did not, however, escape the pit- . falls of pedagogy for one who is a ] confirmed bachelor. Mi\ Chips got into a groove—a useful one, but still a groove. Middle age found him routined. A remedy was needed, and the remedy proved to be Katherine, , one of the sweetest and most womanly women whom the film world has yet produced. It should first be explained. , however, that both Mr. Chips and ; Katherine owe their existence to James Hilton, whose novel, "Good-bye Mr. Chips.” has been pictured by 1 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with the help of the justly-famed Robert Donat, ol Greer Garson, a distinct find, of the producer, Victor Saville. and of the director, Sam Wood. “Good-bye Mr. Chips” will begin at the Regent Theatre to-morrow and the management is sure it will meet with the popular 'success that has been predicted for it —a success due not only to the above-named artists, but to an army of prancing college boys led by Terry Kilburn, and to a magnificent college atmosphere built up by the photographers, who have so presented Brookfield College and its accessories as to make them symbolic of England and of all that was best in the period (1870-1920) with which the story deals. Middle-aged Mr. Chips (Robert Donat) is induced by Staefel (the German master at the college, splendidly played by Paul von Hernried) to step out of his groove by going on vacation to the Swiss Alps and later to the Danube. Katherine (Greer Garson) is “doing tile Alps” with a lady friend, both on push bicycles. Katherine and Mr. Chips discover each other in a mist on the mountains, and Katherine, with feminine tact, has done a good deal to break 'down the bachelor’s reserve before the search party arrives. The engagement is not made, however, until Katherines train is moving out of the station. Katherine camcs" into the life of Mr. Chips like an invigorating breeze from the mountains Wife, counsellor, and provider] of hope and faith, she tells Mr. Chips that he can become anything—even headmaster—if he really wills it. But before this dream comes true, death removes her in childbirth, and Mr. Chips is left wifeless and childless, to enter upon the third period of h:s earthly pilgrimage—devotion to his noble teaching profession, inspired by the memory of Katherine. Considering the comparatively brief period lor which she is in the picture, Katherine produces a wonderfully vivid and lasting effect. The story is a delicate balance of high romance and everyday human necessity; it combines so many different angles of human life that only an inspired performance by Robert Donat and Greer Garson could give the high results required. Anc! this inspired performance the two artists have succeeded in giving. The Great War so depletes the staff of Brookfield College that Mr. Chips becomes, at last, long after Katherine’s death, headmaster. Needless to add, “Good-bye Mr. Chips” is a picture that can be recommended to all, old or young, romantic or practical. It presents human values at their best.