AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20185, 1 March 1940, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

REGENT THEATRE “GOOD-BYE, MR. CHIPS.” Whatever may yet coma to the screen the presentation of James Hilton's famous story “Good-bye, Mr. Chips” will always remain one of its finest masterpieces. It is a picture which reaches sublime heights in cinematographic art. It is, perhaps, the most moving of its kind that any producer has submitted. It is no exaggeration to acclaim it as a supreme vindication of the films. Magnificently balanced and directed by Sam Wood with an unusually sensitive appreciation of its varying moods, this beautifully directed story of an English schoolmaster, showing his life from the time he enters Brookfield School until he dies there many years after, will make any “old boy” of any old school unashamedly wipe away a tear. And " those in the audience around him will wipe away many. For, although in its general appeal, “Good-bye, Mr. Chips” is sentimental, the screen has never made sentiment more touching. As produced by Victor Saville, who also made “The Citadel,” this film truly reveals what lies behind that often derided tradition “the old school tic,” something at which no one will want to smile again after having been introduced to “old Chipping,” as Mr. Chips was known to his elders until the girl he. met in the Tirol came back with him to college as his wife, thus inspiring confidence in the once shy and diffident, but now supremely happy, man. These Tirol sequences are among the finest in the film, and have as great an air of authenticity as those which develop within the mellow walls of a school which came into being the year Columbus discovered America; which had Sir Francis Drake as a pupil, and to which families for generations .sen', their sons. Some of these generation: passed Mr. Chips, who finally became almost as great a tradition as the school itself. No one had a more trying time that Mr. Chipping at the commencement of his career. He overcame those difficulties, as well as his shyness, and his sense of frustration. Time and again a coveted position eluded his ambition. Accepted with amused but kindly toleration by his intimates, the news that Chipping had brought home a wife from the Continent stunned them. It was fantastic, unbelievable. But her unexpected beauty captured them, ana henceforth the hitherto lonely Chipping not only begot great happiness, but also confidence, plus a very mild sense of humour. Then his wife dies with her babe in child-birth. Mr. Chips walks dazedly to his classroom and quietly asks his boys, “Will you please turn to page 29?” But being April Fool's Day, the boys have played a joke on him. Every envelope he opens on his desk is as empty and blank as his life at that moment. This is one of the poignant scenes that strike a tragic note in a narrative that flows as gently to its end as a placid English, stream. All that need be said to Robert Donat’s “Mr. Chips” is that no character has ever held an audience so enraptured. No other screen impersonation has created such affection. As for Greer Garson. who makes a magnificent debut as Katherine, to say that she makes as great an impression as Robert Donat himself is the highest praise that can be bestowed upon this brilliant, cultured, and charming actress. “Good-bye Mr. Chips,” wits its superb characterisation, poignancy, and quiet stream of humour, should have a record run at the -Regent Theatre.