REGENT THEATRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20186, 2 March 1940, Page 3

REGENT THEATRE

ROBERT DONAT IN “GOOD-BYE MR. CHIPS’’ The audience which attended “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” at the Regent Theatre yesterday was treated to a fully satisfying translation of an immortal story to the screen. James Hilton’s gentle talc of an English schoolmaster, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” has been made into a beautiful and eloquently moving film. Keeping high faith with the spirit and letter of the original, Mctro-Goldwyn-Mayer has translated it to the screen with a remarkable vigour, understanding and feeling. Directed brilliantly by an American, Sam Wood, and performed consummately by Robert Donat and his British supporting company, it is a motion picture which one wants to see time and again, and will remember long after the other offerings of our day have been forgotten. Academic ideals and the academic life have been celebrated before on the -crcen, but never with such imagination and dramatic power. The film is much more than a record of a teacher’s quietly exciting career in a British public school. In a profoundly stirring manner it embodies an entire tradition of education, so that the continuity of learning becomes as strong a theme as the personal narrative. Mr. Chips dominates the action throughout, as he should, but the fou; generations of youngsters who pass through his hands give the motion picture a rich humanity and a depth of recreated experience which is rarely achieved by a cinema. As a book, "Good-bye, Mr, Chips,” was essentially a tender recollection of school days, given unity by the indomitable figure of a wise pedagogue. As a film it has dramatic overtones, which make it a forceful celebration of our heritage of culture and civilisation. It has a relentless rhythm and a variety of dramatic appeal, which makes it irresistible. With great skill and integrity, the film has centred Die portrait of a shy. modest man in so exciting a dramatic frame that Ihe slightest incident in the action lias the power to catch at your throat. Donat portrays “Mr. Chips” as only an inspired artist might—giving Ihe part all the graduated inflections which it demanded. Greer Garson conspires with him lo give a performance of enormous sincerity which makes her appearance in the film electric, and haunting. Included in the excellent supports is a film showing the arrival of H.M.S. Achilles at Auckland and the enthusiastic reception accorded the crew.