“Goodbye Mr. Chips”

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 296, 15 December 1939, Page 10

“Goodbye Mr. Chips”

AN AUTHOR’S DREAM FULFILLED, SAYS JAMES HILTON Has the picture been made that would please everybody? Few, if any, have claimed that distinction. It may be impossible, but if it is there is at least one film that goes very close to achieving the impossible. If it docs not appeal to every moviegoer, then the fault is entirely on the side of the person who fails to enjoy it. Recently a member of the staff of “The Times" was privileged to attend a preview at the Regent Theatre of “Good-bye, Mr. Chips," and he came away very impressed. He considered he had seen no other picture like it. Others pictures of public school and university life have passed across the screen, met with approval, and left their impression on the fickle public, but none has succeeded in the manner of “Mr. Chips" in revealing with the skill of a surgeon the very soul of the public school. Even he who despises the “old school tie" and all that sort of thing must admire Mr. Chips, a man who loves his fellowmon, even though they be rowdy, inconsiderate schoolboys, better than anything else in the world except, perhaps, his wife who taught him to give expression to this love. Many schools havo their “Mr. Chips" —even in New Zealand, a country relatively young in tradition, there are schoolmasters whose association with one school has extended over half a century or longer, men who have played an inestimable part in the moulding of thousands of human lives, men who always think of other men as they were as schoolboys, men who have caned the men who are at tho helm of the nation to-day. To such as these “Good-bye, Mr. Chips" is a splendid memorial. We have happy memories of Robert Donat as the struggling young doctor in “The Citadel," and still like to think of his performance in “The Ghost Goes West," but these, his earlier successes, are outshone by his incomparable acting in “Good-bye, Mr. Chips." In particular, his‘portrayal of a very old but very energetic retired schoolmaster is peerless. An important part in the picture and in the life of 4 4 Mr. Chips' ’ is played by Greer Garson, charming Irish-Scottish actress, who, as his wife “Cathie," is the embodiment of a'l the best one assiciates with womanhood. The author of “Good-bye, Mr. Chips," James Hilton, thinks this of the M.G.M. screen version: “An author 's dream fulfilled—a picture that does for him practically all that he would like to do for himself if he owned a studio and had a million pounds to spare.' * “Good-bye, Mr. Chips" will be the New Year attraction at the Eogent Theatre.