The third in the series of films MGM made in Britain was perhaps their greatest triumph, with a well-deserved Academy Award for Robert Donat, who played Mr Chips over a span of 60 years very convincingly. Always a great actor, Donat was perhaps at his best in this story covering the history of a schoolmaster from his first appearance at the school as a young idealist, through crusty middle age (and a change when he meets charming Greer Garson, in her first screen appearance, stranded up an Austrian mountain) and into his much loved dotage as a kind of human fixture and fittings of Brookfield School.
James Hilton's book is developed here to give not only a view of the English public school system which probably never existed, but to cover issues such as the Great War with some power. The film is extremely touching in places - whether this is because of the acting or the excellent music I'm not quite sure. I do know that this version of the film is streets ahead of the misguided musical version which appeared three decades later with Peter O'Toole in the lead.
James Hilton's book is developed here to give not only a view of the English public school system which probably never existed, but to cover issues such as the Great War with some power. The film is extremely touching in places - whether this is because of the acting or the excellent music I'm not quite sure. I do know that this version of the film is streets ahead of the misguided musical version which appeared three decades later with Peter O'Toole in the lead.