Jun. 15, 2002 - 3:46 am
well it came out during the most celebrated year of film history. 1939. what an awesome year. check out the Oscar nominations and just take a look at that. so i've been wanting to see this film for a few weeks now. just a few months ago i was on an Alfred Hitchcock kick and i watched The 39 Steps (1935) which was one of his greatest films before he left England for America and started making his bigger budget pictures. but The 39 Steps was an awesome film and it introduced me to an even greater acting talent i had never even heard of before. Robert Donat. breathtaking British actor. he's intelligent, softspoken and very loveable. so anyway Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the film he got his Best Actor Oscar for. and he so deserved it.
this film was also nominated for all the other major awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Wood), Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Actress. Greer Garson was the lead actress in this film. and she is breathtaking as well. couldn't have hoped for a better cast really. she was seen most recently in Mrs. Miniver (1942) in the title role. also a great film by the way.
a side note, i can't believe i saw the supporting actor Nigel Stock again at the age of 20 and was able to recognize him. he was recently seen in an episode of "The Prisoner" tv series from the 60s, as well as in The Great Escape (1963). weird. he's all over.
so Goodbye, Mr. Chips i'm going to give a 10/10. i loved this movie and it made me cry. which is just not an easy thing to do. the movie's the epitome of sentimentality. it's the story of an old school teacher and his final days in England at a school for boys, but it also tells of his early days which lead to the point he is now at. my favorite portion of the film is his very idyllic love which comes from a chance meeting on a mountain in Austria with Katherine. it's just perfect because you can't help but love the actors involved, plus you come to feel that Mr. Chips is a wonderful middle-aged gentleman who is very virtuous, but humble at the same time. he never thinks of himself and is amazed that someone as beautiful and charming and well-spoken as Katherine could possibly fall in love with him. and it's for that reason that she does love him. because of his humility, his shyness, his love of life, and all of the other great qualities that lie within him. it's a great film, and i find it amazing that i had never heard of either of the leads (Greer Garson or Robert Donat), nor the film itself before a couple of months ago. you're missing out if you don't watch this. that is, assuming you like well-done sentimentality as much as i do.