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United Kingdom · 1969
2h 35m
Director Herbert Ross
Starring Peter O'Toole, Petula Clark, Michael Redgrave, Alison Leggatt
Genre Drama, Music, Romance
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Stuffy Latin instructor Arthur Chipping is widely disliked by his students at a small public school in Great Britain in the 1920s, until he finds his life turned around by comic music hall singer Katherine Bridges. Though her lower-class past impedes Chipping's longed-for rise to headmaster, the students become devoted to her good-hearted warmth, which also helps transform the once-despised "Chips" into a beloved school figure.
Incredibly bloated remake, with Mrs Chips an ex-showgirl (allowing for some vacuous songs), a continental holiday (allowing for a travelogue wallow), and Herbert Ross (his first film as director), trying to match Wyler's choreographed camera movements on Funny Girl but failing to make them serve any meaningful purpose.
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
An overblown version of James Hilton's tearstained little gold mine of a book, with songs where they are not needed (and Leslie Bricusse's songs are never needed), yet there's still charm in the story, and Peter O'Toole gives a romantic performance of great distinction as the schoolmaster whose life is transformed by the Cinderella touch of an actress, played now by Petula Clark.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Goodbye, Mr. Chips uses its budget quietly, with good taste, and succeeds in being a big movie without being a gross one. I think I enjoyed it about as much as any road show since Funny Girl.
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
Should it survive—and I suspect it will — it will be largely because of the restrained, affectingly comic performance of Peter O'Toole in the title role. Everything else in this British public-school romance is either out of symmetry or out of date.
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