Some months ago here at OGOTS Towers, in a piece on Walt Whitman’s O Captain! My Captain (see here), we looked at that wonderful role portrayed by Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society: the uber-inspirational teacher, John Keating. Well, this week we’re looking at another stalwart of the fictional schoolroom, one Charles Edward Chipping AKA “Mr Chips”.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 romantic drama based on the 1934 novella of the same name by James Hilton. The film is about Mr Chipping (Robert Donat), a much-loved elderly school teacher at Brookfield public school, who looks back at his career and personal life over the decades. We learn about his rise through the teaching ranks, his friendship with German teacher Max Staefel (Paul Heinreid) and his tragically short marriage to Kathy (Greer Garson), who dies in childbirth along with their baby. From thereon in, Chips’ life is devoted exclusively to the school and he develops a rapport with generations of pupils, eventually teaching the sons and grandsons of many of his earlier pupils.
Although he ostensibly retires in 1914, Chips is soon enjoined to return as interim headmaster due to the shortage of teachers because of the Great War. During a bombing attack by a German Zeppelin, Chips insists that the boys keep on translating their Latin, and to the great amusement of his pupils, chooses the story of Julius Caesar’s battles against the Germanic tribes. Now there’s stiff upper lip!
As the war drags on though, every Sunday in chapel Chips reads aloud into the school’s Roll of Honour the names of the many former boys and teachers who have died in the war. It’s a poignant scene (that you can see below). Upon discovering that Max Staefel has died fighting on the German side, he reads out his name, too. “Funny reading his name out with the others, after all, he was an enemy”, says one schoolboy to another afterwards. “One of Chips’ ideas I suppose” his mate says, “he’s got lots of funny ideas like that”.
Chips retires permanently in 1918, but continues living nearby. He is on his deathbed in 1933 when he overhears his colleagues talking about him. He responds, “I thought I heard you say it was a pity – a pity I never had any children. But you’re wrong. I have! Thousands of them, thousands of them.. and all.. boys”.
