Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)

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Movie
German title Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Original title Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Country of production United States
United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1969
length 140 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Herbert Ross
script Terence Rattigan
production Arthur P. Jacobs
music John Williams
Leslie Bricusse (songs)
camera Oswald Morris
cut Ralph Kemplen
occupation

Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a British-American remake of the novel of the same name (1933/34) by James Hilton by Herbert Ross with Peter O'Toole in the title role and Petula Clark in the lead role.

action

Arthur Chipping, whom everyone briefly calls “Mr. Chips ", teaches Latin at Brookfield Public School in England as a shy and rigid but also committed teacher. He looks back on the past year with some frustration, because the students do not like the dusty and outdated-looking timpanist at all. Chips is therefore happy that the summer holidays are starting. Right at the beginning he met the soubrette Katherine Bridges in the dining room of the Savoy Hotel. She is the absolute opposite of him: sparkling, exuberant and extroverted. Mr. Chips is on the one hand fascinated by the young lady, on the other hand a little intimidated. During his educational trip to Italy, which took the teacher in the footsteps of antiquity, including the ruins of Pompeii , he met Katherine again here, of all places. She fled England for other reasons - disappointed with her career and saddened by her always unhappy romances - and decided to take a cruise to the Mediterranean. And so it turns out that Mr. Chips eventually becomes Katherine's tourist guide.

Despite the huge differences in their personalities, the two unequal Britons fall in love and get married. When Mr. and Mrs. Chips return to Brookfield, the surprise among the students and teachers is enormous. None of his students would have expected that Mr. Chips, previously scolded as so boring, would bring home such a glamorous woman. The pubescent boys love "Mrs. Chips “. Lord Sutterwick, the school's generous patron, sees it differently. He knows of Katherine's colorful past and threatens Chips to expel him from the teaching staff. Since Katherine in turn knows of a dark spot in Sutterwick's past and invites his former lover, the shrill and very self-confident Ursula Mossbank, a close friend of Katharine's, to Brookfield on the occasion of the celebration of the founding day of the school, the Lord quickly abandons his threat of dismissal Chippings off. After all, the Lord can successfully prevent Chips from being promoted to the school principal in a timely manner.

Mr. and Mrs. Chipping live a harmonious and beautiful life together, which was only badly tarnished by the outbreak of war in 1939. One day in 1944, a German V-1 missile struck exactly where Katherine was maintaining British soldiers as part of a troop support program. Katherine is killed in the process. She also no longer receives the message from her husband, sent on the same day, that he has finally been offered the post of headmaster. Now Mr. Chips is all alone again; he only has memories of a full life left. Eventually he retires, but spends his old age very close to his beloved school.

Production notes

The shooting of Goodbye, Mr. Chips took place in the second half of 1968 in numerous locations in Italy (Campania, Capaccio, Naples, Paestum, Pompeii and Positano) and Great Britain (in addition to London especially Sherborne, where the local school became the Brookfield School ) instead of. The world premiere took place on November 5, 1969 in New York City, the German premiere took place on March 26, 1970.

Mort Abrahams took over the production management. The film structures were designed by Ken Adam , executed by Maurice Fowler . Julie Harris designed the costumes. Brian West served as cameraman for Oswald Morris' second unit chief cameraman.

Pre-production

Since 1951, MGM had been planning a remake of the great hit screen of 1939 , but this was repeatedly postponed. After two musical adaptations with My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins had successfully started in 1964 , the plan for a musical remake popped out of oblivion and wanted the film with My Fair Lady star Rex Harrison and Mary Poppins star Julie Andrews with the music film experienced Vincente Minnelli shoot as a director. That was the case, as was the remake with Richard Burton and Lee Remick . This time the former dancer was supposed to stage Gower Champion . Finally, you came across O'Toole and the freshly come to film musical fame Petula Clark, who had succeeded in 1968 alongside Fred Astaire in Francis Ford Coppola's The Golden Rainbow . Filming began that same year.

useful information

In contrast to the novel and the first filming in 1938/39, the life story of Mr. Chip also includes the entire duration of the Second World War.

Music / songs

The following songs by Leslie Briscusse (composition and text) were played:

  • "Fill the World With Love"
  • "Where Did My Childhood Go?"
  • "London Is London"
  • "And the Sky Smiled"
  • "Apollo"
  • "When I Am Older"
  • "Walk Through the World"
  • "What Shall I Do With Today?"
  • "What a Lot of Flowers"
  • "Schooldays"
  • "When I Was Younger"
  • "You and I"

Awards / nominations (selection)

  • Peter O'Toole received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and was honored with the Golden Globe Award , the David di Donatello Film Prize and the NBR Award in this very category.
  • John Williams and Leslie Bricusse each received a nomination for an Oscar for best film music, while Bricusse received another nomination for his songs at the Golden Globes.
  • Also Siân Phillips was nominated at the Golden Globes, for Best Supporting Actress, for a price. In that category, she won the National Society of Film Critics Awards in 1970

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Arthur Chipping Peter O'Toole Friedrich Schoenfelder
Katherine Bridges Petula Clark Eva Pflug
Headmaster Michael Redgrave Paul Klinger
Ursula Mossbank Siân Phillips Gisela Trowe
Lord Sutterwick George Baker Jürgen Thormann
Wife of the director Alison Leggatt Tina Eilers
Johnny Longbridge Michael Culver Claus Jurichs

Reviews

"A bombastic version with songs where they are not needed."

- Pauline Kael in The New Yorker

The Movie & Video Guide praised O'Toole's performance, but scolded Petula Clark's interpretation of Katherine as being "superficial and silly" and found that "the mediocre songs don't help either".

Halliwell's Film Guide called the strip "slow and greasy, with not a single visible improvement."

The lexicon of the international film found: “Romantic-sentimental bestseller adaptation with musical elements. The depiction of the strange main character by Peter O'Toole is remarkable. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goodbye, Mr. Chips in the German synchronous file .
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 508.
  3. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 417.
  4. ↑ Goodbye, Mr. Chips. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 4, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

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