Robert Donat won an Oscar for best actor in the 1939 film version of this story and set a hard mark to beat in his gentle portrayal of a dedicated English public (meaning private) school teacher. There was an unsuccessful musical version with Peter O'Toole in 1969 and a TV miniseries with Roy Marsden in 1984 which disappeared without trace. But James Hilton's novella (of only 17,000 words) tells a good story and Martin Clunes, a remarkably versatile actor, with the aid of some great make-up rises to the challenge of portraying the same character convincingly over 50 years or so.
The early scenes have an idyllic feel to them, reflecting Hilton's nostalgia for the Victorian age. Things become nastier at the onset of the First World War with a new headmaster (played by the excellent Patrick Malahide) who wants to teach "practical" subjects and attract the nouveau riche, while cutting out scholarships for the poor. Chips, the shy but strong-minded Latin master, with the aid of the board of governors (most of whom he has taught), has little trouble in ousting this upstart, and, though in his sixties, he becomes the headmaster. But his triumph is blighted in two respects; his much loved wife (Victoria Hamilton) is not around to share it, having died in childbirth many years previously, and the steadily rising toll from the battlefields of France cuts a swath through the school's younger alumni. In fact it is a pretty sombre story, but Chips consoles himself with the thought that he has been a father to hundreds of boys.
All of us have been to school (with the exception of Mrs Chips who was "privately educated") and most of us can remember at least one teacher who had a positive effect, even in a harsh environment. Perhaps we feel if we were taught by someone with Mr Chip's values we might have been better people. His is a story with a powerful resonance not confined to the draughty corridors of English boys' schools Apart from Martin Clunes, there are a number of other good performances including that of Conleth Hill as Max Staefel, the avuncular German master, John Wood as the old headmaster, and from several of the pupils. Victoria Hamilton lights up the screen for the short time she is on it and Patrick Malahide as the new headmaster gets us to dislike him from his opening lines.
The bullying and fagging are exposed of course, and the superiority of Chip's more gentle disciplinary methods demonstrated. Hilton, whose own father was a headmaster, was not anti-public school but clearly thought the system could do with some reform. As if to show their support, both Harrow and Winchester College provided shooting locations for the film.
The early scenes have an idyllic feel to them, reflecting Hilton's nostalgia for the Victorian age. Things become nastier at the onset of the First World War with a new headmaster (played by the excellent Patrick Malahide) who wants to teach "practical" subjects and attract the nouveau riche, while cutting out scholarships for the poor. Chips, the shy but strong-minded Latin master, with the aid of the board of governors (most of whom he has taught), has little trouble in ousting this upstart, and, though in his sixties, he becomes the headmaster. But his triumph is blighted in two respects; his much loved wife (Victoria Hamilton) is not around to share it, having died in childbirth many years previously, and the steadily rising toll from the battlefields of France cuts a swath through the school's younger alumni. In fact it is a pretty sombre story, but Chips consoles himself with the thought that he has been a father to hundreds of boys.
All of us have been to school (with the exception of Mrs Chips who was "privately educated") and most of us can remember at least one teacher who had a positive effect, even in a harsh environment. Perhaps we feel if we were taught by someone with Mr Chip's values we might have been better people. His is a story with a powerful resonance not confined to the draughty corridors of English boys' schools Apart from Martin Clunes, there are a number of other good performances including that of Conleth Hill as Max Staefel, the avuncular German master, John Wood as the old headmaster, and from several of the pupils. Victoria Hamilton lights up the screen for the short time she is on it and Patrick Malahide as the new headmaster gets us to dislike him from his opening lines.
The bullying and fagging are exposed of course, and the superiority of Chip's more gentle disciplinary methods demonstrated. Hilton, whose own father was a headmaster, was not anti-public school but clearly thought the system could do with some reform. As if to show their support, both Harrow and Winchester College provided shooting locations for the film.