DramaMusicRomance

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

- He is a shy schoolmaster. She is a music hall star. They marry and immediately have 283 children...all boys!

Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help of an outgoing showgirl. O'Toole, who received his fourth Oscar-nomination for this performance, is joined by '60s pop star Petula Clark and fellow Oscar-nominee Michael Redgrave.

Release Date : 1969-11-05

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : APJAC ProductionsMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer British StudiosMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Arthur Chipping

Original Name : Peter O'Toole

Gender : Male

Character Name : Katherine Bridges

Original Name : Petula Clark

Gender : Female

Character Name : The Headmaster

Original Name : Michael Redgrave

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lord Sutterwick

Original Name : George Baker

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ursula Mossbank

Original Name : Siân Phillips

Gender : Female

Character Name : Max Staefel

Original Name : Michael Bryant

Gender : Male

Character Name : William Baxter

Original Name : Jack Hedley

Gender : Male

Character Name : Headmaster's Wife

Original Name : Alison Leggatt

Gender : Female

Character Name :

Original Name : Jenny Runacre

Gender : Female

Character Name : Bill Calbury

Original Name : Clinton Greyn

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs. Paunceforth

Original Name : Barbara Couper

Gender : Female

Character Name : Johnny Longbridge

Original Name : Michael Culver

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs. Summerswaithe

Original Name : Elspeth March

Gender : Female

Character Name : General Paunceforth

Original Name : Clive Morton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Algie

Original Name : Ronnie Stevens

Gender : Male

Character Name : Pompeii Guide

Original Name : Mario Maranzana

Gender : Male

Character Name : Sutterwick Jr.

Original Name : John Gugolka

Gender : Male

Character Name : David

Original Name : Michael Ridgeway

Gender : Male

Character Name : Farley

Original Name : Tom Owen

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Michael Audreson

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Julian Barnes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Roy Beck

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (singing voice) (uncredited)

Original Name : Pierre Bedenes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Girl at Party (uncredited)

Original Name : Gillian Blake

Gender : Female

Character Name : Elder Master (uncredited)

Original Name : Leo Britt

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tardy Student (uncredited)

Original Name : Nicholas Frankau

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Gary Graham

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lady Sutterwick (uncredited)

Original Name : Elspet Gray

Gender : Female

Character Name : Miss Honeybun (uncredited)

Original Name : Patricia Hayes

Gender : Female

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Mark Danvers Heron

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dancer (uncredited)

Original Name : Barbara Knox

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Lawrence Lambert

Gender : Male

Character Name : Johnson (uncredited)

Original Name : Jeremy Lloyd

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Craig Marriott

Gender : Male

Character Name : Price (uncredited)

Original Name : Jack May

Gender : Male

Character Name : Gresham (uncredited)

Original Name : John Moulder-Brown

Gender : Male

Character Name : Man in Theatre (uncredited)

Original Name : James Payne

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Jeremy Ranchev

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Stephen Reed

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jenkins (voice) (uncredited)

Original Name : Robert Rietti

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tilly (uncredited)

Original Name : Sheila Steafel

Gender : Female

Character Name : Policeman (uncredited)

Original Name : Royston Tickner

Gender : Male

Character Name : Chairman of the Board of Governors (uncredited)

Original Name : Richard Vernon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Schoolboy (uncredited)

Original Name : Raymond Ward

Gender : Male

Character Name : Head Boy (uncredited)

Original Name : Robert Wisepart

Gender : Male

Reviews

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2025-03-23

I suppose if you are going to reimagine the classic 1939 version of this story, you have to ditch some of that film’s most charming elements and bring it up to date. That’s what Herbert Ross and Leslie Bricusse have done here and for the most part it sort of works. Peter O’Toole takes on the role of the fastidious Latin master at the all-boys “Brookfield” school where he is neither much liked by the staff nor much respected by the pupils. It’s on a trip to London to see a show that he meets it’s star “Katherine” (Petula Clark) but he puts his foot in his mouth rather. On a trip to Pompeii, he encounters her again and this time the seeds of something special are planted. Their return to his school exposes both of them to changing attitudes towards himself and her that tests their blossoming relationship and his professional commitment to something he’d hitherto given his life to and with the Second World war now also looming, there are significant readjustments required to attitudes at the school that will see the final demise of the more traditional class system and the end of an era that, following a wartime tragedy, leaves “Chips” adrift in a world with which he is unfamiliar. It’s a well produced drama with plenty of attention to the detail, but it has lost much of the blue Danube romance of the Robert Donat and Greer Garson version. The “Katherine” character here is much more robust, independent and doubtless a better fit for the late 1960s, but for me the modernisation rendered this a bit disappointingly functional. I also found it lacked a killer musical number as neither “Fill the World with Love” nor “You and I” really stick in the mind for long after their various reprises throughout the film. Maybe I’m a sucker for the original sentiment, but though I enjoyed this enough, it is not a film that tugs at the heartstrings the same way nor does it evoke that sense of declining empire and relevance that added such poignancy before. There is an engaging chemistry, though, between O’Toole and Clark - she certainly knows how to hold a note and it’s a competent reversioning that’s hard not to like.