Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1939
Running Time	109:31
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Sam Wood
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Robert Donat Greer Garson Terry Kilburn John Mills Paul Henreid Judith Furse Lyn Harding Milton Rosmer Frederick Leister Louise Hampton Austin Trevor David Tree Edmund Breon
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Richard Addinsell

    Goodbye, Mr. Chips reflects a tradition that has now almost completely disappeared from the world. It is reflected in this film in the form of an English public school. Teaching was very highly respected in those days, and as a reflection of the times there were only male teachers.

    We follow the life of one of the teachers of Brookfields, a school with a tradition dating back hundreds of years, a certain Mr. Chipping. This is of course where the nickname of Chips comes from. Initially, Mr. Chips is not a very popular teacher and is a very shy chap with little life outside of the school grounds. He is talked into a walking holiday in the Alps with the German master and while on this holiday he meets a wonderful lady who very soon ends up as Mrs. Chips.

    Through her, Mr. Chips discovers the joy of teaching and the love of his students. He is transformed and becomes one of the most popular teachers and later the headmaster. Mr. Chips is played by Robert Donat who won an Academy Award for this excellent performance. Also excellent is the make-up that transforms him from a young man to an old man of over eighty. Mrs. Chips is played by Greer Garson. This movie was her debut, and she was nominated for an Oscar for this role.

    The movie covers Mr. Chips' entire life from when he joined the school in 1870 until his death, thus covering a fair slice of British history, a slice that was at the beginning of the period in which things began to move at an ever-quickening pace. There are some clever little interludes used to show the passage of time, such as two boys walking down a corridor talking about the new invention of the telephone, which really places the story against the changes of the times in a very clever way.

    Overall, this is a very gentle, sometimes sad and poignant tale of a time and place that has passed into the history books. It is, in my opinion, much better than the re-make that was made many years later.

Video

    Considering this film was made in 1939, the master here is in reasonable condition but there has been little attempt to restore the image. Of course there are problems, but they could have been worse.

    The transfer is presented at 1.33:1 which is close to the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio.

    Unfortunately, the image is not very sharp and in places the shadow detail is lacking. At times the greys, particularly in the faces, wash out to become a very light monotone grey.

    There is of course no colour present.

    There are no MPEG artefacts present. The image often wobbles, but this may well be in the source material as opposed to a transfer problem. Film artefacts abound, with grain, scratches and dirt clearly visible. It is at its worst at the start of the film and gradually improves. During the final reel it is not too bad.

    The subtitles are easy to read and accurate.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtracks on the disc, one in English, and one in French.

    There are no problems with the dialogue nor with the audio sync and only slight hiss in the background on occasions.

    The music is a typically English orchestral score and matches the film well.

    The surrounds and the subwoofer were not utilised.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A static menu which for some strange reason is presented at 1.78:1 with a picture of Mr Chips and his lovely wife. The picture is obviously a publicity colour drawing with Robert Donat shown without the ageing makeup. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

    There does not appear to be any differences across the various regions.

    Made in 1939, Goodbye, Mr Chips covers a period in history ranging from before the first world war to some time after, a period where perhaps the British tradition reached its peak and saw many changes. If you like old films, in particular British films, and like a very well told autobiographical style story then you can't go wrong with this film.

    The video shows the age of the source material.

    The audio is good.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall