Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) Herbert Ross, Peter O’Toole, Petula Clark, Michael Redgrave

August 16, 2024

Arthur Chipping (Peter O’Toole) is an academic teaching at Brookfield Boys School outside of London in the 1920’s. Although he does what he considers best for his students, they don’t much like him, nicknaming him “Ditchy”, short for “dull as ditch water”. His life changes when he meets Katherine Bridges (Petula Clark), a music hall actress and a woman with a questionable past. She affectionately calls him Mr. Chips. Despite their differences, they fall in love. He, in particular, realizes that in striking up a relationship, they will have many obstacles to overcome. He doesn’t particularly like the world in which she is involved, including her friends and her profession, and she doesn’t exactly fit the mold of a teacher’s wife. Still, they decide to get married. She forgoes her career to be Mrs. Chips, living on campus as the housewife of a teacher at a proper boy’s school. It is a world in which she will have to learn the rules, or at least bend them to her sensibilities, although …