Figure 1.--This boy in the 1969 wears a boater, but without an Eton collar. This was the musical version with Peter O'Tool.

The musical remake of the 1939 film with music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse appeared in 1969. Very well done remake of the original with Peter O'Tool. This was a big-budget Hollywood film and the most elaborate of the Goodbye Mr. Chips productions. An excellent movie with lots of boy intereting charactr. They all wear longs at the school.

Filmology

Setting

The setting is Brookfields, a fictitious public school estblished in 1492. I'm not sure why 1492 was chosen, perhaps because as the date Columbus discovere America, it was an old date known to everyone. The school exteriors were filmed at Sherborne, the public school in Dorset, with pupils acting as extras.

Cast

Chipps in the musical 1968 version was played by Peter O'Toole. He received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Some critics found his performance "unconvincing". One critic described it as "unappealing". HBC is much less critical.

Music

The songs included: Roll call, Fill the world with love, Would I had lived my life then, Schooldays, That's a boy, Where did my childhood go, Boring, Take a chance, Walk through the world, When I am older, The miracle, A day has a hundred pockets, You and I, What a lot of flowers, When I was younger, Goodbye Mr. Chips, London is London, and And the Sky Smiled. The musical did not prove a great success and the songs are little remembered today. A HBC reader takes issue here. He insists, "The songs aren't that bad and a stage version was later produced at Chichester."

Plot

The basic plot of all the major productions is the same and is described on the main Goodbye Mr. Chips page. The principal difference in most of the versions is that the plot is sometimes, as in the case of this version, to include World War II.

Scenes

Figure 2.--Note in this scene that the producers' rationale in selecting which boys wore which type of outfit is unclear. Some very young looking boys in ordinary suits and other boys of around the same age in Etons.

Clothing

Boys were costumed in both Eton suits and black jackets (not tails - in fact the suit-style outfit in the picture I sent). There seemed to be a lack of rationale in selecting which boys wore which type of outfit, with some very young looking boys in ordinary suits and other boys of around the same age in Etons. Of course it should have been the younger boys wearing the Eton collar uniforms. One reader wonders if there was any preference among the boys as to which uniform they wore. Some boys may have been intreagued to wear the Eton collars and bum freezers as they were called. It is, however, generally younger boys who enjoy dressing up in costumes, many of these boys may have been relaeved not to have to bother with the Eton outfit.

Created: December 23, 2001
Last updated: April 5, 2002