Goodbye, Mr Chips (1969)

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milk114 · #1 Post by **milk114** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:17 pm

Anyone know anything about this MGM film being released anytime soon? I'm guessing it's now owned by Warner. I can't find anything anywhere about it, other than that some people really dislike the film and others have a big soft spot for it.

Gordon · #2 Post by **Gordon** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:25 pm

As an O'Toole fanatic, I love it, but I also love Ken Adam's sets and Ossie Morris' cinematography is gorgeous.

Rex Harrison and Samantha Eggar were the first choices, but were replaced by Richard Burton and Lee Remick, but when Petula Clark was nominated for a Golden Globe for Finian's Rainbow, she got the role of Katherine Bridges, but Dick wasn't happy and walked, so O'Toole gladly stepped in - and all the better for the film. I love Dick (ooh, missus!) but he wouldn't have been right for the role.

The 1939 film is a gem, but the 1969 film is almost a wholly different creature - a lush color-scope, 7-track stereo, musical clocking in at 152 minutes and released at a time when audiences were becoming increasingly bored with such films and wanting tougher, sexier, anti-something films and fair enough, I suppose. But as time has past, many of the maligned films of that period have revealed themselves to be great sunday afternoon treasures (Waterloo, Ryan's Daughter, The Molly Maguires, Anne of the Thousand Days, etc) and a reappraisal of Goodbye, Mr. Chips is overdue. Seeing it in a gorgeous 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer in 5.1 would be a real treat, folks. Input from Ossie Morris would be great. I am still slightly surprised that Warner haven't released it on DVD yet, though. Problems with the elements, perhaps?

tryavna · #3 Post by **tryavna** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:51 am

Actually, I agree with Gordon that's it's a beautifully filmed movie, and most of the performances are fine. The main problem for me is that the musical numbers are just so awful! In fact, in that regard, it suffers the same fate as that other James Hilton musical remake: Lost Horizon. Two promising opportunities frittered away!

Gordon · #4 Post by **Gordon** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:15 pm

I have not seen the musical of Lost Horizon, but another dodgy musical remake is Man of La Mancha (1972, Arthur Hiller) where the only saving grace is Giuseppe Rotunno's sumptuous cinematography. Musical remakes of well-established plays or movies is an immensely tricky business and as I am not a fan of musicals in general, I have avoided most of them over the years, but I do love De Palma's, The Phantom of the Paradise.

shearerchic · #5 Post by **shearerchic** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 10:18 pm

Warners said that it was gonna come out maybe in Spring 07.

Gordon · #6 Post by **Gordon** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:48 pm

Great! When and where did they announce this?

shearerchic · #7 Post by **shearerchic** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:03 am

Gordon wrote:Great! When and where did they announce this?

LOL! Earlier in February in the HTF chat.

#8 Post by **Jeff** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 2:51 am

shearerchic wrote:
Gordon wrote:Great! When and where did they announce this?
Earlier in February in the HTF chat.

Warner reps wrote:We're thinking about spring 2007 for the Clark/O'Toole Mr. Chips, but it's only tentative at this point. It will be from a lovely new transfer.

chizbooga · #9 Post by **chizbooga** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:32 pm

i caught this on TCM about two months ago and it stayed with me. i was really surprised at how well done it was considering everything ive heard about it. it was really beautifully directed, herbert ross seems to be one of the best of the Hollywood hacks, almost in the class Of Sydney Pollack, and o'toole and sian phillips were both absolutely amazing. and i found the musical numbers inoffensive - they were so incredibly bland i barely experienced them at all, and they thankfully weren't so horribly 'catchy' as the andrew lloyd webber-type music they resemble. yup, terrific flick.

Goodbye, Mr Chips (1969)

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