BEFORE: Carrying the theme over again, this is another film about a teacher - but not one in London's seediest neighborhood, tonight it's a teacher in one of England's most prestigious prep schools (boarding schools?). I didn't realize there were multiple versions of this film when I recorded it, so I ended up with the 1969 version, I hope that's all right. Linking from "To Sir, With Love", Sidney Poitier was also in the documentary "Sing Your Song" with Petula Clark.
THE PLOT: A shy, withdrawn English schoolteacher falls for a flashy showgirl.
AFTER: My mother was an elementary school music teacher for over 40 years, so I do think this portrait film rang true. Sometimes my family would be out at a restaurant and someone would approach the table after recognizing her, and they would need to re-introduce themselves, because the last time my Mom saw them they were only 10 or 11 years old. One of her students even grew up and married my cousin, then found out his old music teacher was now his wife's aunt.
My Dad worked as a truck driver, which only shows that people from different worlds can fall for each other, which this film also demonstrates by matching the schoolteacher with a stage actress, who has something of a checkered past. She could have any man in London, but she longs for the quiet life that being a headmaster's wife could provide. He doesn't seem to fit in anyway with her wild, rambunctious, sexually open theater friends, anyway. I guess pre-war Berlin wasn't the only place they were letting it all hang out, pre-war London was apparently pretty hip too.
By making one of the characters a stage actress, this was a sneaky way of staging a musical - her on-stage performances acting as the "play within a play". But also, from time to the time the lead characters got all sentimental and broke into song, which seemed a little out of place. But when you've got a great singer like Petula Clark, it makes sense to use her vocal talent whenever you can. Peter O'Toole, not so much, but they tried anyway.
Like the teacher in "To Sir, With Love", the schoolmaster here prides himself on discipline - perhaps that's just the British way, and that's what all those angry youth ended up rebelling against in the Pink Floyd videos. But the emphasis here is on the schoolwork, the Latin translations (because THAT came in handy later in life...) and putting in that extra hour of class every day, even if it meant the kids missed their sports.
The implication is that something softened in Mr. Chips when his soon-to-be wife broke down that wall in his stodgy English character, and though he was still a disciplinarian, suddenly the kids didn't regard him as being so dull once he had an attractive younger wife. Once she got to know the boys and got involved with the school talent show and such, Chips probably began to seem more human. Remember when you found out your grade-school teachers were just regular people, and had personal lives and such?
This got a bit maudlin as Mr. Chips got older and more reflective about his place in the school and society in general, and he wondered if he made any difference, where a few thousand boys would probably chime in to say that he did. And once he started teaching the sons and then grandsons of his original students - as I told my Mom, that's probably the point you should consider packing it in.
Also starring Peter O'Toole (last seen in "How to Steal a Million"), Michael Redgrave, George Baker (last seen in "The Spy Who Loved Me"), Sian Philipps (the real-life Mrs. Peter O'Toole at the time), Michael Culver (hey, it's Captain Needa from "The Empire Strikes Back", cool!)
RATING: 5 out of 10 Roman ruins
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