1939 teacher movie
Rating: 15/20
Plot: The career of a Latin teacher.
I only watched this because somebody tricked me into thinking it was an influence on my favorite television program, Saved by the Bell.
Though I'm skeptical this is really the "best picture of any year" as promised on the movie poster, it is amazingly good for how little actually happens. Mr. Chips' live and career are fairly unremarkable. He gets his job, has some initial troubles as all first-year teachers do, sticks with it, gains a little respect as some teachers do, meets a wife in a very sweet way, deals with personal tragedy and professional disappointment, dies. The performance of Robert Donat, who believably takes us through five or six decades of this character's life, keeps you watching despite much momentum with the plot.
"Silence, you imps!" I've added that to my own repository of "ways to silence imps" for my classroom. In fact, I might put it on a poster and hang it outside my classroom.
Some kid named Terry Kilburn plays about about seven generations of kids from the same family. Boy, did that imp have a punchable face. I'm too lazy to look up what happened to this child actor, but I imagine it was a life of drugs and scandal and an early death in a blimp accident.
The kids really are a bunch of pricks in this movie. I guess that manages to make Chips more endearing although this is coming from the perspective of a guy who does teach middle school.
No, on my deathbed, I will unlikely talk about my students as my own children. My last words are more likely to have something to do with Saved by the Bell.
Missed product placement opportunity: chips
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