Robert Donat, the dashing sexy hero in Hitchcock's "The Thirty Nine Steps", here indulges a tendency to mawkishness in his portrayal of the dusty old schoolmaster which strays shaky foot by shaky foot into caricature. Popular American films of the period tended to emphasise, underline and signpost sentimentality and Donat gamely delivers. Perhaps it was all of a part with the sentimental popular music of the time - cosy and comforting. Hollywood though shortly afterwards produced "Arsenic and Old Lace" - a comedy of a blackness perhaps 30 years ahead of its time - a measure of its then openness and diversity.
Michael Palin's "American Friends" (1991) tells a very similar story to "Chips" but with subtlety, intelligence, beauty and a perfect recreation of English university life (in the 1860's). Dusty English schoolmasters are much more intelligently observed and portrayed in "The Browning Version". Robert Donat was both a star and a fine actor (see for example "The Citadel"). There is simply too much schmaltz in Mr Chips.
Michael Palin's "American Friends" (1991) tells a very similar story to "Chips" but with subtlety, intelligence, beauty and a perfect recreation of English university life (in the 1860's). Dusty English schoolmasters are much more intelligently observed and portrayed in "The Browning Version". Robert Donat was both a star and a fine actor (see for example "The Citadel"). There is simply too much schmaltz in Mr Chips.