Goodbye, Mr. Chips

He was arguably the most refined, and versatile of all English film stars in the history of British cinema. Sir John Mills, the Oscar®-winning actor whose film career spanned over 70 years, died on April 23 of natural causes in London. He was 97. Born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills in Norfolk, England on February 22, 1908. His father was a headmaster of a village school in Suffolk, where Mills was raised. After secondary school, he worked as a clerk in a corn merchant's office while acting in amateur dramatic societies. Ever ambitious, he relocated to London in 1928 to find more work as an actor. He took tap-dancing lessons and made his stage debut as a chorus boy in The Five O'Clock Girl at the London Hippodrome in 1929. Later that year, he joined an acting troupe that toured India and the Far East with a repertory of modern plays, musical comedies and Shakespeare. It was during this tour when he scored his big break - he was spotted by Noel Coward while in Singapore and promptly taken under the playwright's wing when he returned to London in 1931. On his return, he starred on the West End (London's Broadway), in Coward's Cavalcade and earned the lead in a production of Charley's Aunt. His song and dance talents came in handy for his film debut, an early British musical-comedy The Midshipmaid (1932). His biggest hits over the next few years would all fall into the genre of light comic-musicals: Britannia of Billingsgate (1933), Royal Cavalcade (1935), and Four Dark Hours(1937). He scored a his first big part as Robert Donat's student in the MGM backed production Mills went on to play Robert Donat's Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). He developed some more heft to his acting credentials that same year when he made his debut at the celebrated Old Vic Theatre as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He served briefly in the Navy, 1940-41, during World War II before receiving a medical discharge. When Mills returned to the screen, he began a great turn as the atypical sturdy, dignified Englishman ("English without tears" went the popular phrase of the day). He starred as a stalwart lead in a amazing string of hit films: In Which We Serve (1942), We Dive at Dawn (1943), This Happy Breed (1944), The Way to the Stars (1945), and Waterloo Road (1945). Although Mills was ever dependable, they did not show his breakout talents until he starred as Pip in David Lean's gorgeous adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1946). As the young orphan who morphs into a man of wealth and stature, Mills showed the depth as an actor by offering a finely modulated performance. By the late '40s, Mills was a bona fide star of British films, and over the next decade the strong roles kept coming: as the ill-fated Robert Falcon Scott in Scott of the Antarctic (1948); Bassett, the handy man who tries to help a troubled child (the brilliant John Howard Davies) of greedy, neglectful parents in the superb domestic drama The Rocking Horse Winner (1950); an overprotective father who gets trapped in a murder yarn in Mr. Denning Drives North (1952); a fine Willie Mossop in David Lean's Hobson's Choice (1954); an impressive "against-type" performance as a Russian peasant in War and Peace (1956); a sympathetic police inspector coaxing the trust of a juvenile (his daughter Hayley) who knows the facts of a murder case in the underappreciated Tiger Bay (1959); a rowdy Australian sheep shearer in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (also 1959); and arguably his finest performance - a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for a hard-as-nails army colonel who fears the loss of control over his regiment in Tunes of Glory (1960). The mid-60s saw an isolated effort as a film director: Gypsy Girl (which starred his other daughter Juliet - who would later find fame on US television in Nanny and the Professor (1970-72); and showed the development of Mills into a charming character actor: the working-class patriarch in the modest comedy The Family Way (starring Hayley as his daughter); and a terrific comic bit as a murderous Lord who tries to kill off his kin for the family inheritance in Bryan Forbes The Wrong Box (all 1966). By the '70s, his film work slowed considerably, but he was always worth watching: an Oscar winning performance as a mute villager in David Lean¿s study of the Irish troubles Ryan's Daughter (1970); as the influential General Herbert Kitchener Young Winston (1972); and as a driven oil driller in Oklahoma Crude (1973). With the exception of a small role in Sir Richard Attenborough's Ghandi (1982 - where he was credited as Sir John Mills after his knighthood in 1976), and a regrettable cameo in the deplorable Madonna comedy Who's That Girl (1987). Very little was seen of Mills until recent years, where the most memorable of his appearances included: Old Norway in Hamlet (1996); as the stern chairman opposite Rowan Atkinson in the hit comedy Bean (1997); and - in a daring final role for his proud career - a nonagenarian partygoing cocaine user in Stephen Fry's bawdy social satire Bright Young Things (2003)! Mills is survived by his wife of 64 years, the novelist and playwright Mary Hayley Bell; his daughters, Juliet and Hayley; son, John; and several grandchildren. by Michael T. Toole

MGM invaded England and conquered the hearts of the world when it transferred one of production chief Irving G. Thalberg's last projects to the studio - the recently acquired studios in Denham. Although owning a studio in England must have had a special charm for studio head Louis B. Mayer, a renowned Anglophile, the move was purely economic. England operated under a quota system that required a strict balance between British and imported films. By shooting some films in England, MGM could get more of its pictures into the sceptered isle. Denham had already given MGM two hits in 1938: A Yank at Oxford, starring Robert Taylor as an American student abroad, and The Citadel, with Robert Donat as a young doctor led astray by riches and social prestige. The latter was such a big hit, that Mayer chose Donat over Brian Aherne and Charles Laughton for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), now on DVD from Warner Video. Donat had appeared in American films, but only sporadically, following his international success in Alfred Hitchcock's 1934 The 39 Steps. But ill health had cost him the lead in Captain Blood (1935) while his devotion to the stage led him to refuse other offers. With Goodbye, Mr. Chips, which allowed him to age from 25 to 83, he had the part for which he would always be remembered. It even made him a surprise Oscar®winner in 1939, the year when Gone With the Wind swept the Academy Awards® Clark Gable was considered a major contender for Best Actor. To play Chips's wife, Kathy, MGM needed an actress with just the right combination of gentility and high spirits. Elizabeth Allan, who had played the mother in David Copperfield (1935) was originally considered for the role. Then Rosalind Russell was assigned the female lead in The Citadel, a role first assigned to Allan. The actress sued for breach of contract, effectively ending her Hollywood career. With no leading lady in mind, director Sam Wood started looking through old screen tests. Then he spotted the test for a beautiful Irish actress Louis B. Mayer had discovered in London. Greer Garson was already on the lot, but had had nothing to do since signing with MGM. She thought she'd soon be headed back to England a total failure, but instead returned as the star of a major motion picture. The film would establish her as MGM's top female star and win her the first of seven Oscar® nominations (she would win in 1942 for another British story, Mrs. Miniver). Goodbye, Mr. Chips did location shooting at the Repton School, founded in 1557. This was considered such a great honor for the school that students and teachers gave up their summer vacations to appear in crowd scenes and otherwise help out on the production. Their sacrifice was amply rewarded when the film became the biggest hit yet from the Denham studio. The Warner DVD of Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a reasonably good presentation though the print looks slightly grainy compared to other recent DVD releases from MGM's glory years. The audio has been cleaned up considerably and even though it contains no extras it's well worth the investment for anyone who cherishs this version. For more information about Goodbye, Mr. Chips, visit Warner Video. To order Goodbye, Mr. Chips, go to TCM Shopping. by Frank Miller