Want to know why Clark Gable didn’t win the Best Actor Oscar for his work as Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind? This was the only Academy Award won for work on Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Robert Donat won the Best Actor Oscar, beating out Clark Gable (Gone With The Wind), James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Mickey Rooney (Babes in Arms), and Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights).
Goodbye, Mr. Chips won only one of their seven Academy Award nominations. Gone With The Wind won eight of their thirteen nominations. All but one of the six remaining nominations for Goodbye, Mr. Chips were won by Gone With The Wind. The exception was the award for Best Sound. Greer Garson was nominated for Best Actress for her work in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, even though she only had a few scenes, but she lost to Vivien Leigh for Gone With The Wind.
This was the very touching story of a man who worked at Brookfield school for over 50 years. Greer Garson played his wife, the woman who gave him hope. The last words of the old professor showed his commitment and enthusiasm for his job, and his devotion to children.
It was interesting to see the characters who sent children to that school for generations (many of them looked exactly alike). It was interesting to see how the students’ uniforms changed through the decades. A knowledge of fashion history would help you to know what time period the setting had changed to.
