Goodbye, Mr. Chips Page #11

I was kissing my wife.

Oh, heh, heh. Why?

I don't know, really.

It somehow seemed a good idea

at the time.

Oh, yes, well...

Well, gentlemen, I think we're all agreed.

It only remains tor me

to congratulate Mr. Baxter...

...on his appointment

to the National Education Commission.

Mr. Chipping's here, sir.

- Send him in, Jenkins, please.

- Very good, sir.

Ah, Mr. Chipping, do come in.

Take a seat.

I think you know everybody here.

I don't expect you've heard that Baxter

is leaving us at the end of the term...

...for an important state appointment.

No, I haven't.

Nor had we, till yesterday.

Well, Chipping, I'm happy to tell you

that I am in a position...

...in full agreement with my colleagues...

In fairly full agreement

with my colleagues.

...To offer you, at long last, the position

which I and some of my colleagues...

...regretted we could not offer you

in 1939.

- Katherine!

- Wish me luck.

- I've something to tell you.

- What?

I've been made headmaster!

I can't hear you, tell me later.

Bye.

Look out, Chips.

Sit, boys.

I am extremely sorry

for having kept you waiting.

No doubt you all found

many useful ways of employing the time.

You in particular, Farley.

Yes, sir.

I've done my prep all over again.

I've no doubt at all.

Well, that being the case, you can begin.

Page 38, line 12.

Down.

Don't you think Hitler seems to be aiming

at us particularly today, sir?

You fancy a special order

has been sent out to the Luftwaffe?

"Get Farley at all costs"?

What's the principle

of a flying bomb, sir?

Ah, Farley, you don't divert me

quite so easily from Caesar's Gallic Wars.

If you'll turn to page 40...

...and begin at the bottom line.

you will have your answer.

I don't understand it, sir.

Gresham, would you do it?

This was the kind of fighting...

...in which the Germans

busied themselves.

- Oh, very good, sir.

- Yes, sir. very good.

- Pretty good.

- Very good.

You can see how these dead languages

can sometimes come to life again.

Now, Farley, back to page 38. Begin.

Please, sir, may we ask

a question, sir, first?

- We're all longing to know...

- What?

Well, if the rumor's true, sir.

that you've been made headmaster.

It's not really a question

you should ask or I answer.

But, yes, Farley.

it does happen to be true.

Quiet, please. Quiet.

I can only say I am very surprised.

very surprised, indeed.

Thank you all very much.

Now, Farley, your kindly interruption...

...has not saved you from translating

Caesar to me for the next five minutes.

Begin, please.

Our men attacked the enemy...

...so fiercely when...

When the signal was given.

Altogether now, one more time.

Oh, London is London

Come on, now.

London is London

There was a boy who.

when asked to translate into Latin...

...Tennyson's beautiful lines:

Break, break, break

On thy cold grey stones, O sea!

Came up with:

Oh, fluctus, fluctus

rumperty, rumperty, jam

He's now a bishop.

- Hitler's shut up shop for the night.

- Yes, Farley, but we haven't.

This is a double hour.

and we still have another 20 minutes.

Enter.

Excuse me, sir.

Would you be Mr. Chipping?

- Yes.

- Could I see you alone for a moment, sir?

Certainly, officer.

Gresham?

Look, chaps. I've got a marvellous idea.

Let's play a joke on him.

Let's write him letters of congratulation

and put them on his desk.

- We haven't time.

- We don't need to write anything.

Folded up bits of paper with

"headmaster of Brookfield" on them.

Well, come on.

I've put something in mine.

Wanna hear it?

- No.

- I put:

"Gosh, they must be hard up

for headmasters these days."

Sir?

Sir?

Yes?

There are some letters on your desk.

- Letters?

- Yes, you've got your elbow on them.

But there's nothing inside.

Look at the other side, sir.

"Headmaster of Brookfield."

Mrs. Chips. She's been killed.

Could I have mine back, please, sir?

What?

Farley.

Yours back, why?

I'd just like it back, sir.

That's the one.

You've got it in your hand.

Don't lead it, sir.

Why not?

"Gosh, they must be hard up...

...for headmasters these days."

I didn't mean it, sir.

But it's perfectly true.

It was a...

...joke, sir.

Yes, a joke.

Wouldn't you like to go home, sir?

No.

We, uh...

We still have another 10 minutes

to the bell.

Would one of you be good enough...

...to translate?

Such things being so...

...hostages were...

Hostages having been exchanged.

And now, before passing to the events

of the corning school week...

...I hope you will forgive me if I make

an announcement regarding myself.

This is the last time

I will be addressing you as headmaster.

Like so many others, my services

have come to an end with the war...

...and next term.

you'll have another headmaster.

Shame.

Well, I thank the boy who said, "Shame."

But if it was the boy

I think it was, Farley, T.F...

...I must tell you, he is by nature

a little prone to exaggerate.

I may remind him I once had occasion

to reprimand him for exaggeration.

I gave him one mark for an exercise,

and he exaggerated it into seven.

- We all know Farley.

- I'm giving him too.

Well, now. I thank you all, then.

but I beg to remind you...

...that I haven't really been

headmaster at all.

Just acting, temporary, on probation.

Oh, yes, I know my portrait's up there

with all the others...

...but it's an awful fraud

and quite a puzzle for posterity.

"How did he ever get up there?"

they'll ask themselves.

Well...

...it jolly well needed a world

war to do it. I could tell them.

Anyway, that war is over.

And now we face the future, you and I.

I know mine, but I don't know yours.

You're growing up into a new world.

a very exciting world, perhaps...

...but for sure a very changed world.

It may even be a world

that has no place for Brookfield.

At least, not for the Brookfield

I have known for so many years...

...and you still know now.

Well, if such changes

do come to our school...

...you must accept them...

...without lancer or bitterness.

As for me, I won't have

to accept any changes at all, will I?

Because Brookfield for me

will be only memories.

And they can't change

an old chap's memories...

...however hard they try.

They are memories

that I will always cherish...

...and for which I am now

most truly and deeply grateful.

Oh, uh, just one thing more.

I'm not leaving Brookfield altogether.

I'm taking looms in the town.

Thank you.

Well...

When you come to see me in after years,

as I hope some of you will...

...and you're all very gland and grown-up.

I may well not recognize you...

...and you'll say.

"Poor old boy, his memory's gone."

But you see,

I will remember you all perfectly well...

...because I will remember you

as you are now.

That's the point.

In my mind, you'll never grow up at all.

I get older, and so do all of them...

...but you always stay the same...

...and you always will.

And in that, I shall find...

...great comfort in the days to come.

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