Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)

Petula Clark: Katherine Bridges

Photos 

Quotes 

• Katie : [looking at a carving]  What does that mean?

  Chips : Gnothe seauthon. Know yourself. The watchword of Apollo.

  Katie : The god of prophecy.

  Chips : Amongst other things...

  [Later at the close of the scene] 

  Katie : [contemplating the temple she has visited]  Know yourself. That's quite a watchword. Gnothe seauthon.

  Chips : You're most retentive.

  Katie : Give me a good line and I can remember it.

• Katie : Sorry, am I going too fast for you?

  Chips : My dear young lady, I could easily go just as fast as you if I cared to risk a broken ankle and be carried back on a stretcher. It's extremely foolish to leap around in a ruined circus like a mountain goat. Especially in those shoes. These stones are very treacherous.

• Katie : Yes, well, you're very active for your age!

  Chips : Since you cannot conceivably know what my age is, your most flattering conviction, dear Miss Bridges, must be based on a somewhat conjectural premise.

  Katie : [laughs]  You've done it again. Now that's three times you've made me laugh. And only this morning I really did think I'd never laugh again. I suppose it's your being a schoolmaster.

  Chips : [insulted]  I fail to see what's so laughable about that.

  Katie : Well, no, it's not laughable. One doesn't laugh at people only because they're funny. Not some people, anyway.

• Chips : We must go in, dear. The headmaster always goes in last, and the boys always receive him standing and in silence.

  Katie : Sounds like a dream entrance.

• Katie : The headmaster's a darling. His wife's a bitch.

  Chips : That's not a word we use at Brookfield.

  Katie : You should I think.

• Katie : No, the allusion was to the stage which used to be my profession.

  Headmaster : Indeed.

  Headmaster's Wife : You're an actress, Mrs. Chipping?

  Katie : Well, not even my best friends would call me that.

  Headmaster's Wife : [snidely]  Aw, and what would they call you?

  Katie : A soubrette. That's the girl in musical comedy who sings the big number and, in the end, loses the man.

  [Chuckles] 

  Katie : In real life, they nearly always end up the wives of earls. I nearly did. But luckily... I met Chips.

• Chips : I refuse utterly to become the secret lover of a well-known actress.

  Katie : Who said lover?

  Chips : Well, friend, I would like to be.

  Katie : Who said friend?

  Chips : What is there between lover and friend?

  Katie : Husband?

• Katie : Ursula, darling, you must see the bell tower. And here's your guide

  [pointing to Herr Staefel] 

  Katie : .

  Ursula : The bell tower?

  [realizing Katie's unspoken intention] 

  Ursula : Oh, yes, of course... the bell tower!

  [laughs] 

  Ursula : [Later...] 

  Max Staefel : I hope you like early English perpendicular.

  Ursula : Darling, I revel in early English perpendicular!

• Katie : By the way, how do you know she isn't here?

  Calbury : She?

  Katie : The girl the Evening News said you were going to marry?

  Calbury : Oh, yes. I saw that. Me and Penelope Fitzdouglas. Isn't it ridiculous?

  Katie : [annoyed]  Sidesplitting.

• Katie : I'm going to ask Apollo a question.

  Chips : You mustn't ask a personal question, well, not a specific one like uh...

  Katie : Like "Will Bill Calbury come back to me?" No (sighs), I won't bore Apollo with that, I promise you.

• Katie : I'm so terribly sorry about being late. Chips says it's almost as bad as being off your number.

  Headmaster : I'm afraid I don't quite understand that allusion, Mrs. Chipping.

  Katie : Oh, Mrs. Chipping! I just love when I'm called that.

  Headmaster : And you are that, yes?

  Katie : Oh, yes! Well and truly! Well, unless Chips is a bigamist which I rather suspect. How else could he have escaped... until now?

• Chips : You are William C. Belfridge's ward. Miss Katherine Bridges.

  Katie : Now that's wrong, too. It's not my real name. My real name is... now you won't laugh, will you? It's Brisket.

  Chips : Charmingly Anglo-Saxon.

• Johnny Longbridge : This is Chips. I told you about him, remember?

  Katie : Of course. Hasn't he any other name?

  Johnny Longbridge : Well, if he has, I can't remember it.

  Katie : Then I'd better call you Mr. Chips. That's rather a nice name. How do you do, Mr. Chips?

  Chips : How do you do, Miss Bridges?

• Katie : What will you think of me?

  Johnny Longbridge : Nothing. Except that you're a terrible muddler of dates, that's all. And I've known that for ages.

• Katie : [singing]  You can have Paris, And Venice and Rome, But London is London, Is London is England, Is home...

• Johnny Longbridge : Goodbye, Katie. Marvelous seeing you. Goodbye.

  Chips : Goodbye, Miss Bridges.

  Katie : Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

• Chips : My name is Chipping.

  Katie : Mine is Bridges. Golly. Well, one thing's fairly certain. We'd never be cast opposite each other.

• Katie : There's nothing more awful than being bothered by somebody when you really want is to be on your own. Nobody knows that better than me. Sorry. Than I.

• Chips : Good gracious, you're not the girl in that awful--ly jolly musical comedy?

  Katie : Oh, thank you for making me laugh. It's the first time I have for over a month. Cheers.

  Chips : Cheers. I didn't mean it as funny.

  Katie : Well, no, if you had, I wouldn't have laughed.

• Katie : Well, it's been really thrilling to be shown around Paestum by the world's greatest authority on ancient Greece.

  Chips : I am *not* the world's greatest authority on ancient Greece, just one of them.

• Katie : Oh, what a wonderful day it's been.

  Chips : Yes. Yes, indeed. Quite wonderful.

  Katie : Can't we make it a wonderful night too?

  Chips : Ah. Well, as it happens, Miss Bridges, for tomorrow, I have a rather tight curriculum.

  Katie : Well, loosen it. Tonight, Mr. Chips, you and I are going to make whoopee.

  Chips : The term is new to me. What does it mean?

• Katie : Oh, Mr. Chips. You really are, well, Mr. Chips.

• Katie : Look, Mr. Chips. Seems to me you've learned just about everything - but you haven't learned the first thing about me. Ever heard of a captain who hates the sea? That's me. I. Only with I, me, it's the theatre. You tell me the show must go on and what do I answer? Why?

• Katie : Come on. There's so much left to see before the sun goes down on us.

  [singing] 

  Katie : A million planets, Were swimming in the sky, I only saw the sun, A million faces drifted by, Suddenly, there was one, Filling my mind, Like the day was filled with sun, Telling my heart, My life had just begun...

• Chips : When the drink has worn off, do you imagine that I would give up my profession, my true vocation, as you know it is, to come to London to live in your house, off your money, amongst all those awful Ursulas and bright young things? No. Dear Miss Bridges, I'm sorry to turn down a suggestion which most men would give up everything for. But I'm a schoolmaster - and a schoolmaster is all I ever want to be.

  Katie : Well, now, isn't that convenient? Because all I ever want to be is a schoolmaster's wife.

• Chips : Who was that lady I just had the pleasure of meeting?

  Katie : Ursula? She's just Ursula.

  Chips : Indeed.

  Katie : Very famous actress, Ursula Mossbank. But, well, she's just Ursula.

  Chips : She seemed just Ursula.

• Katie : Now I know. Not that I needed to, but now I know for sure.

  Chips : What?

  Johnny Longbridge : [Katie kisses Chips, Johnny to Chips]  Well, If that's how you do your best for me, I'd be interested to see how you do your worst.

  Chips : My dear old fellow, you really mustn't leap to insane conclusions.

  Johnny Longbridge : It wasn't a very long leap, was it? Anyway, it's not insane. If she won't have me, and she won't, you're much the next best thing. It's very sane, I think, for both of you.

  Katie : Go away, Johnny. You're putting a large foot in it. Let me handle things.

• Katie : When you love, you don't choose, do you?

• Chips : There's a certain tendency to tastelessness in your jokes. Humor ceases to be humor.

  Katie : Hello, Mr. Chips.

• Katie : You think I ran away from you because of sheer, paralyzing bloody funk?

  Chips : Yes.

  Katie : You don't think it might'n have been just because I love you?

  Chips : Yes, but it was still funk.

• Katie : Your grammar is too perfect - and your prose style too impeccable.

  Chips : You can't qualify superlatives.

  Katie : Can't you?

  Chips : Well, you can, if you want to. You can do anything if you want to.

• Katie : Ursula, we must go.

  Ursula : We? You're not taking him? Of course, you two are married or something, aren't you?

  Chips : Married, madam. and quite definitely not something.

  Ursula : I adore this man. When you've finished with him, Katie, lend him to me.

• Chips : It's unlucky for you, isn't it, that I've nipped your pranks in the bud? Yes, Mrs. Chipping? And what precisely do you have to say to that?

  Katie : How do you nip a prank in the bud?

• Katie : I'm so grateful to you for coming.

  Ursula : Oh, darling, it's divine of you to ask me. Parents' Day, my dear, what could be more riveting?

  Katie : Yes.

  Ursula : And there are the boys. I hope there are lots more.

• Chips : There's a lesson in it all somewhere. I suppose.

  Katie : Yes.

  Chips : If only I knew what it was.

• Katie : On his knees, eh? Well, that's just where he should be to my husband.

• Katie : [singing]  Growing older, growing closer, Making memories that light the sky...