Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
Michael Bryant: Max Staefel
Photos
Quotes
-
[Chips and Staefel are discussing Katie, Chips's new wife]
Max Staefel : Oh, dear fellow, dear fellow, I hope you've been wise.
Chips : Of course, I've been wise you old idiot.
Max Staefel : A pretty face is not everything, you know, dear fellow. There's so many questions of temperament and suitability.
Chips : "Suitability?" That's a horrible word, Max. It isn't even in the dictionary.
Max Staefel : It's in Webster.
Chips : Oh, Webster. Are you implying she's unsuitable to me?
Max Staefel : I'm simply wondering is she's suitable... as your wife.
-
[after Katie flees to London, afraid she will cause a scandal for Chips]
Chips : That's a bloody silly word! "Suitability."
Max Staefel : I didn't invent it.
Chips : How do *I* know?
Max Staefel : It's in Webster!
Chips : Well, I'm not going to let it happen, Max!
[Chips runs down the street and jumps onto a passing bus, headed for London. Clinging to the side of the bus, he shouts back]
Chips : Apollo has willed it!
-
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!
-
Chips : He plainly thinks I'm a bloody sadist.
Max Staefel : My dear fellow, that's the first time I ever heard you swear.
Chips : There has to be a first time for everything.
-
Max Staefel : What do they call you?
Chips : "Ditchie."
Max Staefel : Ditchie? That's not too bad.
Chips : It's short for "ditchwater," and that is a simile for "dull."
-
Max Staefel : I don't think the boys do dislike you.
Chips : Yes, they do. I can't blame them. If I were one of them, I'd dislike myself, I think.
-
Chips : What is a worse failure than a teacher who can't make his pupils grasp the importance of what he has to teach? Can you answer me that?
Max Staefel : Yes. A teacher who doesn't try to.
-
Price : My dear Baxter, what an absurd fuss over a game of tennis.
Max Staefel : A game of tennis? It is the final of the Junior Cup.
Price : It's still a game of pat-ball over a net with a piece of framed catgut - and an unworthy subject for a quarrel between housemasters.
-
Chips : It was all rather a pity. Until that moment, I'd found her really, rather surprisingly, civilized. Tiny little thing, very pretty hair. But, why pick on me? An old stick in the mud.
Max Staefel : It's a very accurate description of you.
Chips : Don't rub it in, Max.
-
Max Staefel : Oh, dear fellow. I do hope you've been wise.
Chips : Of course I've been wise, you old idiot.
-
Max Staefel : The world has grown a little unlovely, don't you think? No, of course you don't. How lucky you English are. And how little you always appreciate it.