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.