What should, by all rights, be a treacly story about a mediocre teacher at a tony British school who finds his true voice in middle-age when he opens his heart to a coltish, young wife and to his equally coltish students, is movingly brought off thanks to Robert Donat’s combination of restraint & impish wit. (Peter O’Toole would do equally well in the musical version, but his film was a mess.) Greer Garson & Paul Henreid each shine in supporting roles that brought them to Hollywood while Donat, who never gave a bad perf, refused all offers to leave the U.K. Megger Sam Wood, that most obliging of duffers, wisely lets the superb British techies run the show (lenser Freddie Young, art director Alfred Junge, editor Charles Frend) while the story's sentiment takes care of itself being both honest and well earned.
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