Goodbye, Mr. Chips
The film rights to British novelist James Hilton's popular novelette "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" were obtained by M-G-M's Irving Thalberg after literary critic Alexander Wolcott's praise for the work helped popularize it in the United States. Wood traveled to England to make "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", the only professional sojourn of his career, part of an attempt by M-G-M to accommodate demands by British trade unions for a share of the lucrative American film exports market.