34-year-old Robert Donat ages 63 years (1870-1933) over the course of this movie. He remarked: "As soon as I put the mustache on, I felt the part, even if I did look like a great Airedale come out of a puddle."
Greer Garson's performance runs a little under 25 minutes, yet she received an Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category, one of the shortest performances to have been so nominated.
The life preservers on the Danube River steamboat are marked with the initials D.D.S.G. The letters stand for Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft, or Danube Steamboat Shipping Company, a real steamship line founded in 1829. As of 2023, it is still in business, operating passenger service as DDSG Blue Danube Gmbh.
The poster art depicts a youthful Robert Donat (as he appears in the early scenes of the movie) with the young Greer Garson. However, the two never appear together like this in the movie. Mr. Chips is about fifty when he first meets Katherine, who is about half his age.
After Mr. Chipping's retirement is announced and he receives the gift from the students, he gives a Latin quote, "...haec olim meminisse juvabit." It is a quote from Virgil's "Aeneid", in which Aeneas comforts his storm-ravaged troops. Translated in more modern terms, it comes out as, "Some day, perhaps, remembering even this will be a pleasure."