A Canterbury Tale

A Canterbury Tale
US theatrical poster (1949)
Directed by	Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
Written by	Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
Produced by	Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
Starring	Eric Portman Sheila Sim Dennis Price Kim Hunter[a] Sgt John Sweet
Cinematography	Erwin Hillier
Edited by	John Seabourne Sr.
Music by	Allan Gray
Distributed by	General Film Distributors
Release dates	21 August 1944 (UK) 21 January 1949 (US)
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

A Canterbury Tale is a 1944 British film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played two small roles. For the post-war American release, Raymond Massey narrated and Kim Hunter was added to the film. The film was made in black and white, and was the first of two collaborations between Powell and Pressburger and cinematographer Erwin Hillier.

Much of the film's visual style is a mixture of British realism and Hillier's

The story concerns three young people: British Army Sergeant Peter Gibbs (Dennis Price), U.S. Army Sergeant Bob Johnson (played by real-life Sergeant John Sweet), and a "Land Girl", Miss Alison Smith (Sheila Sim). The group arrive at the railway station in the fictitious small Kent town of Chillingbourne (filmed in Chilham, Fordwich, Wickhambreaux and other villages in the area), near Canterbury, late on Friday night, 27 August 1943. Peter has been stationed at a nearby Army camp, Alison is due to start working on a farm in the area, and Bob left the train by mistake, hearing the announcement "next stop Canterbury" and thinking he was in Canterbury.

As they leave the station together Alison is attacked by an assailant in uniform, who pours glue on her hair before escaping. It transpires that this has happened to other women, and the mystery attacker is known locally as "the glue man". Alison asks Bob if he will spend the weekend in Chillingbourne to help her solve the mystery. The next day, while riding a farm cart in the countryside, Alison meets Peter, who surrounds her cart with his platoon of three

The three use their detective skills to identify the culprit as a local magistrate, Thomas Colpeper (Eric Portman), a gentleman farmer and pillar of the community, who also gives local history lectures to soldiers stationed in the district. Alison interviews all the glue man's victims to identify the dates and times of their attacks. Gibbs visits Colpeper at his home and steals the fire watch roster listing the nights Colpeper was on duty in the town hall, whilst a paper drive for salvage by Johnson's boy commandos lets Johnson discover receipts for gum used to make glue sold to Colpeper. The dates of the attacks correspond with Colpeper's night watches, for which he wore a Home Guard uniform kept in the town hall.

On their train journey to Canterbury on the Monday morning, Colpeper joins the three in their compartment. They confront him with their suspicions, which he does not deny, and they discover that his motive is to prevent the soldiers from being distracted from his lectures by female company, as well as to help keep the local women faithful to their absent British boyfriends. In Colpeper's words, Chaucer's pilgrims travelled to Canterbury to "receive a blessing or to do penance". On arriving in the city of Canterbury, devastated by wartime bombing, all three young people receive blessings of their own. Alison discovers that her boyfriend, believed killed in the war, has survived after all; his father, who had blocked their marriage because he thought his son could do better than a shopgirl, finally relents. Bob receives long-delayed letters from his sweetheart, who is now a WAC in Australia. Peter, a cinema organist before the war, gets to play the music of Johann Sebastian Bach on the large organ at Canterbury Cathedral, before leaving with his unit. He decides not to report Colpeper to the Canterbury police, as he had planned to do.

Cast

• magistrate
  in Chillingbourne. He is a bachelor, living with his mother and, being very keen on the local history of the area, wants to share that knowledge with everyone around him, particularly with the soldiers from elsewhere in Britain who have been billeted nearby.
• invasion of Europe. He becomes more and more willing to learn something about England during his visit. The original script mentioned that Johnson was on his way to Canterbury as his ancestors had come from there.^[1] The producers had originally planned to use Burgess Meredith in the role but changed their mind in favour of an unknown. Meredith acted as a script editor for Johnson's character.^[1]
• Dennis Price as Sgt Peter Gibbs, a cinema organist from London. He has been conscripted into the British Army and has just been stationed at the military camp outside Chillingbourne, where his unit is engaged in training manoeuvres.
• Flying Fortress
  ".
• Charles Hawtrey
  as Thomas Duckett, the town's stationmaster.
• Esmond Knight as Narrator/Seven-Sisters Soldier/Village Idiot. The Narrator reads the modernised extract from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, followed by a piece in Chaucerian style on the changes to Kent since Chaucer's time (both only in the original version).
• George Merritt as Ned Horton and Edward Rigby as Jim Horton, play the blacksmith and the wheelwright. The real Horton brothers, Ben and Neville, are seen acting as assistants to the actors.
• Hay Petrie as Woodcock.
• Freda Jackson as Mrs Prudence Honeywood, the farming woman who employs Alison.
• Eliot Makeham as the church organist in Canterbury.
• Betty Jardine as Fee Baker.
• Harvey Golden as Sgt Roczinsky, Bob Johnson's friend in Canterbury.
• Leonard Smith (Leslie) James Tamsitt (Terry) and David Todd (David), play among the group of boys enjoying an adventure and river battle in a bucolic setting. All of them were local to the Canterbury area. Smith, Tamsitt and Todd were selected for speaking roles.
• Beresford Egan as PC Ovenden.
• Anthony Holles as Sergt. Bassett.
• Maude Lambert as Miss Grainger.
• Wally Bosco as ARP man.
• Charles Paton as Ernie Brooks.
• Jane Millican as Susanna Foster.
• John Slater as Sergt. Len.
• Michael Golden as Sergt. Smale.
• Graham Moffatt as Sergt. 'Stuffy'.
• Mary Line as Leslie's mother.
• Winifred Swaffer as Mrs Horton.
• Michael Howard as Archie.
• Judith Furse as Dorothy Bird.
• Barbara Waring as Polly Finn.
• Jean Shepeard as Gwladys Swinton.
• Margaret Scudamore as Mrs Colpeper.
• Joss Ambler as Police Inspector.
• Jessie James as Waitress.
• Kathleen Lucas as a passer- by.
• H. F. Maltby as Mr Portal.
• Eric Maturin as Geoffrey's father.
• Parry Jones jnr as Arthur.
• Kim Hunter as Johnson's Girl (American release).
• Raymond Massey as Narrator (American version) (voice).
• Esma Cannon as Agnes the maid.

Production

Writing

Powell and Pressburger, who were known collectively as "The Archers", wrote the script together, linking the concepts of landscape and history (light and time) with the personal journey of three people—the pilgrims—to show a basis of common identity.

Several Kent villages including Chilham, Wickhambreaux, Fordwich and Wingham were used for scenes showing the fictional village of Chillingbourne. Selling Station appears in the film as Chillingbourne Station at the beginning of the film. Chilham Mill features in the film in the scene where GI Bob meets children playing in the river on a boat and later, with Peter, when they get the proof about Colpeper. The scene where soldiers gather for a lecture at the Colpepper Institute was filmed in Fordwich. As Bob and Alison ride on a cart through the village, Wickham Mill, Wickhambreaux, can be clearly seen. Colpeper's house was Wickhambreaux Court. A local Wingham village pub "The Red Lion" was used for some exterior shots of "The Hand of Glory" inn where Bob stays whilst in the village.^[5] Other exterior shots of "The Hand of Glory" were filmed at "The George and Dragon", Fordwich.^[1]

Before the credits, the following acknowledgement appears over an image of the cathedral viewed from the Christ Church Gate,

The Archers gratefully acknowledge the invaluable help and advice given to them by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, the Very Reverend the Dean of St Albans, the Mayor and Corporation of Canterbury, the Women's Land Army, and by the United States Army. They also thank the citizens of Canterbury and men and women of Kent who helped to make the film.

Soundtrack

Besides that composed by Allan Gray for the film, musical works featured include:

• "
  Angelus ad Virginem
  " mid-15th century polyphony heard as a peal of bells in orchestral guise under the opening titles
• "Commando Patrol" by Allan Gray, Stan Bowsher,
  Walter Ridley
  – quickstep heard in the background during Johnson and Gibbs's scene in the lobby of the Hand of Glory
• "I See You Everywhere" by Allan Gray, Stan Bowsher, Walter Ridley – slow foxtrot heard in the background during Johnson and Gibbs's scene in the lobby of the Hand of Glory
• "Turkey in the Straw" – folksong heard as Agnes leaves Bob's bedroom
• "Come to the Church in the Wild Wood" – Bob sings as he washes
• "Hear my prayer, O Lord" by Henry Purcell – the ethereal choral music heard as Gibbs pauses on entering the cathedral
• "Bond of Friendship" – Regimental March of the King's Division. Played as the band nears the Cathedral
• Onward Christian Soldiers
  " – played on the organ by Gibbs

Reception

The world premiere was held on 11 May 1944 at the Friars' Cinema (later the second site of the Marlowe Theatre, now demolished), Canterbury, England, an event commemorated there by a plaque unveiled by stars Sheila Sim and John Sweet in October 2000.^[6] Although the film initially had very poor reviews in the UK press,^[7] and only small audiences, it became a moderate success at the British box office in 1944.^[8]

The film was the first production of