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A Canterbury Tale

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A Canterbury Tale
File:A Canterbury Tale.jpg
A Canterbury Tale
Directed byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Written byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Produced byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
StarringEric Portman
Sheila Sim
Dennis Price
Sgt. John Sweet
CinematographyErwin Hillier
Edited byJohn Seabourne Sr.
Music byAllan Gray
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release dates
August 21, 1944 UK
Running time
124 min
LanguageEnglish

A Canterbury Tale (1944) is a British film by the film-making team of Powell & Pressburger. The film takes its title from The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, and loosely uses Chaucer's theme of 'eccentric characters on a religious pilgrimage' to highlight the wartime experiences of the citizens of Kent and encourage wartime Anglo-American friendship and understanding. Made in black and white, it was the first of two collaborations between Powell & Pressburger and cinematographer Erwin Hillier.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The story concerns three young people: a British soldier, Sergeant Peter Gibbs (Dennis Price), an American soldier, Sergeant Bob Johnson (played by real-life G.I. Sergeant John Sweet), and a 'Land Girl', Miss Alison Smith (Sheila Sim). As the group arrive at the railway station in the fictitious small Kent town of Chillingbourne, late at night, the girl is attacked by a mysterious assailant who pours glue into her hair, before escaping. It transpires that this has happened several times before. The three decide to investigate the attack, enlisting the help of the locals, including several young boys.

They eventually identify the culprit as a local magistrate, Mr Thomas Colpeper (Eric Portman), a gentleman farmer and pillar of the community, who also gives local history lectures to soldiers stationed in the district. On a train journey to Canterbury a few days later, they find themselves in the same compartment with Colpeper. They confront him with their suspicions, which he doesn't deny, and they discover that his motive is to prevent the soldiers from being distracted away from his lectures by female company and to help keep the local women faithful to their absent British boyfriends.

Chaucer's pilgrams travelled in search of blessings. On arriving in the city of Canterbury, devastated by wartime bombing, all three young people receive blessings of their own. Miss Smith 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. Sergeant Johnson receives long-delayed letters from his sweetheart. Sergeant Gibbs, who was a cinema organist before the war, gets to play the music of J.S. Bach on the large organ at Canterbury Cathederal, before leaving with his unit. He decides not to report Mr Colpeper to the Canterbury police, as he had planned to do. Template:Endspoiler

Style and themes

The film's visual style is a mixture of British realism and Hillier's German Expressionist style. But this is harnessed to a neo-romantic sense of the English landscape. This sense that 'the past always haunts the present' in the English landscape was a powerful theme that would be mined by countless British novelists and film-makers from the 1960s onwards.

Described as 'morally weird but forever English', its characters, rare for mainstream cinema, play out their moral choices instead of merely verbalising them.[citation needed]

Production

The film is notable for its many exterior shots showing the Kent countryside, as well as extensive bombsites in Canterbury itself, so soon after the infamous Baedeker raids of May/June 1942 which had decimated large areas of the city centre. Many local people, including a lot of young boys, were recruited as extras for the extensive scenes of children's outdoor activities such as river 'battles' and dens. The Cathedral itself was not available for filming as the stained glass had been taken down, the windows boarded up and the organ, an important location for the story, removed to storage, all in anticipation of damage from air raids. By the use of clever perspective, large portions of the cathedral were recreated within the studio by art director Alfred Junge.[1]

Reception

The world premiere was held on 11th May 1944 at the Friars' Cinema (now the Marlowe Theatre), Canterbury, England, an event commemorated there by a plaque unveiled by stars Sheila Sim and John Sweet in October 2000 [1]. The film initially had very poor reviews in the UK press [2], and only small audiences. Powell was forced by the studio to completely re-edit the film for the U.S. release, cutting over 20 minutes and adding U.S.-filmed "bookends" which introduced Kim Hunter as Sergeant Johnson's girlfriend. The film was fully restored by the British Film Institute in the late 1970s and the new print was hailed as a masterwork of British cinema. It has since been re-issued on DVD in both the UK and USA.

There is now an annual festival based around the film, in which film fans tour the film's locations. [3]

Several video artists have re-cut the more visionary sections of the film as video-art. [4]

Full credits

Cast

US release

  • Kim Hunter - Johnson's Girl (US release)
  • Raymond Massey - Narrator (US version) (voice)

Uncredited

Pilgrims
  • W. Ballie - The Friar
  • Mr. Bird - The Shipman
  • Billy Bray - Sergeant at Law
  • Miss Dixon - Second Nun
  • T. Gilbert - The Tapister
  • A.W. Jennings - Nun's Priest
  • M. Kirby - The Dyer
  • R. Kirby - The Manciple
  • Link Neal - The Franklyn
  • A. Noble - The Miller
  • Victor Large - The Ploughman
  • J. Lomas - The Monk
  • Jack May - The Cook
  • H. Michael - The Pardoner
  • George Miller - The Reeve
  • James Sadler - The Squire and 1944 soldier watching spitfire
  • G.R. Schjelderup - Chaucer
  • C. Semphill - The Goldsmith
  • H. Pearce - The Summoner
  • Ralph Poole - Pedlar
  • C. Pucinelli - Squire's Yeoman
  • J. Purchase - The Weaver
  • Mila Raymanova - Wife of Bath
  • Glyn Rolands - Doctor of Physic
  • F. Sequin - The Haberdasher
  • Martin Smith - Clerk of Oxford
  • C. Spencer - The Prioress
  • H. Walter - The Merchant
  • Billy Wells - The Knight
  • John Shuggs - Water Carrier
  • Eric Waters - Water Carrier
Peasants

Mr. Carter, Mr. Dove, Mr. Gregory, Mrs. Hendry, G. Keeys Mr. Klaiber, Mr. Stone, Miss Marr, G. Moore

Boys in river battle

David Babcock, Derek V. Browne, Les Brown, Denis Bugden, Donald Bugden, Cliff Elvidge, Roy Fisher, Jim Holland, Dennis Kennett, Dick Kerry, Roy Samson, Charlie Tamsitt, Brian Todd, Ben Tragett, Robert Tragett and Timothy Tragett

Blacksmith's
  • John Clark - Boy on wall at blacksmiths
  • Bill Clover - Bystander at wheelwright's
  • Ben Horton - Bystander at wheelwright's
  • Eric Horton - Bystander at wheelwright's (in leather jacket)
  • Neville Horton - Bystander at wheelwright's (working the forge bellows)
  • Mike Martin - Carpenter in wheelwright's workshop
  • William Wood - Bystander at wheelwright's - Cleetus
Other
Chillingbourne
  • Dean Fredericks - Bellringer at Church
  • Baby Alder - Baby
Canterbury
  • George Curran - Bandmaster in Army parade entering Cathedral
  • George Hall - Police Superintendent in Mayoral procession entering Cathedral
  • Charles Lefèvre - Alderman in Mayoral procession entering Cathedral
  • Reg Pattenden - Drum Major in Army parade entering Cathedral
  • Sid Pullman - Drummer boy and bugler in Army parade entering Cathedral
  • Vincent Russel - Pointing Policeman at West Gate, Canterbury

Crew

  • Jock Laurence - producer: additional scenes in US version

All the below are uncredited:

Makeup Department

  • George Blackler - makeup artist
  • Ernest Gasser - assistant makeup artist
  • Hilda Sheardown-Course - hair stylist

Assistant directors

  • George Aldersley - second assistant director
  • John Arnold - second assistant director
  • Parry Jones Jr. - third assistant director

Art Department

  • Harold Batchelor - construction manager
  • A. Hetherington - stand-by props
  • Arthur Hetherington - props
  • Harold Hurdell - draughtsman
  • Miss Johnstone - set dresser
  • William Kellner - draughtsman
  • William Leather - location constructor
  • Mike Martin - master carpenter
  • Harry Parr - buyer
  • Elliot Scott - draughtsman
  • Bill Shaw - stand-by carpenter
  • E. Thompson - property manager
  • H. Westbrook - draughtsman
  • Herbert Westbrook - draughtsman

Sound Department

  • L.A.C. Collic - boom operator
  • Peter Davies - sound camera (US version)
  • Roy Day - sound maintenance
  • S. Hayers - sound maintenance: interiors
  • Sidney Hayers - sound camera operator: exteriors and interiors
  • J.H. Kay - sound recordist
  • Gus Lloyd - assistant boom operator
  • P. Lloyd - assistant boom operator
  • Gordon K. McCallum - boom operator: interiors
  • George Paternoster - boom operator: exteriors
  • Winston Ryder - sound camera operator: interiors
  • J. Stirton - sound maintenance: interiors
  • Alan Thorne - sound assistant

Special Effects

  • Charles Staffell - special effects: back projection

Visual Effects

  • W. Percy Day - special effects: models

Camera and Electrical Department

  • Eric Besche - assistant camera
  • Jim Body - clapper loader
  • Derek V. Browne - camera loader
  • Cecil R. Cooney - camera operator
  • Fred Daniels - still photographer: portraits
  • J. Demaine - clapper loader
  • Desmond Dickinson - second camera operator
  • Ian Gibson-Smith - still photographer
  • William Leach - grip
  • William Leather - driver: camera car
  • E. Pockney - electrician
  • S. Shrimpton - clapper loader
  • George Stretton - second camera operator
  • A.G. Stunt - electrician

Other crew

  • Jean Able - continuity assistant
  • Paddy Arnold - continuity
  • Sheila Bell - understudy: Sheila Sim
  • Arthur Breton - wardrobe: men
  • Roger Cherrill - assistant editor
  • Betty Curtis - production company secretary
  • Walter R. Day - maintenance
  • Alex Devore - cashier
  • Dorothy Edwards - wardrobe: women
  • Parry Jones - production runner
  • Vivienne Knight - publicist
  • David Laing - understudy: Eric Portman
  • Frederick Morgan - stagehand
  • Joan Page - production company secretary
  • Bill Paton - assistant: Mr Powell
  • Harold Plaister - publicist
  • Jim Pople - second assistant editor
  • David Powell - assistant editor
  • A. Raymond - casting: small parts and crowd
  • Pat Smith - production secretary
  • Anthony Swaine - liaison: Canterbury Cathedral
  • Bert Woodcock - driver

Acknowledgements

Before the credits, the following plays over an image of the cathedral 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.

References and Notes

  1. ^ Powell, Michael (2001). A Life in Movies: An Autobiography. London: Faber and Faber. p. 448. ISBN 0571204317. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Text "Michael Powell" ignored (help)

DVD Reviews

Region 1 USA

Region 2 UK

Region 2 France

Comparison


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