Submitted by
Mark Fuller
A Canterbury Tale
By Ewart Hodgson
From: News of the World
14 May 1944 (?)
Gratitude and congratulations for "A Canterbury Tale" (Odeon),
written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger, whose last two pictures, "49th Parallel" and "Colonel
Blimp", earned sinister comments from me because they weren't
sufficiently anti-German.
But here, in "A Canterbury Tale", Powell and Pressburger
sensibly present a story free from all German characters. Here,
they have at long last got down to the good earth of England,
peopled by an odd magistrate (Eric Portman), a pretty land girl
(Sheila Sim), an ex-cinema organist turned soldier (Dennis Price)
and an American sergeant (Sergt. John Sweet, U.S. Army) who,
in his charming, tolerant way, is trying to get Kent to mix with
Missouri.
The background of the story is a village just outside
Canterbury. It's summer, and everything is lush and lovely in the
way that only England can be. There are pubs and a smithy, the
local timber merchant (Edward Rigby - a perfect cameo) and all
the other pensive, slow-moving philosophers who inhabit the
changeless English countryside.
But movie cameras are not content with a village scene,
however charming. Something must be made to happen. A
mysterious crime epidemic breaks out. Believe it or not, glue
is poured on to the heads of the local Lamours when they
venture out on flirtatious walks with the soldiery.
Sheila Sim is a victim and, being a little hard-bitten and
stubborn - having worked as a London shop-girl - she decides
to hunt down the glue man. With the aid of the British and
American sergeants, the crime is pinned on Eric Portman.
And the explanation for the glue attacks? It's a flimsy one,
divided into two parts. One: Portman's peevishness over
the soldiers preferring the local Lamours to his uplift lectures:
(2) because the troops (husband and fiance section) are in
danger of being led astray.
Yes, the main plank of the plot of "A Canterbury Tale" does
not stand much examination, so flimsy and unreal is it, but such
is the way the picture has been contrived that when you come
out you won't be critical on that score.
The private preview that I saw of "A Canterbury Tale" began
at 10.15 p.m. Hand on heart, I swear to you that when THE END
came on the screen I thought it to be about 11.30. It was well
after midnight. With such an altogether memorable, heart-
warming picture it's perhaps a little unfair to sort out a few of the
cast for bouquets and leave other equally worthy performers
flowerless.
Yet a bouquet must, under all the rules, go to newcomer
Sheila Sim, who brings a new freshness, sincerity and loveliness
to the British screen. And Sergt. Johnny Sweet deserves 500 of
his favourite American cigarettes, plus a case of Scotch, for so
completely typifying America smilingly struggling to solve
England. Eric Portman is also excellent.
To my mind "A Canterbury Tale" is not only great entertainment,
it's the most important and effective film contribution yet made to
Anglo-American friendship. And it resists the temptation of
plugging that old argument that the two peoples are all cousins
because they speak the same language and wash behind the
ears. Or something.
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