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A Canterbury Tale
A Canterbury Tale
Directed by	Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
Produced by	Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
Written by	Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
Starring	Eric Portman Sheila Sim Dennis Price Sgt. John Sweet
Music by	Allan Gray
Cinematography	Erwin Hillier
Editing by	John Seabourne Sr.
Distributed by	General Film Distributors
Release date(s)	August 21, 1944 UK
Running time	124 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

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.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Style and themes 3 Production 4 Reception 5 Full credits 5.1 Cast 5.1.1 US release 5.1.2 Uncredited 5.1.2.1 Pilgrims scene 5.1.2.1.1 Pilgrims 5.1.2.1.2 Peasants 5.1.2.2 Boys in river battle 5.1.2.3 Blacksmith's 5.1.2.4 Other 5.1.2.4.1 Chillingbourne 5.1.2.4.2 Canterbury 5.2 Crew 5.2.1 Makeup Department 5.2.2 Assistant directors 5.2.3 Art Department 5.2.4 Sound Department 5.2.5 Special Effects 5.2.6 Visual Effects 5.2.7 Camera and Electrical Department 5.2.8 Other crew 5.3 Acknowledgements 6 References and Notes 7 External links 7.1 DVD Reviews 7.1.1 Region 1 USA 7.1.2 Region 2 UK 7.1.3 Region 2 France 7.1.4 Comparison

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 in uniform who pours glue into her hair, before escaping. It transpires that this has happened quite a few 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.

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'^{[citation needed]}, its characters, rare for mainstream cinema, play out their moral choices instead of merely verbalising them.^{[citation needed]}

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]

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]

Many of these cast members were uncredited and were discovered by Paul Tritton while researching in the BFI archives for his book A Canterbury Tale: Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie. ^[2]

• Esmond Knight - Narrator, Seven Sisters Soldier, and Village Idiot
• Charles Hawtrey - Thomas Duckett, stationmaster
• Hay Petrie- Woodcock
• George Merritt - Ned Horton
• Edward Rigby - Jim Horton
• Freda Jackson - Prudence (Pru) Honeywood
• Betty Jardine - Fee Baker
• Eliot Makeham - Organist
• Harvey Golden - Sergt. Roczinsky
• Leonard Smith - Leslie
• James Tamsitt - Terry
• David Todd - David
• Beresford Egan - P.C. Ovenden
• Anthony Holles - Sergt. Bassett
• Maude Lambert - Miss Grainger
• Wallace Bosco - Man A.R.P. Worker (as Wally Bosco)
• Charles Paton - Ernie Brooks
• Jane Millican - Susanna Foster
• John Slater - Sergt. Len
• Michael Golden - Sergt. Smale
• Graham Moffatt - Sergt. 'Stuffy'
• Esma Cannon - Agnes
• Mary Line - Leslie's Mother
• Winifred Swaffer - Mrs. Horton
• Michael Howard - Archie
• Judith Furse - Dorothy Bird
• Barbara Waring - Polly Finn
• Jean Shepeard - Gwladys Swinton
• Margaret Scudamore - Mrs. Colpeper
• Joss Ambler - Police Inspector
• Jessie James - Waitress
• Kathleen Lucas - Passer-by
• H.F. Maltby - Mr. Portal
• Eric Maturin - Geoffrey's Father
• Parry Jones Jr. - Arthur (as Parry Jones Jnr.)

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

• 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

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

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

• 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

• Dean Fredericks - Bellringer at Church
• Baby Alder - Baby

• 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

• Photographed by (cinematography) Erwin Hillier
• Film editing by John Seabourne
• Recorded by C. C. Stevens and Desmond Dew
• Exteriors recorded by Alan Whatley
• Production Manager - George Maynard
• Assistant Director - George Busby
• Period Advisor (for Chaucerian era scenes) - Herbert Norris
• Music composed by Allan Gray
• Music conducted by Walter Goehr
• Production designed by Alfred Junge
• Written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

• Jock Laurence - producer: additional scenes in US version

All the below are uncredited:

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

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

• 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

• 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

• Charles Staffell - special effects: back projection

• W. Percy Day - special effects: models

• 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

• 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

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.

”

1. ^ Powell, Michael (2001). A Life in Movies: An Autobiography. London: Faber and Faber, 448. ISBN 0-571-20431-7. 
2. ^ Tritton, Paul (2000). A Canterbury Tale: Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie. Canterbury: Tritton Publications, 166. ISBN 0-952-40942-9. 

• A Canterbury Tale at the Internet Movie Database
• A Canterbury Tale at the BFI's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
• Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
• Criterion Collection essay by Graham Fuller
• Criterion Collection essay by Peter von Bagh
• Powell and Pressburger's 'A Canterbury Tale', an essay by Lawrence Freiesleben

• DVD Savant
• Nocturnal Admissions
• QNetwork
• DVD verdict
• DVD Authority
• Cinema Blend
• DVD Journal

• Learn Media

• DVD Times
• Review (in French)
• L'Institut Lumière (in French)

• DVD Beaver comparison of Carlton & Criterion DVDs

	Powell and Pressburger The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1930s	The Spy in Black | The Lion Has Wings
1940s	Contraband | An Airman's Letter to His Mother | Forty-Ninth Parallel | One of Our Aircraft is Missing | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | The Volunteer | A Canterbury Tale | I Know Where I'm Going! | A Matter of Life and Death | Black Narcissus | The Red Shoes | The Small Back Room
1950s	The Elusive Pimpernel | Gone to Earth | The Tales of Hoffmann | Oh... Rosalinda!! | The Battle of the River Plate | Ill Met by Moonlight
1960s	Peeping Tom (not Pressburger) | They're a Weird Mob | Age of Consent
1970s	The Boy Who Turned Yellow