The mystery drama centers around
three people who meet in the small town of Kent on their way to Canterbury – a land
girl, an American GI, and a British solider. After the girl is assaulted by the
mysterious glue-man, the three are determined to discover his identity.
The film is written and directed
by the team of Michael
Powell and Emeric
Pressburger (known as the Archers). While it is not as grand as many of
their films, it is strikingly compelling and philosophically engaging. Powell and
Pressburger made it right in the middle of their string of master works from
1943-1948 (including The Life
and Death of Colonel Blimp, I
Know Where I’m Going!, Stairway
to Heaven, Black Narcissus,
and The Red Shoes). The
Archers worked with composer Allan
Gray, cinematographer Erwin
Hillier, and production designer Alfred Junge on the film.
The film stars Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price, Charles Hawtrey,
and John Sweet
(an actual Sargent in the U.S. Army who was cast to give the character a very
naturalistic feel – and he is fantastic).
A Canterbury Tale is a forgotten
gem from one of cinema’s greatest filmmaking teams. It is a kind-hearted film
that strives to evoke some sort of emotional revelation within the viewer –
much like the characters experience. The film was made during WWII and can also
be read as a sort of railing cry detailing the people, ideas, values, and
traditions that the allies were fighting for. But, the war seems somewhat
removed even with two of the main characters being soldiers, as again this is
very much a layered spiritual journey (that merely begins with the detective
plot to discover who the glue-man is). It is not a canonized work and thus is
maybe not an essential film for cinema historians, but I highly recommend it
for those looking for films that offer deeper meaning.
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