A CANTERBURY TALE

This 1944 Powell and Pressburger film is an oddity even by their standards.

It starts off promisingly with a narrator taking us back to the time of The Canterbury Tales, before a kestrel in mid flight is replaced by a Spitfire as we are suddenly transported to the present day, reminiscent of a similar transition in '2001: A Space Odyssey' two decades later.

Then we move to Chillingbourne, a small village just outside Canterbury, where we first meet the three modern day 'pilgrims' we are going to get to know: Alison (a 'land girl' assigned to a local farm), Bob (a US Sergeant) and Peter (a British Sergeant).  They arrive late at night and almost immediately Alison is attacked by a mysterious troublemaker (the 'glueman' as the villagers call him) who puts glue on her hair.

We also soon meet the other main character, Mr Colpeper, the JP, who has an almost mystical obsession with the local countryside and with the continuity between past and present.  

At 124 minutes this film is not short, mainly due to the bulk of the film (that part set in Chillingbourne) has a very leisurely pace to it.  Given that the only plot is the efforts of our three pilgrims to discover the true identity of the glueman, I did find myself wondering where this was all leading, especially since I wasn't that gripped by this storyline. 

Thankfully the film has plenty of charm and wit, and the direction and cinematography are very accomplished.  This section of the film lovingly presents the English countryside as a kind of bucolic paradise, and presumably it is representing here the feelings of Michael Powell, himself a Kentish lad.

Especially charming are the village children who become involved in the solving of the mystery.

It turns out that the glueman is (spoiler alert) none other than Mr Colpeper, for quite bizarre reasons I'm not going to go into.

At this point the film suddenly shifts into a much higher gear as the four main characters go to Canterbury.  Here the combination of cinematography and music creates some transcendent moments, with the three 'pilgrims' each receiving a 'blessing' of some sort.

Throughout the film one is aware of the war going on, and the film ends on a stirring and patriotic note with British soldiers going off to a campaign, and undoubtedly the earlier rustic scenes are intended to embody what the war is being fought for.

The closing scenes are so strong as to make me inclined to forgive any earlier longueurs and indeed the entire plot regarding glue.  

But even so one can see why this film was a commercial failure, especially since it lacks any big names.  That being said I feel that all four of the lead actors are excellent, with the possible exception of Eric Portman as Mr Colpeper.  Originally Roger Livesey was going to play him and undoubtedly he would have brought some much needed warmth to the character, who comes across here as rather odd if not outright creepy at times.

The relationship between Colpeper and Alison is the most interesting one on view.  There's a long scene of the two of them in the fields where they establish a connection, arising from their shared relationship to the countryside and to the past.  I don't think we are intended to believe that he has romantic feelings towards her except for the fact that their final scene together, which concludes with his abrupt departure when she learns that her boyfriend has not in fact been killed in action, is rather odd.