Tonight’s offering is a quirky film by the great production team of Powell and Pressburger and is from 1944. A Canterbury Tale concerns people from different backgrounds thrown together by wartime necessity, an American GI, a Land Girl called Alison and an Englishman who had just been conscripted into the army and is on a few days leave before going off to fight. The venue for their meeting is in a small Kent town on the road to Canterbury. The town is afflicted by anti-social menace, the so-called ‘glue man’ who is pouring glue on the heads of women dating soldiers.

Bob, the GI and Peter the Englishman chase the ‘glue man’ into the town hall but the only person they find there is an eccentric local magistrate called Colpepper and played by Eric Portman. Colpepper it turns out is Alison’s intended employer but he refuses her services as he doesn’t want any inexperienced land girls working for him. While talking to Colpepper Alison learns that she is the ‘glue man’s’ eleventh victim and she decides to team up with Bob and Peter to try to catch or unmask the ‘glue man’.

This is a wonderful film full of a particular romantic view of England and with a twist in the tale when it comes to the ultimate identity of the ‘glue man’.

I hope you enjoy watching this film as much as I did.