Classic British Cinema - 'A Canterbury Tale' Quiz

Answer: Falconry

This is an often overlooked, but nevertheless iconic scene in British cinema. The gentleman releases his falcon, following it skywards with his eyes. As the now distant falcon wheels around in the sky, we are suddenly transported forward by six hundred years, the bird becoming a Spitfire fighter aircraft which swoops into a dive and roars over the head of a helmeted soldier played, incidentally, by the same actor who played the gentleman pilgrim.

This scene reinforces the basic tenet of this film; the thread of continuity and the relationship between the modern world and its medieval counterpart.

Answer: Charles Hawtrey

"Chillingbourne! Chillingbourne! Next stop, Canterbury... Canterbury, next stop!"

US Army Sergeant Bob Johnson alights at Chillingbourne believing it to be Canterbury after mistaking the station master's announcement. As his train begins to pull away from the darkened platform, he realises that he is now stranded overnight and strikes up a conversation with British Army Sergeant Peter Gibbs, played by Dennis Price, Land Girl Alison Smith played by Sheila Sim and the station master played by the young Charles Hawtrey.

Born George Frederick Joffre Hartree in 1914 in Hounslow, Hawtrey began his career as a boy soprano. By the time he appeared in 'A Canterbury Tale', Hawtrey had already appeared in twenty films. Hawtrey enjoyed considerable success as a member of the 'Carry On' team during the 1960s and 1970s with his last appearance in the 1972 film 'Carry On Abroad'. Hawtrey was a heavy smoker and an even heavier drinker and it was the drinking that put an end to a successful career. He spent a number of years performing in regional pantomime before descending into virtual obscurity. After breaking his leg it was discovered that he was seriously ill with vascular disease and after refusing to have his legs amputated in order to save his life, Hawtrey died on the 27th of October 1988 at the age of 73.

Answer: Glue

"There's something in my hair!" cries Alison, "Sticky stuff!"
"So this is England? Never a dull moment!" exclaims Johnson before they race away down the mist filled streets in pursuit of Alison's attacker.

Tracking her assailant to a darkened building they attempt to make entry when the door opens and they discover that they have stumbled across the local police station. Entering the police station they are questioned by the sergeant on duty and once the police understand what has happened to Alison they attempt to clean the glue from her hair whilst others carry out a search of the building that the three travelling companions are certain contains the miscreant. Sheila Sim was a native of the city of Liverpool in the north-west of England. Sim only had a brief ten year career in film, marrying the actor and film director Richard Attenborough in 1945. Sim died in 2016 from senile dementia in Denville Hall, an actors' retirement home that both she and her late husband had supported and raised funds for over a period of many decades.

Answer: Oregon

After fleeing from the attack on Alison, the glue man was believed to still be in the area. With the assistance of the local ARP, police sergeant 'Bertie' Bassett and the Chillingbourne force are determined to track him down and arrest him. Bob Johnson believing that the glue man may be dangerous asks Sergeant Bassett if he has a gun only to be told "This is Chillingbourne, Sergeant Johnson, not Chicago". Not fully understanding what the police officer was implying, Bob Johnson turned to Alison and protests; "Say, what kinda crack was that? I'm from Oregon!"

In early 1944 US Army Sergeant John Sweet had been working with General Eisenhower's staff on the preparations for 'D-Day'. Spotted by Michael Powell in a Red Cross production, the director decided that he was perfect for the role of Bob Johnson in 'A Canterbury Tale'. After the war John Sweet attempted a career in film but had no success and returned to his pre-war occupation as a teacher. He returned to the United Kingdom on the 10th of October 2000 in order to attend a charity screening of the film as part of the Kent Film Festival. After spending the day revisiting some of the film's original locations and being reunited with Sheila Sim for the first time in 56 years the screening took place at the Marlowe theatre. John Sweet returned to the United States where sadly he passed away on the 5th of July 2011 at the age of 95.

Answer: A Home Guard uniform

Thomas Colpeper is disappointed to learn that he has been allocated Alison, a Land Girl, to work on his farm as he considered the work too tough for a young woman. Much preferring to have been allocated a young man, he tells Alison that she will not be required to work for him despite her protests to the contrary.

As they discuss her situation, Alison hears a sound from the cupboard in the corner of Colpeper's office. Startled, she turns to him and asks him to check to make sure that it is not her attacker. Colpeper is reluctant to do so at first but then decides to allay her fears. Unlocking the door all there is to be found on the floor of the cupboard is a Home Guard uniform and greatcoat.

Answer: Justice of the Peace

Thomas Colpeper, played by Eric Portman, holds the position of Justice of the Peace, an archaic term for a magistrate. Colpeper is also a wealthy gentleman farmer and member of the local Home Guard detachment.

Eric Portman was born near Halifax in the county of Yorkshire on the 13th of July 1901. He made his debut in a professional stage role during 1924 and rapidly created a reputation as a fine Shakespearean actor and in the 1930s he made the transition into film. His success in the 1941 film version of '49th Parallel' as the leader of the remnants of a Nazi U-Boat crew attempting to evade capture in Canada by escaping to the United States. During the 1940s and 1950s Portman starred in a number of successful film productions including the 1942 film 'One of Our Aircraft is Missing' and 'The Colditz Story' released in 1955. Portman was a private person and little is known of his later years although he did appear in the role of 'Number Two' in the British ITV television network productions of the thriller series 'The Prisoner'. Eric Portman passed away at home in Cornwall on the 7th of December 1969 from an undisclosed illness.

Answer: The Hand of Glory

The room allocated to Sergeant Johnson is the same room in which Queen Elizabeth I had stayed whilst making her way to Canterbury on pilgrimage some three hundred years earlier. Before retiring for the evening, Alison approaches Bob Johnson to ask if he will remain in Chillingbourne to assist her in her search for the person who assaulted her earlier that evening. Johnson protests that he must travel to Canterbury the following morning to meet a comrade who is travelling from London to see him whilst they are both on furlough, but he eventually relents and agrees to help her where he can.

Whilst dressing the following morning, Johnson discovers that he is being watched through his window by a young local lad standing atop an enormous hay cart.

When Bob Johnson informs the young man that he is a Sergeant in the US Army, the lad asks why his rank stripes are upside down; this difference between the US and the British troops is a recurring theme which arises in the film on a number of occasions.

Answer: An organist

Sergeant Gibbs is played by the popular English actor Dennis Price who went on to play a leading role in the Ealing comedy film 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' some four years later in 1949. Peter Gibbs reveals to his newly found friends that he is a classically trained musician but could only find work before the war as a cinema organist, a role that he feels has degraded him as a professional musician.

Dennis Price made his first stage appearance in Croydon during 1937. He served with the Royal Artillery during the Second World War, leaving the services in 1942. 'A Canterbury Tale' was his first ever film role but his career reached its zenith in 1949 with his appearance in a major role as the refined serial killer in the great Ealing comedy 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'. Price passed away at the age of 58 years from heart failure and complications arising from a hip fracture.

Answer: Playing war games

The American encounters the local boys playing war games in and around the river that runs through Chillingbourne. He questions the children as to where someone might be able to buy the type of glue being used in the attacks and he discovers that the only source is the local grocery shop, owned by the father of one of the children that he is questioning.

After offering the youngsters a reward for helping him, Johnson encourages the son of the village grocer to 'borrow' his father's ledger to see if anyone locally has been buying glue in recent months.

Incidentally, in this case the young boys are truly local; each and every one of them lived in and around the area in which the film was shot.

Answer: False

It was a copy of the village's fire piquet duty roster that provided the conclusive evidence as to the identity of the glue man.

A copy of the Chillingbourne fire piquet duty roster is removed from Mr Colpeper's office by Peter Gibbs whilst Colpeper is drawn away from his study by a number of local boys collecting items for the war effort.

Sergeant Gibbs had taken Mr Colpeper at his word when he had told his exclusively military audience at a historical society lecture the previous evening that he was available to talk to any who were interested in the local history. Instantly realising that this would enable him to gain access to Colpeper's office, he determines to take Colpeper at his word and visit him the following day in order to search for clues which might confirm his, Bob's and Alison's suspicions as to the identity of the glue man.

Answer: Mr Thomas Colpeper, JP

Finally, the mystery of the identity of the glue man is made clear. Without saying so explicitly, Thomas Colpeper explains that the glue man was throwing the substance into young women's hair in an attempt to frighten them into staying at home rather than to cavort with visiting US serviceman while their own husbands and boyfriends were away fighting overseas. Sergeant Gibbs informs Thomas Colpeper that he will be reporting this admission to the police as soon as he arrives in Canterbury.

Answer: Canterbury Cathedral

After making enquiries at the police station, Sergeant Gibbs is informed that the majority of the police will be in the vicinity of the cathedral; a parade will be taking place there later that day in order to send the local Regiment off to fight on the continent.

It is whilst he is inside the cathedral that he strikes up a conversation with the cathedral's organist and is given the opportunity to play on an instrument that he had always dreamed of playing, the cathedral's magnificent full-sized organ.

Answer: A caravan

It is revealed by Alison earlier in the film that she had spent a summer holiday in Chillingbourne before the war with her fiancé on an archaeological dig on the Pilgrim Way. After the summer holiday had come to an end Alison and her fiancé had placed their caravan into storage in the garage in Canterbury. On her arrival at the garage a worker there tells her that the owner has some news for her; it is her blessing that her fiancé has not been killed by enemy action but is in fact alive and well and serving with the RAF in Gibraltar.

His father had told Alison that his son was missing or had been killed in action as he was embarrassed by the fact that his son had fallen in love with a shop girl, someone that he thought was beneath having a relationship with his son.

She is also informed by the garage owner that her fiancé's father had experienced a change of heart and had travelled to Canterbury to see Alison and to pass on the news about his son personally. Alison is overjoyed at the news and, after recovering from a slight fainting episode, sets to work cleaning the dusty old caravan.

Answer: Letters from his girlfriend

During a conversation in a tea shop with his friend Sergeant Mickey Roczinsky, who has travelled to Canterbury from London to meet with his friend, he is presented with a small bundle of letters from his girlfriend who had, unknowingly to Bob Johnson, joined the armed forces and was now serving in Sydney, Australia.

Whilst at Chillingbourne, he and Alison had discussed their lives and loves from before the start of the war. Johnson was bitter at the fact that he had not had a letter from his girlfriend back in the US for many weeks despite him writing to her every week.

Answer: Toccata and Fugue in D minor

As Bob Johnson finally arrives at the cathedral at the end of his pilgrimage to the city, Sergeant Gibbs is playing the 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' by Johann Sebastian Bach. Sergeant Gibbs' battalion arrive at the cathedral to the strains of the Regimental March of the Kings Division, a piece called 'Bond of Friendship'. The final scenes of the film show the regiment now inside the cathedral beginning to sing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers', a fitting piece considering the adventure that his unit is about to embark upon. The final scene in the film features the young boys of Chillingbourne playing football with the ball that Bob Johnson had promised to buy them as a mark of gratitude for their help in identifying the Chillingbourne glue man.

The 'Water Music' is a cycle of dance music pieces composed by Georg Frideric Händel, 'Khovantschina' is an opera penned by the Russian composer Mussorgskiy and the 'Missa Salisbergensis' is a beautiful Mass composed by Bohemian court composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von Biber.