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The cosmic cut from medieval falcon to wartime bombardier is not lost on Kubrick two and a half decades later. "But though so little has changed since Chaucer's day, another kind of pilgrim walks the way." Chillingbourne, a quick train ride away from Canterbury, the G.I. from Oregon (John Sweet) gets off at the wrong stop. In the middle of a blackout he's joined by the British Army sergeant (Dennis Price) and the London shogirl (Sheila Sim), the latter promptly bumps into "the Glue Man" and emerges with sticky hair. "So this is England, never a dull moment." A "village mystery" with a single suspect, a dry-run for I Know Where I'm Going!, above all for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger a chance to explore the mystical national spirit. The local magistrate (Eric Portman) is "a gentleman farmer" and, manning a slideshow on lore and legacy, as ruthless and obsessive as Anton Walbrook's The Red Shoes impresario. The Yank has no taste for tea but hits it off with a stubborn old blacksmith over the wonders of wood, playacting children give him a glimpse of combat. The sergeant plays the organ, and clinches The Archers' suggestive bridge between movie theater and church. The maiden contemplates the landscape and feels connections from six centuries earlier. "If there's such a thing as a soul, he must be around here." Naturalism and transcendence, somebody sarcastically mentions a halo and there it is, in light and steam. Resurrection of the caravan, the cathedral amid bombed-out businesses. "Huh... why?" "For blessings, you character, for blessings!" The ending's mysterious marvels are strikingly emulated by Rossellini in Viaggio in Italia. Cinematography by Erwin Hillier. With Esmond Knight, Charles Hawtrey, Hay Petrie, George Merritt, Edward Rigby, Freda Jackson, Harvey Golden, Betty Jardine, and Eliot Makeham. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |