Betty Jardine Movies

Set not in the 14th century milieu of Geoffrey Chaucer but in wartime Britain, A Canterbury Tale begins with rural justice of the peace Eric Portman adopting a "lock up your daughters" policy when the American soldiers are stationed nearby. To escape the arbitrary edicts of Portman, British tank sergeant Dennis Price, American GI John Sweet and shopkeeper Sheila Sim head down the road to Canterbury. Each of the principals finds their lives changed by the journey. In particular, Sweet (a real-life American sergeant, rather than the usual stereotyped "yank" common to British war films) encounters genuine romance. A product of the always adventuresome "Archers" (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger), A Canterbury Tale contains some extremely creative cinematic moments, though it is the quieter scenes which work best. Esmond Knight narrates the film and shows up in a couple of amusing cameos. A ubiquitous presence on American TV, Canterbury Tale is available in two versions; the American release version, cut from 124 to 95 minutes and including several arbitrary scenes with Kim Hunter, is the lesser of the two. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this patriotic but romantic musical comedy, a young teacher runs a day school for the workers at a munitions factory. As she makes arrangements to locate the school in the empty home next to her apartment building, she falls in love with the property owner. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

One of the few "Inspector Hornleigh" films to gain a wide US distribution, Mail Train stars Gordon Harker as Hornleigh and Alastair Sim as his dumb-like-a-fox assistant Sergeant Bingham. Borrowing a bit from the 1939 British box-office hit Night Train, the plot pits Hornleigh and Bingham against a clever gang of Nazi espionage agents. Most of the action takes place aboard a speeding train, with our heroes never quite certain who can be trusted and who can't. Phyllis Calvert contributes to the intrigue as one Mrs. Wilkinson, who is, as the phrase goes, not all she seems to be. With Walter Forde in the director's chair, it shouldn't be surprising that Mail Train contains as many laughs as thrills. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this thriller, a group of stranded passengers are terrified by the weird tales of a stationmaster who tells them of the "ghost train" that rumbles down the darkened tracks. It turns out that the phantasmical locomotive is very real and is used by a gang of arms smugglers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This 1938 remake of the 1930 British farce Almost a Honeymoon makes a few slight alterations in the text. Originally, a wandering vagrant accidentally found himself sharing a bed with an amorous old crone. In the remake, the hero (popular cockney comedian Tommy Trinder, here making his screen debut) is a man of wealth. His inadvertent bed-mate is an attractive young girl (Linden Travers), who is occupying the hero's sleeping quarters when he stumbles in after a night on the town. Nothing really happens (this is a 1938 film), but you can't censor the gleam in the supporting characters' eyes. Like the first Almost a Honeymoon, the second film is based on a stage play by Walter Ellis. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi