A Canterbury Tale (1944)

One of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s few box-office flops, this film was unsuccessfully recut and rereleased in the USA – though many now claim it to be a masterpiece. Its propaganda element centres on a land girl’s friendship with an American soldier. Casting a non-actor lead (a real hero) is its biggest failing, although his lack of charisma is curiously harmonious with the film’s tempo and Chaucerian view of Britain.