Editing A Canterbury Tale (section)

==Reception==
The world premiere was held on 11 May 1944 at the Friars' Cinema (later the second site of the [[Marlowe Theatre]], now demolished), Canterbury, England, an event commemorated there by a plaque unveiled by stars Sheila Sim and John Sweet in October 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Trips/Canterbury/20001010/Steve.html |title=A Canterbury Tale or two |access-date=17 October 2006 |archive-date=12 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312044320/http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Trips/Canterbury/20001010/Steve.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the film initially had very poor reviews in the UK press,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/ACT14.html |title=Contemporary review |access-date=12 August 2006 |archive-date=12 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312044256/http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/ACT14.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and only small audiences, it became a moderate success at the British box office in 1944.<ref>Murphy, Robert (2003_ [https://books.google.com/books?id=xtGIAgAAQBAJ&dq=hungry+hill+film+box+office&pg=PA209 ''Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305060302/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=xtGIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=hungry+hill+film+box+office&source=bl&ots=MTsQXadYDw&sig=2h-5aG3Vy4tT_h1mlC4mfRi18JQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ8b6P1YHMAhVEFqYKHcy9BF8Q6AEIMzAF#v=onepage&q=hungry%20hill%20film%20box%20office&f=false |date=5 March 2023 }} p.207</ref>

The film was the first production of [[Powell and Pressburger]] not to be a major box office draw.<ref Name="Tritton">Tritton, Paul. ''[http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/TheBook2.html A Canterbury Tale – Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116050421/http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/44_ACT/TheBook2.html |date=16 November 2007 }}''. Canterbury: Tritton Publications, August 2000. {{ISBN|0-9524094-2-9}}.</ref> With the war over Powell was forced by the studio to completely re-edit the film for the U.S. release, cutting over 20 minutes to make the film shorter and faster moving, adding narration by [[Raymond Massey]], and filming "bookends" which introduced [[Kim Hunter]] as Sergeant Johnson's girlfriend to make the film more contemporary. At the time of filming, Hunter and Massey were preparing to film ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' for Powell. Powell filmed Hunter's sequences with Sweet on an English set simulating New York City where the couple, now married, presented the film as a [[Flashback (narrative)|flashback]] similar to the openings of ''[[The Way to the Stars]]'' and ''[[12 O'Clock High]]''. Sweet was actually filmed in New York with the sequences combined.<ref Name="Tritton" /> The film was fully restored by the British Film Institute in the late 1970s and the new print was hailed as a masterwork of British cinema. It has since been reissued on DVD in both the UK and USA.