Two from Britain

A Man About the House (London Film; 20th Century-Fox), was obviously blueprinted as an opulent vehicle for 23-year-old Kieron Moore, potential British cinematinee idol. Moore's first film (Nos. 2 & 3: Mine Own Executioner and Anna Karenina, already released in the U.S.) is based on Francis Brett Young's romantic, pseudopsychological bestselling thriller which has been read and sighed over by thousands of British women.

As Salvatore, a young Italian butler in an English villa above Naples, Moore has an exotic piece of skulduggery to act out. He loves the villa (which his family once owned) and the land about it. For his own sinister purposes he also loves the elder of two youngish British spinsters (Margaret Johnston) who have just inherited the property. No sooner has he succeeded in marrying her than he begins to feed her egg flips dosed with arsenic. As the unsuspecting woman fades away, Salvatore, always attentive, sings her Italian love songs (in a pleasant Irish tenor), showers her with flowers--and slips her another egg flip. A British doctor who happens to be an old beau of the dying woman arrives in time to slug it out with Salvatore on the edge of one of the steepest cliffs seen by moviegoers since the days of Pearl White.

Strapping, good-looking Kieron Moore's sponsors have surrounded him with all the trappings of a romantic movie hero: emotional high jinks, a musicomedy fiesta and crowds of Piccadilly extras tricked out like peasant girls. But the film apparently set out to prove that he can really act. Despite A Man and films No. 2 and 3, convincing proof is still needed.

A Canterbury Tale (Rank; Eagle Lion) is a wispy, sentimental propaganda film, written, produced and directed five years ago by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going, The Red Shoes'). Originally intended to win U.S. good will in wartime, it has been dug out of the J. Arthur Rank stockpile, awkwardly jacked up between a new prologue and epilogue, and put to work to earn U.S. dollars. In its warmhearted, long-winded way it stands a good chance to earn a few.

The story is a rambling piece of British whimsy about a flap-eared G.I. (Sergeant John Sweet, on loan from the U.S. Army), a British sergeant (Dennis Price) and a pretty windblown member of the British Women's Land Army (Sheila Sim). The three .meet up in a quaint old village on the ancient pilgrims' road to Canterbury and before the footage has run out each has discovered a full firkin of blessings in the shadow of the great cathedral. The biggest load of whimsy is carried by the local magistrate (Eric Portman), who plays spiritual guide and head pilgrim to the three youngsters.

A Tale is not a top-grade British import, but it has a sharp, good-humored eye for contrasting British-U.S. manners and morals. It also has an ingratiating, if sometimes too folksy, way of plugging its moral: be tolerant of your fellow man, even if he comes from a very peculiar English-speaking country.

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