49th Parallel (1941)

Director:

Michael Powell

Writers:

Emeric Pressburger (story)
Rodney Ackland (scenario) ...

Release Date:

15 April 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War | Thriller

Plot:

A WW2 U-boat crew is stranded in northern Canada. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral USA.

Plot Keywords:

U Boat | Nazi | Fight | Hutterite | Winnipeg

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Richard George	...	Kommandant Bernsdorff
Eric Portman	...	Lieutenant Hirth
Raymond Lovell	...	Lieutenant Kuhnecke
Niall MacGinnis	...	Vogel
Peter Moore	...	Kranz
John Chandos	...	Lohrmann
Basil Appleby	...	Jahner
Laurence Olivier	...	Johnnie - the Trapper
Finlay Currie	...	The Factor
Ley On	...	Nick - the Eskimo
Anton Walbrook	...	Peter
Glynis Johns	...	Anna
Charles Victor	...	Andreas
Frederick Piper	...	David
Leslie Howard	...	Philip Armstrong Scott

Also Known As:

Forty-Ninth Parallel (UK) (alternative spelling)
The Invaders (USA)

Runtime:

123 min | USA:104 min | USA:122 min (TV version: M-G-M print)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:TV-14 (TV rating) | Norway:12 (re-rating) (1962) | Norway:16 (1946) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Associated Sound News Studios, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Ortus Films

Trivia:

Esmond Knight was first choice to play Lieutenant Hirth, but he had enlisted in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of war.

Goofs:

Factual errors: On the map of North America shown after the opening credits, the eastern boundary of North Dakota is inaccurately drawn, bulging out well into Minnesota, where in fact the border between the states is an almost straight, though slightly slanted, line.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Prologue: I see a long, straight line athwart a continent. No chain of forts, or deep flowing river, or mountain range, but a line drawn by men upon a map, nearly a century ago, accepted with a handshake, and kept ever since. A boundary which divides two nations, yet marks their friendly meeting ground. The 49th parallel: the only undefended frontier in the world.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Return to the Edge of the World (1978)

Soundtrack:

Prelude: The New Commonwealth

The score of this film should not be left out of any appreciation...

I should only like to add to the already comprehensive, very well observed and intelligent review of this film on the previous pages, namely, that the film score by the great Ralph Vaughan Williams should not be left out of any discussion of the picture. As the film starts with the magnificent mountain scenery and Eric Portman's fantastic introductory speech ("shook hands on it and kept it ever since...", "the 49th parallel, the only undefended border in the world...") you seem to be immediately transported into the spirit and persuasion of this exercise in trying to convince all Americans, not just Canadians, that they should join the fight, their place is with all the others, Europeans, British, French, all peoples under the Nazi yoke.