49th Parallel (1941)

Director:

Michael Powell

Writers:

Emeric Pressburger (original story and screenplay)
Rodney Ackland (scenario) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 April 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War | Thriller

Tagline:

THE MIGHTEST MANHUNT THAT EVER SWEPT THE SCREEN! (original poster-all caps)

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:

Nazi | U Boat | Canada | Seaplane | Escape

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
Tawera Moana	...	George - the Indian
Eric Clavering	...	Art
Charles Rolfe	...	Bob
Raymond Massey	...	Andy Brock
Theodore Salt	...	A United States Customs Officer
O.W. Fonger	...	A United States Customs Officer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Beatty	...	RCMP Mountie in Alberta (voice) (uncredited)
Elisabeth Bergner	...	Anna (uncredited)
Eric Berry	...	Nazi Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Gron Davies	...	Officer on Submarine (uncredited)
Leslie Falardeau	...	Aviator on Seaplane (uncredited)
Lionel Grose	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Jack Hynes	...	Aviator on Seaplane (uncredited)
Stuart Latham	...	Second Nazi Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Norman Luxton	...	Man in fringed jacket on balcony at Banff Indian Day (uncredited)
Vincent Massey	...	Prologue Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Percy Parsons	...	Hi-Jacked Canadian Motorist (uncredited)
Gerry Wilmot	...	Canadian Radio Announcer (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Powell

Writing credits
Emeric Pressburger		(original story and screenplay)
Rodney Ackland		(scenario) and
Emeric Pressburger		(scenario)

Produced by
Michael Powell	....	producer
George H. Brown	....	associate producer (uncredited)
Roland Gillett	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Ralph Vaughan Williams

Cinematography by
Freddie Young		(director of photography) (as Frederick Young)

Film Editing by
David Lean

Art Direction by
David Rawnsley

Makeup Department
George Blackler	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Harold Boxall	....	in charge of production
George H. Brown	....	associate in charge of production (as George Brown)
Roland Gillett	....	associate in charge of production
John Sutro	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Arthur Seabourne	....	associate director (as A. Seabourne)

Art Department
Frederick Pusey	....	associate art director
Sydney Streeter	....	associate art director (as Sydney S. Streeter)
Peter Cushing	....	props (uncredited)

Sound Department
Walter Darling	....	sound recorder
C.C. Stevens	....	sound recorder
A.W. Watkins	....	sound supervisor
Dex Harrison	....	sound engineer (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Osmond Borradaile	....	photography: special backgrounds (as Osmond Borrowdaile)
Henty Henty-Creer	....	cameraman
Skeets Kelly	....	cameraman
Jim Body	....	clapper boy (uncredited)
Fred Daniels	....	still photographer: portraits (uncredited)
Leslie Falardeau	....	camera grip (uncredited)
Jack Hynes	....	still photographer (uncredited)
David Mason	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Oscar Paulin	....	camera grip (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Hugh Stewart	....	associate editor

Music Department
Muir Mathieson	....	musical director
Phyllis Sellick	....	musician: piano, Philip Armstrong Scott segment, on radio (uncredited)

Other crew
Nugent M. Clougher	....	advisor: Canada
Abraham Bloomfield	....	interpreter: Eskimo (uncredited)
Betty Curtis	....	continuity (uncredited)
Betty Curtis	....	production secretary (uncredited)
Captain Halfyard	....	master of "The Continent" (uncredited)
Bill Paton	....	assistant: Mr Powell (uncredited)
Bill Paton	....	double: Leslie Howard, Lake O'Hara (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Ortus Films (as An Ortus Films Production)

Distributors

• General Film Distributors (GFD) (1941) (UK) (theatrical) (as General Film Distributors Ltd.)
• Carlton Visual Entertainment (2002) (UK) (DVD)
• Columbia Pictures (1942) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures (1948) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (1990) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Criterion Collection, The (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2011) (Spain) (DVD)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (????) (USA) (TV)
• VidAmerica (1984) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Canada  this film is dedicated to: who helped us to make it (as Canada and Canadians all over the Dominion)
• United States Government  this film is dedicated to: who made it possible (as the Government of the U.S.A.)
• Government of Canada  this film is dedicated to: who made it possible (as the Government of the Dominion of Canada)
• Government of the United Kingdom, The  this film is dedicated to: who made it possible

Also Known As:

"The 49th Parallel" - International (English title) (informal title)
"The Forty-Ninth Parallel" - International (English title) (informal title)
"The Invaders" - USA (informal title)

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 (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:TV-14 (TV rating) | Norway:12 (re-rating) (1962) | Norway:16 (1946) | USA:Not Rated | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Associated Sound News Studios, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Ortus Films

Trivia:

Commissioned by the Ministry of Information to raise worldwide awareness (American in particular) of the Nazi threat. However, it was intended for Canadian consumption also, as many French Canadians did not want to be at war with Germany and did not want to fight. Vichy France was an ally of Nazi Germany, and many French Canadians in Quebec were pro-German. One of the reasons Laurence Olivier, the biggest star in the film, played a French Canadian trapper named Johnny who tells the Nazi officer he is a "Canadian" in the film and not "French" was that it was intended also as propaganda to promote pro-British feeling in Quebec. When Canada resorted to conscription to swell the ranks of its Army, there were draft riots throughout Quebec, so intense was the feeling against the United Kingdom, which of course had subjugated New France less than 200 years before. Anti-war sentiment was so rife throughout Canada, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King declared that only volunteers would be shipped off to Europe.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When the train is going over the railroad bridge at Niagara Falls ostensibly traveling from Canada to the U.S., it actually is heading from the U.S. into Canada. The water in the Niagara River under the bridge in the scene is coming toward the camera, with the train moving across the bridge from left to right. Canada would be on the right in the shot, the direction the so-called U.S. bound train is traveling.

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 "BBC Proms: Prom 2: Music from Great British Films (#1.7)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

The Lake in the Mountains

The best of all propaganda films.

Unless you believe George Orwell's claim that all art is propaganda; which, with all due respect to one of the twentieth century's finest minds, is poppycock. The propaganda film is a special kind of film, usually unbearable garbage. This one is an exception.

A German U-boat is sunk just off the coast of Canada and the surviving crew must make it through hostile enemy country to the neutral United States. After a short while their plight becomes known and the whole world is watching to see which nation, Canada or Germany, can manage to win the metaphorical battle.

The most interesting thing - considering the movie as propaganda - is that Powell's intended audience was the United States: he wanted to get that country involved in the war, or at least get the people of that country to support the war. Realise this and you realise how remarkably subtle the film is. Not once is Powell's goal explicitly stated or even alluded to; and even the underlying message (the USA *is* involved in the war, whether it wants to admit it or not) requires some thought to work out. Yet it's an integral part of the story. More explicit is the democracy vs. dictatorship theme, which is hammered home a number of different ways, not all of them obvious. (This theme is handled a bit too obviously now and then, I'll admit.)

Another interesting fact is that the hero of the story is either democracy, or Canada, or the Western Allies, or some such - no one person plays the role. The central characters are the Germans. In fact they're all quite likable (except for the doctrinaire Nazi, of course). Powell bends over backwards to inhibit anti-German sentiment. Despite all this we are not once on the Germans' side. We want them to be captured so long as they continue to serve an evil regime.

It's also a beautifully shot travelogue of Canada. And Ralph Vaughan Williams's score is lovely. He was seventy or so when he wrote it; he'd never written for the cinema before; he had his own ideas about what film music should be like.