Plot Summary for
49th Parallel (1941) More at IMDbPro »

In the early years of World War II, a German U-boat (U-37) sinks Allied shipping in St. Lawrence Bay and then tries to evade Canadian Military Forces seeking to destroy it by sailing up to Hudson Bay. The U-boat's Fanatical Nazi captain sends some members of his crew to look for food and other supplies at a Hudson Bay Company outpost. No sooner than the shore party (lead by Lieutenant Hirth) reaches the shore, the U-boat is spotted and sunk by the Canadian Armed Forces leaving the six members of the shore party stranded in Canada. The Nazi Lieutenant then starts to plan his crews' return to the Fatherland. He needs to reach the neutral United States or be captured. Along the way they meet a variety of characters each with their own views on the war and nationalism. In this film Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger show their ideas of why the United States should join the Allied fight against the Nazis. Written by Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>

When a German U-Boat is bombed and destroyed in 1940 after sailing up to Hudson Bay after raiding Canadian shipping, the six-man shore party finds itself with no easy means of escape. They take over the local Hudson Bay Company trading post, than a company seaplane after killing several people. Their plan is to fly south to the still neutral United States in order to get to a Germany Embassy. Several members of the crew are killed on the way as the plane runs out of gas and they crash land. The remaining Nazis make their way to Winnipeg where their leader (Lieutenant Hirth) decides they should make their way to Vancouver, BC to catch a boat sailing to Japan. Along the way, they meet a Hutterite community and learn that their views aren't very popular in this German-Canadian community. As they leave, they execute one of their own who wants to stay instead of returning to Nazi Germany. Now down to three, one of them is captured in Banff by the RCMP and another is over powered in the woods leaving only the Lieutenant. Word of this trek gets to Hitler himself, who praises the evasive Lieutenant and awards his with the Iron Cross. Now on his own, Lieutenant Hirth makes one last attempt to get to the border and reach the still neutral United States. But he is foiled by a Canadian soldier and two US Customs Agents. Written by garykmcd

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