Synopsis for
49th Parallel (1941) More at IMDbPro »

U-37, the first German submarine to reach Canada, sinks a merchant ship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, then runs for cover in Hudson Bay. Captain Bernsdorff sends men ashore to capture a trading post - just before U-37 is destroyed by an RCAF bomber. Lieutenant Ernst Hirth, eager but inexperienced leader of the shore party, (comprising his resentful deputy Lieutenant Kuhnecke and the sailors Vogel, Kranz, Lohrmann and Jahner), follows his orders regardless. In the trading post, the Factor is updating French-Canadian trapper Johnnie Barras (just back from eleven months in the wild) on the outbreak of war when Hirth and his men burst in, injuring the Eskimo servant, Nick. After an edgy night, a radio ham from Grand Rapids, Michigan, calls up for his regular chess game with the Factor and Johnnie shouts an alarm into the microphone. Jahner shoots him, and he later dies. Knowing that a seaplane will come to the post to investigate, the Nazis plan to hijack it and fly to the neutral U.S.A. They take the plane (with much loss of life), but Jahner is shot by an Eskimo marksman as it takes off. Kuhnecke misjudges the plane's fuel reserves and dies when it crashes into a lake, still well north of the 49th parallel. The four survivors come upon a Hutterite community of émigré Germans, led by Peter. The gentle Vogel befriends the fifteen-year-old Anna and, impressed by the community's spirit, volunteers to bake its bread. Hirth takes the Hutterites for secret Nazi sympathisers and openly appeals for their help at a general meeting, where Peter angrily refuses him. While Hirth, Kranz and Lohrmann prepare to move on, Peter persuades Vogel to stay on as the baker. But Hirth returns and summarily executes him for desertion. The three Nazis reach Winnipeg, and learn that the Mounties are on their trail. They set off for Vancouver, intending to take a Japanese boat to Russia. Mounties suspect their presence at the Indian Day celebrations in Banff, and Kranz is arrested when he panics and reveals his identity. Hirth and Lohrmann proceed on foot across the Rockies and stumble into the camp of Philip Armstrong Scott, an English aesthete and academic researching the history and culture of the Blackfoot Sioux. They respond to his hospitality by burning his paintings, books and research notes and tying him up, but he breaks free and captures Lohrmann. The wounded Hirth hops the freight car of a train heading for the U.S. border and overpowers fellow stowaway Andy Brock, an AWOL Canadian soldier. The train halts at Niagara Falls and Hirth identifies himself to the U.S. customs officers, demanding to be taken to the German embassy. But Brock persuades them to classify himself and Hirth as "improperly manifested freight" and to return his carriage to Canada. Now disarmed, Hirth is no match for Brock's fists...