1941 was a tumultuous year in world history, especially in Europe and Asia as the battles of World War II were being waged. So much has been said about those famous battlefields that it’s a little surprising how little I had ever seen about what was going on in North America during the time aside from soldiers from America and Canada being drafted and deployed overseas. 49th Parallel, retitled in the USA as The Invaders, provides an inside look at what was going on in the country of Canada while the soldiers were off in Europe engaged directly in the war. It is a fascinating look at the mindset of the peoples who stayed behind for one reason or another as well as how those who were isolated from most of the war news viewed what was going on. All of this was in service of a story about a small group of Nazi soldiers stranded in Canada trying to cross the country and escape to America.
The film opens in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in French Canada. A German U-boat sinks a Canadian freighter and then evades the RCN and RCAF by sailing into Hudson Bay. A small contingent of soldiers, six in total, sail ashore in search of provisions and are left stranded when the U-boat is sunk by RCAF bombers. The nazis, lead by Lieutenant Hirth (Eric Portman), steal an aircraft, losing one of their own in the process. They lose another one when the craft runs out of fuel and crashes into a lake in Manitoba. There, the four remaining men are welcomed into a Hutterite farming community.
The Hutterites are a simple people, each choosing their own fields of interest according to their own talents, something foreign to the Nazis who have been assigned by their party to their work. This simplier, peaceful way of life appeals to one of the men, Vogel (Niall MacGinnis) who wishes to stay in the community. He has also taken a liking to one of the women there, Anna (Glynis Johns). For this he is executed by the other three. As the men continue fleeing across Canada in an attempt to cross over into then neutral America another is captured by the Canadian Mounties. Then another is eliminated after rebelling against his group leader. Finally, the remaining man, Hirth himself, is captured on a freight train crossing the border.
49th Parallel began life as a proposition by the British Ministry of Information to produce a propaganda film. Director Michael Powell had loftier ideas, though. He envisioned a film that would help sway public opinion in neutral America to enter the war. By 1940 he was already location filming. By the time the movie was complete and released to the general public, though, the bombing of Pearl Harbor had happened and America was officially in the war. Emeric Pressburger, a Hungarian-British screenwriter, pictured making a movie inspired by Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians in which the small group of Nazis were removed from the story one at a time until it was down to just the one remaining. Consequently, the film has an episodic feel to it as it goes from one setting to the next, each ending with the demise or capture of one of the men. This format also means that, aside from the Nazis themselves, the other credited actors only appear in their individual segments before disappearing again from the picture. Leslie Howard, for instance, despite being top billed in the opening credits wont appear until over ninety minutes into it and will be gone again about twenty minutes later.
When the film was initially released in the United States it was retitled as The Invaders, a title that better sells what kind of film it is. The original title, 49th Parallel is sterile and lacks excitement and intrigue. There were other changes made to the release for American audiences. By 1942 the Hayes Code was in full effect and 19 minutes was excised before it could be released to American theaters. Some of the phrasing comparing Eskimos to black people was cut to avoid offending the populations in the American South. While it is understandable that this would be a concern to studios wishing to maximize their profits during a time of social unrest this kind of editing undercuts the characterization of the Nazis just as much as it would to eliminate any anti-Jewish sentiment on their parts to avoid offending the Jewish population. It’s something that would probably not happen in more recent productions but is a sign of the state of mind for Americans in the 1940’s.
While the story is episodic that doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting. There is plenty of action and suspense, especially later in the film as the Canadian authorities are closing in on the dwindling group of Nazis. The segment at the Hutterites also gives us a good view of the way society in Nazi Germany was being run at the time. Vogel, who grew up as a baker, has been conscripted into the military. He believes in his country but disagrees with the idea that no one is allowed to choose what they want to do with their lives. The Hutterite community offers him a chance to do the one thing he really loves, to bake. This desire ends up getting him executed as a deserter. He will be the only member amongst the Nazis that is portrayed as sympathetic which, by itself, makes this film more progressive than many other films of the time in their portrayals of the Nazis.
The segment involving Leslie Howard adds a level of levity to the proceedings without losing the threat. Howard plays Phillip Armstrong Scott, an eccentric writer living in a teepee up in the Rocky Mountains. He initially assumes the two remaining Nazis are lost tourists and takes them in, showing off his precious paintings as well as his manuscripts that liken the German Nazi methods to that of ancient tribal tactics. He prattles on and on about these observations, completely unaware of just whom it is he is saying all of this to. They tie him up, burning the papers and paintings before fleeing into the woods again but Lohrmann (John Chandos) has finally had enough and rebels against Hirth, knocking him down and fleeing to a cave for cover. Phillip, knowing exactly how much ammo Lohrmann has, puts his life on the line to approach the cave entrance, getting shot once in the process. He survives this bit of insanity and takes Lohrmann out in hand to hand combat.
Hirth, wounded by his altercation with Lohrmann, eventually makes it onto a freight train heading for the American border. His capture is thanks to an AWOL Canadian soldier who is eight days late coming back from his leave because he is unhappy with the assignment his government has given him, guarding a place he deems will never be under attack. He speaks of never getting a chance to ever fight the Nazis, unaware that he is in the presence of one as he says it. This moment is just the right note of irony to end the film on without making it too on the nose.
By the time this film released in America the USA was already involved in World War II thanks to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The central premise of the stranded Nazi soldiers trying to escape into America would have already been outdated for the audience of the time and thus voiding out the element of being topical. That being said, the war was still a relatively new development for American viewers who, up until recently, had been shielded by the studios who mostly didn’t want to even acknowledge the Nazi threat for fear of losing distribution in Germany and other Nazi occupied countries. Only recently were war propaganda films getting bigger commercial releases in the United States. This is amongst the better ones for its time and it still holds up to modern viewing. The Nazis are appropriately menacing, yet they are not depicted as mindless soldiers blindly following orders to the death. Vogel further humanizes the enemy, too, which adds a dimensionality to the enemy that isn’t often seen. This may be a war propaganda film but it is even more than that and is well worth seeking out after all these years.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Motion Picture: Michael Powell
Best Screenplay: Rodney Ackland and Ereric Pressburger
Best Original Motion Picture Story: Ereric Pressburger (won)
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Release Date: November 24, 1941
Running Time: 123 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Raymond Massey, Glynis Johns and Eric Portman
Directed By: Michael Powell
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