49th Parallel (1942)

This odd and fascinating movie was nominated for 3 Oscars at the 1942 Academy Awards under its American release title, "The Invaders": Outstanding Motion Picture (Ortus), Best Motion Picture Story (Emeric Pressburger) and Best Screenplay (Rodney Ackland and Emeric Pressburger). Pressburger won the award for Motion Picture Story, the only Oscar of his career.The film is a cautionary message to North America about the danger of staying ambivalent about the threat of Nazi Germany. A crew of Nazi U boat personnel are stranded in Canada after their submarine is sunk by British planes. They then embark on an episodic journey across the Canadian wilderness as they try to figure out how to get out of the country and back to their motherland. Along the way, they come across situation after situation that challenges the Nazi premise and causes the crew to gradually unravel.The film is really a series of vignettes, each featuring a well-known star at its center -- including Laurence Olivier (hilarious as a French-Canadian trapper), Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey. It's a unique and engrossing film, full of speeches and propaganda yet never feeling preachy or schematic. The team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had a knack for making films set in a reality just a shade or two removed from the reality we all actually know and experience, and "49th Parallel" is no exception.Grade: A

If you saw the movie you know why it is labelled as propaganda.OBSERVATION: Out of last three Germans two were clearly caught alive. Later in the movie the authorities say that the lieutenant is the last German alive. That means Allies were not respecting international laws for POW.GOOFS: 1)Germany is blamed for starting the war. They say Germany invaded Poland. Actually Russians did exactly the same, and Russians = Allies. So in reality the Allies and Germans were equally guilty for the crimes of war. 2)In the movie it is the Germans who despise Eskimo not Canadians. The movie "Germans" are also saying something about black people who were subject of U.S. racism.I would also like to notice the comparison between Germans and some primitive tribes. They could say nothing wrong about Germans. The only "bad" thing is the primitive tribes, since they were subject of racism in U.S. and Canada.The authors of this movie should publicly apologies to the families of European soldiers who did their duty and were deferred to political tribunals and murdered after war.

If you get more than twenty minutes into this film, you are one committed movie goer--but you should be committed elsewhere. This film about a Nazi sub crew stranded in Hudson's Bay (as if) was so unrealistic and poorly filmed that I was waiting for Nanook of the North to save the day. Unfortunately along came a French Canadian with a lumberman's shirt on played atrociously by L. Olivier and with one fell swoop I began thinking of the Pythons' "I'M a Lumberman...." Well, as it turns out, the Nazis actually did land in Canada once during the war to place a weather station in Labrador, that stopped working after a few days. As suggested, this is more than can be said for this film. Cheers to anyone who lasts longer.

One of the more interesting World War II propaganda films, due to outstanding writing (by Emeric Pressburger), direction (by Michael Powell), and performances. The opening credits and sequences may be confusing. The story involves six Nazis making their way from Hudson Bay (in northeastern Canada) to cross the "49th Parallel" (the United States/Canadian border), after their U-boat (submarine warship) is damaged. At the time the film was made, the U.S. would have been a "safe" (neutral) country. Also, the film does not "star" Leslie Howard and Lawrence Olivier - rather, the lead actor is Eric Portman (as Hirth).Mr. Portman and crew do very well in their roles. The most interesting aspect of the film is that the Germans are written to include a sympathetic Nazi, who wavers in his support for the Fuehrer. The most satisfying of the film's loosely threaded stories involves the sympathetic Nazi bonding with a Canadian immigrant settlement, led by Anton Walbrook (as Peter). This, and the segment with Raymond Massey (as Andy Brock), is where you'll find the filmmakers delivering their most palpable (and eloquent) sermonettes. The film is too episodic for its own good - one story, with more focus on Portman's crew, would have sufficed.****** 49th Parallel (10/8/41) Michael Powell ~ Eric Portman, Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier