49th Parallel

I should only like to add to the already comprehensive, very well observed and intelligent review of this film on the previous pages, namely, that the film score by the great Ralph Vaughan Williams should not be left out of any discussion of the picture. As the film starts with the magnificent mountain scenery and Eric Portman's fantastic introductory speech ("shook hands on it and kept it ever since...", "the 49th parallel, the only undefended border in the world...") you seem to be immediately transported into the spirit and persuasion of this exercise in trying to convince all Americans, not just Canadians, that they should join the fight, their place is with all the others, Europeans, British, French, all peoples under the Nazi yoke.

This is an unusual film in many respects. It features splendid music by Vaughan-Williams, and in order to let the sections of music finish on the soundtrack rather than cut it off, we are often treated to extended montage sequences of the magnificence of the wild scenery of Canada, where the film is entirely set. (The 49th parallel is the border between Canada and the United States. In the USA, this film was released under the title 'The Invaders'.) The cinematographer was Freddie Young, whose work with the Indian tepee lighting effects shows his early promise with creative use of light. Camera operator was Skeets Kelly. Together, they did one bold 'avante garde' shot from a small boat as it rams ashore from a lake. This was very quickly cut away from, perhaps even too quickly, by the restless pace imposed by the editor, David Lean, who was soon to become a famous director. Numerous already famous people collaborated on this early wartime propaganda effort, which manages to be relatively light on propaganda and heavy on story. And a good story it is too, written and conceived by Romanian emigree Emeric Pressburger, for which he won a well-deserved Oscar. The film was ably directed by the always talented Michael Powell. The one stand-out bad performance is by Laurence Olivier, who wrongly imagined that he could play a French-Canadian outdoorsman. Despite showing his chest and acting hearty, he fails pathetically to pull this off, and his mechanical mouthing of the accent is far too laboured. He was so often his own worst enemy, by calculating rather than feeling his characters. The opposite is true of the delightful Lesley Howard, who creates a wonderful, eccentric and whimsical character of a vacationing scholar who is on the verge of becoming a Scarlet Pimpernel at any moment (he had made 'Pimpernel Smith' earlier the same year.). Niall MacGinnis is superb as a pathetically regretful Nazi who just wants to go back to being a baker and living a quiet life. Anton Walbrook is magnificent in his intensity as the leader of a pacifist religious sect, and he gets to deliver the best speech in the film. But the finest acting of all is by Eric Portman, who is absolutely terrifying as a fanatical Nazi blind to all reason. Glynis Johns makes an appearance as a fey young girl with a quavery voice, who gets a jibe in at the Nazis by overcoming her innate timidity. This was a very clever propaganda film, because its messages were deeply embedded in an ingenious story line. That story line is innovative and highly dramatic. A German submarine surfaces in Hudson Bay on the Atlantic Coast of Canada, during the period before America was in the War, but Canada, as a British colony, was already a combatant. Six men led by a lieutenant (played by Portman) go ashore in search of food and water supplies, but before they can go far, their submarine is sunk by aerial bombardment, leaving the six men stranded. The Canadian authorities are unaware that these six Nazi seamen are on the loose. The story then becomes the incredible odyssey of their journey across Canada, and the havoc they cause, as they try without food, water, or money to reach Vancouver on the Pacific Coast and take a ship to Japan. Naturally, lots of people get in their way and are killed. This whole project is very well pulled-off indeed, and makes exciting viewing even today.

The above words are said in this brilliant film, and it sums the film up for me. They come just after the burning of a couple of paintings and ' The Magic Mountain ' in of all places a Canadian wilderness. I will give no other spoilers, because this film transcends propaganda, and when the plot of the film is described it sounds like a typical WW2 story. It is not. It shows a group of rotten people crossing a civilized landscape ( maybe to some idealized ) who learn nothing from the experience. Only one does, but is ruthlessly killed by the others with him. The said others have been made rotten by an ideology that still lives today and still threatens us, shifting from one country to many other countries in the current world we live in. Beautifully filmed with sequences that take one's breath away and images that burn into the mind I consider this film to be one of the best ever made. Powell and Pressburger made a number of fine films, but this excels probably with their ' A Canterbury Tale '. As I was watching I thought of the two sources of all our artistic heritage; Homer's ' The Iliad ' and ' The Odyssey '. Both of the above mentioned films draw upon the latter book in their search for meaning and transformation. As for the acting I have a few doubts, but none can subtract from the 10 I give the film. Lawrence Olivier is frankly terrible imitating a French Canadian and Eric Portman lacks nuances in his performance and too heavily emphasis the ' evil ' in his character. Who stands out most as giving the greatest speech is Anton Walbrook and for those who have not seen the film watch out for the part of the film he is in. It is everything that tolerance and goodness should be and his delivery of words and his presence in the film glowed like a beacon in the darkness. I am ashamed I have not seen this film before.

Released a couple of months before the bombing at Pearl Harbor, this is a propaganda film aimed at rallying the world against the Nazi threat. After a disjointed start, it slowly gathers momentum and ultimately proves to be a satisfying adventure about a group of stranded Nazi soldiers surreptitiously trying to make its way across Canada. Although Howard, Olivier, and Massey get top billing, they have small roles. Olivier is a hoot as a French Canadian. Interestingly, Vaughan Williams gets above the title billing for his fine score, although it is underused. Powell, working from a script by partner Pressburger, tells the story in a stark, documentary style.

Yes, it is (was) propaganda. But never has there been a more curiously right and true epitome of the sloppy yet resilient defense of transcontinental democracy than this. Canada wins because Canada is a mess; the Nazi neatness and demand for clear-cut lines falters, and in the end is clobbered with a roundhouse right. So long as I live, I will love this film; it's P&P at their best, and the Vaughan WIlliams score is second to none. What else can one say? I wish I were Canadian.

And since the IMDb, to which I contributed long before it became such a commercial concern, insists that I have at least 10 lines of text, I will keep on jabbering for a few more lines, in order to preserve the above comments for posteriority ...