Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) is the third collaboration by the British writer-director team of Powell & Pressburger. It was released in the USA as The Invaders.

"Goebbels considered himself an expert on propaganda, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two." - Emeric Pressburger, screenwriter

"I hoped it might scare the pants off the Americans thus bring them into the war" - Powell

Story

---

The film is set early in WWII, and tells the story of the Nazi survivors of a German U-boat sunk in a Canadian bay. They attempt to evade capture by travelling across Canada to the then-neutral United States - the title comes from the 49th parallel north which marks part of the border between the two countries. Led by Lieutenants Hirth (Eric Portman) and Kuhnecke (Raymond Lovell), the small band of sailors encounter a wide range of people, including a French-Canadian trapper (Laurence Olivier), pacifistic German Hutterite farmers (led by Anton Walbrook), an English academic (Leslie Howard) and an AWOL Canadian soldier (Raymond Massey).

By modern standards, the depiction of Canadians seems stereotypical: brave Mounties; decorated Indians; overwrought French-Canadians; Olivier using a painfully inept version of a French Canadian accent. However, Pressburger deliberately used the diversity of Canada to contrast with the fanatical world view of the Nazis. This fanatical world-view was also played up to frighten American audiences in an attempt to bring America into the war. However, its inclusion of Nazis as leading characters at all, and its criticism of them in spiritual terms rather than straightforward demonisation, are highly unusual for a British WWII propaganda film. Powell and Pressburger would return to similar themes in the more controversial The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Canterbury Tale.

Production

---

The British Ministry of Information approached Michael Powell to make a propaganda film for them, suggesting he could make "a film about mine-sweeping". Instead, Powell wanted to make a film set in Canada, based on the idea that Canadian influence could bring a neutral U.S.A. into the war. After persuading the British and Canadian governments, Powell started location filming in 1940.

Notable crew members include Ralph Vaughan Williams, contributing his first film score, and David Lean as editor. Raymond Massey's brother Vincent Massey, then Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, is heard on the film reading the prologue.

Awards

---

The film won Pressburger an Academy Award for Best Story and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay (including Rodney Ackland for additional dialogue).

The British Film Institute ranked the film the 63rd most popular film with British audiences, based on cinema attendance of 9.3 million in the UK.

External links

---

• Forty-Ninth Parallel at the BFI. The film is 63rd place in the BFI's Ultimate Film Chart
• Forty-Ninth Parallel at screenonline.org.uk
• Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages

1941 films | British films | World War II films made in wartime | Best Picture Academy Award nominees | Films by Powell and Pressburger