Amazon.com: At once a compelling piece of anti-isolationist propaganda and a quick-witted wartime thriller, 49th Parallel is a classic early work from the inimitable British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. When a Nazi U-boat crew, headed by the ruthless Eric Portman, is stranded in Canada during the thick of World War II, the men evade capture by hiding out in a series of rural communities, before trying to cross the border into the United States. Both soul-stirring and delightfully entertaining, 49th Parallel features a colorful cavalcade of characters played by larger-than-life actors Laurence Olivier, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook, and Leslie Howard.
Amazon.com: During World War II, Michael Powell and his writer-producer partner Emeric Pressberger were enlisted to make films in support of the British war effort. While many of their contemporaries turned out routine thrillers, Powell and Pressberger created inventive dramas with a patriotic purpose. The 1941 adventure The 49th Parallel, about a small German U-boat crew stranded in Canada off Hudson's Bay, is a prime example of wartime propaganda turned into rousing entertainment with smart writing, engaging characters, and creative cinema. As the Germans traverse the length of Canada, attempting to outrun authorities while seeking a passage to the still-neutral United States, they encounter a wide array of citizens from all walks of life, including French Canadian trapper Laurence Olivier (with a perhaps overenthusiastic accent), Hutterites Anton Walbrook and Glynis Johns, intellectual aesthete Leslie Howard, and two-fisted AWOL soldier Raymond Massey. As the Nietzschian sermons of Nazi leader Hirth (Eric Portman) fall on deaf ears, his party dwindles in number as the people of Canada rise up to stop his escape, not so much with violence as with pure defiance. The rhetoric isn't subtle--the film was designed to both strengthen ties to Canada and encourage America's entrance into the war--but the vivid location shooting provides a marvelous travelogue of Canada's landscapes and natural beauty and a loving portrait of the rich culture north of the 49th parallel. The picture earned Emeric Pressberger an Academy Award for his original story. This movie is also known as The Invaders. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - THE BATTLE OF WORLDVIEWS!!
First of all, this Criterion-restored version is a great quality picture, clean and crisp. Second, it is a movie with an ulterior motive, that of getting the then-neutral USA into the war. While I don't ... Read More
Rating: - Powell & Pressburgerlicious
With the advent of Criterion releasing so many Powell/Pressburger colaborations to video, I've become a real fan of their stuff and 49th Parallel is no exception.
Rating: - Wonderful as anti-Nazi propaganda but failed as film
Powell and Pressburger made great films, they were artists of the art of cinema. I am the first to regret to write this but the well-intentioned aim of the film: to rouse anti-Nazi feelings in America in order ... Read More
Rating: - Nazis on the Run Across Canada in an Episodic, Pip-Pip Propaganda Epic
The Criterion Collection saw fit to release this 1941 British propaganda film in an elaborate two-disc set, but the circumstances behind the production are actually more interesting than the resulting film showcased ... Read More
Rating: - 49th Parallel
Also known as "The Invaders," and co-scripted by Powell's longtime partner Emeric Pressburger, this clever, rousing anti-fascist war thriller was one of Britain's boldest and most memorable propaganda pictures. Portman ... Read More
- THE BATTLE OF WORLDVIEWS!!
- Wonderful as anti-Nazi propaganda but failed as film