49th Parallel (DVD)
APPROX. 123 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1941 - MPA RATING: NR
" Be prepared because the war can be at your doorstep at a moment’s notice.
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Innumerable Western films of the 1940s depicted the growing Nazi menace, but I am not aware think of too many that were set in Canada. Yet that is precisely where British filmmaking legends Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger staged their strange film "49th Parallel" (1941). The movie was one of Powell and Pressburger´s earliest collaborations (their trademark "Archers" logo does not even appear in the opening credits) and one of their less celebrated, due in part to the fact that it is fairly atypical of their work. Though the film opens with some beautiful mountain shots and goes to great pains to specify locations in Canada, landscape does not play as large a role in the film as it does in most of their work. However, it is the choice of protagonists that marks "49th Parallel" as an unusual film.
A German U-boat makes an exploratory strike along the coast of Canada, but is soon obliterated by alert Canadian fliers. Only a half-dozen crewmen, set ashore to take over the Hudson´s Bay Trading Post, survive the attack. Lieutenant Hirth (Eric Portman) remains undaunted, however. Six Nazis against Canada? They are the master race, and the Canadians are soft. It´s hardly a fair fight at all.
The rest of the film tracks the Nazis on their doomed conquest of the great white north. By casting the crewmen as protagonists, Powell forces the audience to identify with the Nazis. In an even bolder stroke, the film does not make fun of its Nazi characters in order to downplay their threat but depicts them as efficient and (with a few exceptions) courageous. Hirth is a fanatical believer in Hitler´s vision for the world, but he´s also bright, resourceful, and damned clever, fully capable of taking advantage of Canadian hospitality to further his own ends. The film, made in 1941, is no invitation to sing "Heil! (pbbt!)" right in Der Fuehrer´s face, but an admonishment to be afraid, very afraid. Audiences could not laugh at these Nazis as pop-eyed lunatics, humorless Huns, or incompetent clowns. Though these six übermenschen never seriously threaten to take over Canada, they are still a force to be reckoned with. Their intrusion into Canada also proves that the "war in Europe" affects everyone. Be prepared because the war can be at your doorstep at a moment´s notice.
The film´s episodic structure plays like an inverted (or perverted) "Odyssey." The Nazis´ numbers dwindle by attrition as they face off against a series of Canadian citizens including two colorful fur trappers (one played by Laurence Olivier in his pre-knighthood days) and a bucolic Hutterite settlement with a charismatic leader (Anton Walbrook) who deftly deflates Hirth´s Nazi bluster. In the film´s penultimate encounter, the remaining Nazis square off against a reclusive writer (Leslie Howard) who resurrects his long-slumbering male bravado just in time to save the day. Eventually, Hirth finds himself alone, afraid, and easy prey even for a lazy, AWOL Canadian soldier. OK, so maybe there is a little "Heil! (pbbt!)" wish-fulfillment involved.
The all-star cast of "49th Parallel" (Raymond Massey shows up too) proves both boon and detriment. Many of the colorful characters are certainly memorable but also perhaps a bit too… colorful. More than a little scenery gets chewed along the way, but Eric Portman´s simmering rage never quite boils over, and his performance as Lieutenant Hirth is nearly flawless. Though his name is little known today, Portman was a huge star in Britain in the 1940s, and had previously been one of the country´s leading stage actors as well. Powell liked him well enough to cast him again in "One of our Aircraft is Missing" and "A Canterbury Tale." He excelled in both, but "49th Parallel" is his finest achievement.
