49th Parallel – 1942
OK, this was obviously a shameless war-time propaganda film. But oh, it was so much more than that. It was a mere breath away from a plain and simple public service announcement. It didn’t even try to hide the fact from the viewing audience. The movie had a message that was shouted out loud and clear. Nazis are every bad thing you can imagine, but worst of all, they were utter morons.
The film was about seven crew members of a German U-boat who become stranded in Canada, specifically in the Hudson Bay. It becomes their goal to make their way south to the 49th parallel, otherwise known as the U.S. border, because the United States was still neutral territory. Once there, they would be turned over to the German Embassy and presumably freed.
At least, that was the plan. Over the course of the film, 6 of the 7 Nazi sailors are either captured, killed, or even executed until only one remains. That one is the commanding officer, the fanatical Hitler supporter and the dumbest one of them all. And at the end, the climax of the movie, the question is brought up. Will the Americans allow him to go free, or will they take a stand against the Nazis? What do you think happened?
Fortunately, the story was cleverly written. If it hadn’t been, the movie would have just been a thin and vapid plot woven around one admonition after another, all with a single purpose: to get the United States involved in the war. Granted, history tells us that it was the right thing to do, but there was a complete lack of subtlety about it.
The lead actor was Eric Portman as Lieutenant Ernst Hirth, the Nazi officer who almost made it across the border. He was the biggest Nazi fanatic of them all. But he was portrayed as pretty dumb. For example, the group of men made their way into a town populated by German Canadians. The people lived lives of peace and harmony, both with the land in which they lived, and with each other. Because their community was so remote, they felt very distant from the war and led their lives without fear or trouble.
Lieutenant Hirth was so crazy that he stood up in a town hall meeting and tried to convince the Germans Canadians that they were living under the oppressive rule of the Canadian / British government. In a fiery Hitler-like speech, he shouted things like, “Join with us, brothers, and we will give you freedom!” And I thought to myself that it was like the fisherman telling the fish, “If you let me catch you, I’ll give you all the water in the lake!” How stupid was this guy? But I guess that was the point. He was a fanatic for whom logic rarely entered the picture. But not only did his speech fail to convince the people to join the Nazi cause, he also let everyone know that he and his men were the Nazis that had been murdering people. Dummkopf!
The film also sported a couple of other really big Hollywood names who agreed to be in the film for half their normal pay because they believed in the importance of the film’s message: Sir Lawrence Olivier, who was still riding high from his acclaimed performance in Wuthering Heights, and Leslie Howard, who was in Gone with the Wind only two years earlier.
Now, before I move on, I have to mention something that I noticed, and which critics of the film apparently noticed as well. Olivier was horrible. His French Canadian fur-trapper accent was over the top, as was his performance in general. I couldn’t get over how he was making his dialogue sound like a farcical parody of a French accent.
The 6 Nazi soldiers who seemed like they were being picked off, one by one over the course of the film were all stereotypically cruel, petty, heartless, and murderous. They killed without compassion or remorse in the name of the Fuhrer and his Reich. All of them, that is, except one. He was Vogel, wonderfully played by actor Niall MacGinnis. He is the one who went native. While in the peaceful Hutterite community outside of Winnipeg, he fell in love with their easy, peaceful way of life. For this, Lieutenant Hirth executed him for trying to leave the Nazi party and betraying the Fuhrer. His part was well written, though tragic.
And finally, at the last, in the scene in which Hirth has made it across the border onto U.S. soil, sure that he has won, the American border patrol is able to send him back to Canada on a technicality, proving once again that the smug Nazis are dumb and can be easily out-smarted. Please join the war effort.