A German U-Boat is doing its thing in the North Atlantic when it runs out of food supplies. The captain tries what admittedly is an audacious maneuver. He takes his ship into Hudson's Bay, figuring the population there is nothing but Inuit. He sends a landing party to forage for food. Then the submarine is spotted and sunk with bombs dropped by the Royal Canadian Air Force.
That strands the landing party and they're forced to try and make their way south to the then neutral USA. The film is a series of the various encounters the crew has with the free people of Canada.
Except for one of them, they are a thick headed lot, brains filled with Nazi propaganda. The most interesting encounter is with a group of Hutterites who are in fact German in origin. Comes as quite a culture shock for Eric Portman and his fellow German sailors. Anton Walbrook gives a very stirring speech here about the fact that this group left Europe a century ago to get away from people like the Nazis. One of the crew Niall McGinniss is a baker by trade in civilian life and would just as soon sit out the war with this crowd. Unfortunately his countrymen won't let him.
Laurence Olivier has a strong performance as a French Canadien trapper the group first encounters as they break into a trading post for food and supplies. It's a story put in there because during World War I the French Canadians were quite vociferously vocal in their opposition to the draft. Why I've never figured out because Canada was fighting on the side of France. Olivier has no interest whatever in the politics of Europe, but he finds out too late what kind of people he's now dealing with.
One of the episodes is a bit silly. The urbane and cultured Leslie Howard owns a bit of land and lives in an Indian wigwam with a Picasso, a Matisse, and a few writers that the Nazis find objectionable. Before stealing from him, they trash his place.
I don't know about you, but I find the whole thing too much. It's as if Leslie Howard just dusted off his Alan Squier portrayal from The Petrified Forest and had him come into some bucks. I mean every wigwam should have a Picasso.
The last sequence is a good one as an AWOL Canadian soldier played by Raymond Massey encounters the last remaining Nazi and deals with him appropriately. Raymond Massey comes from a prominent Canadian family, his brother was at one time Governor-General of Canada. I'm sure this was a film he wanted desperately to be in and he gives a good account of himself here.
Except for the Leslie Howard portion. 49th Parallel holds up very well even for today's audience.
That strands the landing party and they're forced to try and make their way south to the then neutral USA. The film is a series of the various encounters the crew has with the free people of Canada.
Except for one of them, they are a thick headed lot, brains filled with Nazi propaganda. The most interesting encounter is with a group of Hutterites who are in fact German in origin. Comes as quite a culture shock for Eric Portman and his fellow German sailors. Anton Walbrook gives a very stirring speech here about the fact that this group left Europe a century ago to get away from people like the Nazis. One of the crew Niall McGinniss is a baker by trade in civilian life and would just as soon sit out the war with this crowd. Unfortunately his countrymen won't let him.
Laurence Olivier has a strong performance as a French Canadien trapper the group first encounters as they break into a trading post for food and supplies. It's a story put in there because during World War I the French Canadians were quite vociferously vocal in their opposition to the draft. Why I've never figured out because Canada was fighting on the side of France. Olivier has no interest whatever in the politics of Europe, but he finds out too late what kind of people he's now dealing with.
One of the episodes is a bit silly. The urbane and cultured Leslie Howard owns a bit of land and lives in an Indian wigwam with a Picasso, a Matisse, and a few writers that the Nazis find objectionable. Before stealing from him, they trash his place.
I don't know about you, but I find the whole thing too much. It's as if Leslie Howard just dusted off his Alan Squier portrayal from The Petrified Forest and had him come into some bucks. I mean every wigwam should have a Picasso.
The last sequence is a good one as an AWOL Canadian soldier played by Raymond Massey encounters the last remaining Nazi and deals with him appropriately. Raymond Massey comes from a prominent Canadian family, his brother was at one time Governor-General of Canada. I'm sure this was a film he wanted desperately to be in and he gives a good account of himself here.
Except for the Leslie Howard portion. 49th Parallel holds up very well even for today's audience.