The story of 49th Parallel, nominated for Best Picture of 1942, is an original one, not a historical one. The tale of several Nazis stranded in the Canadian wilderness in the early years of World War II would have been just realistic enough for Canadian and United States audiences to fear the possibility of a Nazi invasion. At the time of the film's release, the United States had not yet formally entered the war; that would not occur until December of 1942 after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, what 49th Parallel makes clear (and what I suspect its makers intended) is that the Nazi threat was worldwide.
The film begins with a Nazi submarine attacking a Canadian ship carrying crude oil that could be used for Allied battleships. The Nazis are interested only in raiding such ships for supplies, though, so they refuse to take on any of the survivors from the sinking Canadian ship. We're meant to understand the brutality of the Germans from this brief introductory sequence, and it's quickly followed by a discussion of plans to take over a trading post in the Hudson Bay, where the submarine has fled to hide. Instead, the submarine is destroyed, leaving six crewmen, the search party, stranded in the mountains.
What follows are the adventures of those six men as they cross Canada in an attempt to reach the neutral territory of the United States. We see a series of vignettes of the complications that arise when a group of Germans try to pass unnoticed during wartime. For example, the first encounter with Canadians involves a fur trapper named Johnny (played by Laurence Olivier). He's back at the trading post after 11 months in the wilderness and is incredulous that the English and French are fighting on behalf of the Poles. When the Nazis show up, they bring the war directly to his remote location and make him understand the need for solidarity against the German threat. Unfortunately, Johnny and several others are shot and killed when the Nazis steal an emergency plane, but the Nazi who pilots the plane dies after the plane crashes when it runs out of fuel, and the movie quickly starts to seem like a game of "Ten Little Indians." "Six Little Nazis," I suppose, would be the more appropriate title. One by one, the Nazis are discovered and killed or captured, no doubt a nod by the filmmakers to the strength of Canadian patriotism (or what they hoped would be the patriotic response of the Canadians).
There's an extended sequence involving a Hutterite community that the Nazis happen upon after meeting a young girl named Anna (played by Glynis Johns, her voice just as recognizable as ever). The Hutterites are German immigrants who have founded several communal spaces in Canada, and for a time, the Nazis think they may have found some like-minded folks. Lt. Hirth (Eric Portman), the ostensible leader of the band of remaining Nazis, even gives a speech at one of the Hutterite gatherings. He talks to them about German pride and racial purity, and it's obvious he's trying to recruit them into the Nazi movement. However, many of the Hutterites, particularly their leader, Peter (Anton Walbrook), left Europe because of the kind of thinking represented by Hirth and his co-horts; they are pacifists by nature. And Anna's father was even killed by the Nazis; that's why she is now in Canada. One of the Nazis, Vogel (Niall MacGuiness), starts to regret his involvement in the Nazi movement, and he even takes up his previous beloved trade as a baker. The Hutterites want him to join them, but the remaining Nazis sentence him to death as a traitor and execute him in the woods. It's a chilling moment in the film to watch them shoot someone who was previously their colleague.
I won't recount every moment in the film that leads to the end of another Nazi, lest it truly sound like "Ten Little Indians." Let me just say that one of the more intriguing sequences involves an Indian festival and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police encouraging everyone in the crowd to look at her/his neighbor for a suspected Nazi: "Look closely at your neighbor." I wondered if there were a comment there about the paranoia surrounding Nazis and the attempts by some people to point fingers at almost anyone they find suspicious, but it's played too seriously for me to imagine that's what the film's creators had in mind.
Leslie Howard, of all people, shows up in the guise of Philip Armstrong Scott, a wealthy man who likes to carry a Picasso and a Matisse with him while out in the woods to fish and to write a book about the tribal customs of the Blackfoot Indians of Canada. Well, who doesn't want the comforts of home in a tent in the wilderness? Doesn't everyone carry several oil paintings and books by writers like Thomas Mann to read at night around a campfire? The remaining pair of Nazis taunt him for his cowardice (really, his effeminacy, I suspect, if not his effete nature) and, after tying him up, destroy his paintings and burn his books and his unfinished manuscript. Of course, the men with whom Howard's Scott are staying rescue him, and they hunt down and kill one of the two Nazis.
That leaves only Lt. Hirth, and it's up to Raymond Massey, a hobo on a train, to stop him. I know. This is starting to sound like one of those all-star disaster movies from the 1970s where you could play "Guess the Star." Aside from those playing the fleeing Germans, all of these actors have very brief moments on screen. They amount to little more than a cameo appearance at times, but they certainly are no more than supporting roles. That means, of course, that much of the movie is seen through the eyes and actions of the Nazis. The movie walks a very thin line sometimes between depicting the Nazis as horrible, brutal killers and in showing them in a sympathetic light, such as when they have to sell their gloves for food in Winnipeg. I suppose that could be considered fair-minded of the film makers, but it also leaves quite an uncomfortable feeling at times, too.
Much of the film was shot in the Canadian Rockies, including a sequence at Banff National Park. The cinematography of the countryside is breath-taking. It's enough to make you want to hop on a train and ride through the wilderness yourself. What 49th Parallel accomplishes, interestingly, is placing men who represent an unnatural evil (Nazism) inside the natural beauty of Canada. I don't know if the makers of 49th Parallel meant to draw that connection, but given that the film's title refers to the dividing line between Canada and the United States, it's impossible not to consider it when watching the film. It's certainly an unusual piece of propaganda from the World War II era, and it's intriguing to watch just for the ways in which the ordinary people of a country could have an impact on the outcome of a war.
Oscar Win: Original Story
Other Oscar Nominations: Picture and Screenplay
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