49th Parallel
The 49th Parallel
(1941)
123 minutes
As Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940) (Blackout) constitute a pair of films with a specific topic - spy movies, so too do the 49th Parallel and One of Our Aircraft is Missing constitute a pair of war films – specifically with members of an army trapped behind enemy lines. In this case, Nazis trapped in Canada, in other Brits trapped in Nazi controlled Holland.
Canada is a large country which basically became an independent country in 1931. It had had many complicated problems of the question of having both English and French as major languages. The area around Quebec being heavily French. Aside from the French and English it has many ethnic groups living within its borders and has been seen as one of the world’s most ethnically diverse nations.
Canada declared war on Germany, three days after Britain did.
Just when WWII starts is open to discussion. While it is generally held to begin with the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1 1939, other hold that the 2nd Sino-Japanese War starting on July 7 1937 is the date. Others hold that the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on Oct 3 1935 is the beginning. There is just as much debate on the official end of the war. You pays your money you takes your choice.
It is on Sept. 3rd 1939 that France and Britain join in (with Canada and the independent dominions following within days)
The Ministry of Information (MOI) in Britain listed three things that films should have to be propaganda films
Contraband was seen as an example of the 2nd category, but it was felt this category should be handled in “Documentary” film.
It was the first category that was most suited for narrative films and (in case no one knew what they were fighting for) the MOI told them:
What was being fought against were German ideals and institutions
British character was defined as being independent, toughness of fiber, and sympathy with the underdog with Goodbye Mr. Chips and the example. It was also felt that such qualities should be less obviously stressed to make them more palatable for Americans (The Lady Vanishes was the example)
The MOI suggested a great film on the impact of British Liberty and its reprocussions as in 17th Cent. Holland and 18th Cent France – The did NOT mention 18th Century US) . The idea would be to show what it meant to have the Gestapo take these freedoms and rights away by showing them breaking up the family to have the government take control of children and so on. The MOI also stressed that it would be more credible to show the sinister rather than sadistic aspects of the Gestapo and show them making absurd errors in judgment. A couple of films on refuges might be nice too, the thought
Pressburger took these ideas to heart for years and became Britain’s primary weapon in the propaganda as carried out in film. Pressburger did not like Goodbye Mr. Chips approach which he saw as soft and sentimental but wanted something that would depict the Nazi movement (and he seems clear not to paint all Germans with the same brush as we will see) as brutal, sadistic and with a kind of religious zeal. He had been aware of the movement since he had been in Germany as it was starting.
Churchill had felt that the best way to contain the conflict was to bring the Americans into the war as soon as possible. This was a huge problem for the propaganda-ists. The US was 3000 miles away – how to convince them they were in danger?
The US basically remained neutral until 1941, although it had placed an embargo on aviation gas in July of 1940 which many Japanese officials and officers considered virtually a declaration of war. Shortly after the US embargoed iron steel and mechanical parts.
The apparent neutrality of the US was a thorn to many British who wanted the Americans to become involved in the war especially with Germany. So this film has to be seen to a large degree as a bit of “propaganda” meant for Americans to force them into the war. The film is set at a time when Canada has already entered the war, and the US is still neutral.
IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU SEE THE FILM AS DOING “PROPOGANDA”?
The film has many major stars who came on board to help with the effort. They include Lawrence Olivier, Viennese born violently anti Nazi Anton Walbrook (one of the most popular European stars of the time. He donated his salary for the film to charity), Leslie Howard (fresh from Gone with the Wind) and Canadian born Raymond Massey well known for his depiction of Abraham Lincoln.
So, Pressburger started studying the lay of the land, physically. Canada was already involved. Pressburger thought that using Canada was just as good as the US because Americans would know what could happen in Canada could happen in the US. (A British, not an American perception) They got the British government to find (for the 1st and only time) an expedition of a film company to do research for a film. So he and Powell went to Canada by ship. The route was one that had been attacked by U-Boats and so there was a constant watch for them. It is not surprising therefore with the idea U-boats patrolling in the N Atlantic n his mind that his mind turned to them in the script.
Pressburger and Powell travel around Canada and make a trip to NY. The size of the country impresses them as does a kind of naďve notion about “Canadian identity” and the submerging of ethnic differences. and there are some indications that there is some tension between them about minor things. Pressburger sometimes sees Powell as having characteristics of a dictator and being childish in other ways.
By the time of their return things had heated up and Pressburger was arrested as an alien and was to be deported. Powell raged about it and the MOI finally got his right to reside in Britain restored, but he had to visit the police every day for more than a month
Finally the group departs for Canada for the filming of exterior shots with a small crew and only a few actors – most will work on sets indoors, Niall McGinnis and Finlay Currie go and the actors portraying German sailors go including Eric Portman a relatively unknown actor whose appearance is intense and brooding. Powell goes but Emeric is forced to stay behind writing the script and sending the pieces as needed to Canada Also going was Elizabth Bergner a difficult and expensive actress who was about to appear in a Pressburger scripted film called Rings on Her Fingers. She sent for Pressburger and said she wanted the role of Anna and was willing to give up Rings on Her Fingers for the part and would, in addition, go to Canada to do her own exterior shots for no additional money. It was uncharacteristic.But maybe not. As soon as she finished a few exterior shots she fled with her husband to Hollywood. It became clear she would not return to Britain for interiors and the whole thing had been a ruse to get a travel permit and get out of England. She was replaced by Glynis Johns who interestingly enough was as a result doubled in some exterior shots by a much better known actress!
Funding was done largely by the British government with an investment by Oscar Deutsch who owned general film distributors and the Odeon circuit of the theaters. There were some financial worries until David. O Selznick and Samuel Goldwyn bought the American distribution rights
The film is “episodic” with each episode highlighting one of the major stars. Many feel the weakest link is the episode with Leslie Howard who was tired of playing a tired of playing a certain type and complicated matters here by re-writing Pressburger’s dialog and doing a pretty terrible job of it.
One of the interesting problems of the film is that Eric Portman who was not initially consider to be one of the stars of the film, plays the main Nazi officer and appears in all episodes. Both Howard and Massey fought for his star billing which he finally got. He goes on to play in One of Our Aircraft is Missing, and A Canterbury Tale
This is the first of Powell Pressburger’s “composed films”
Composed film was an idea that would develop and evolve over time culminating perhaps in the Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffman. It had to do with the wedding of the sound track to the images on the film. In this film, the opening shots of Canada with the musical accompaniment are early moves in that direction They also stem, to some degree, from the British documentary – the most famous of which in this regard is Night Mail (1936) (produced by John Grierson) in which directors Basil Wright and Harry Watts film has a score written for it by Benjamin Britten, one of Britain’s most famous composers and a text by Nobel Prize NOMINEE W.H. Auden (regarded by some as one of Britain’s greatest writers of the 20th Century). The relationship between British documentary and Powell/Pressburger’s work is complex since in many ways the duo was interested in fantasy and the fantastic, yet were very tied to the idea of local geography as impinging on the characters in their stories. More on this when we come to I Know Where I’m Going,A Canterbury Tale and Gone to Earth. There is clearly an interest in that direction in this film with the opening shots of Canada.
The film also deals (as did Spy in Black) with border crossings – another theme which permeates Powell Pressburger films
This film is edited by David Lean (editor=>director)
Another theme, tightly tied to spy films (and to some degree war films) is the idea of looking and watching. Clocks and lists which occur also in both kinds of film are both spy and military business but also excellent for building tension when needed.
After the film
Some debt owed to Agatha Christie and 10 Little Indians (here 6 Little Nazis)
A quick note about the end of the film – which is not the original ending written by Pressburger. He was asked to change it. In it Hirth makes it across so he can go home and tell everyone what it is really like in N America. The Ministry of Information felt the idea was too ambiguous.
Pressburger was also furious with Leslie Howard for re-writing his part rather badly. He hated his “Wars may come and wars may go, but art goes on forever” line. He comments that the crew was shooting a script entirely unknown to him – which was slow and bad. He later said he twisted the lines the wrong way – lurid and bad (and very different in approach relative to the indigenous people).
Imagery of storm coming throughout film. Very romantic idea – nature and human emotions related.
Film is full of tricks with using doubles on location for main actors (except Porter and Bergner)
Each episode deals with a contrast between Nazi/Democratic ideals
Prologue very much rigidity of Nazism – stiff arm salute sanding at attention, officers above
(1) racial superiority demolished by Eskimo killing German
Relations between politics and religion (very similar) Nazism replaces religion; Jokes about regimentation and goosestepping Vogel leaves rosary. Is the British army as regimented? American?
(2) Nazi loss of individuality/democratic ideas of choice (Vogel – the most sympathetic) Inability of Hirth to understand Vogel sees it as something like getting cooperation. Violence of the killing of Vogel
Once again in Calgary, the “inferior” Indians spot the Nazi,
(3) Terrible 3rd because of Howard who was meant to represent the British. Anti Indian equates Nazis with Indians whereas the rest of the film treats indigenous people as the equal of anyone else (which makes Howard’s rewriting of the script supporting the Nazi viewpoint about the primitiveness of the Indians particularly galling).
(4) Conversion of the Canadian and final assertion of Democratic ideals
There seems little doubt that it is Eric Porter and Anton Walbrook (Peter) who steal the show. Walbrook and Porter both deliver their long speeches in one take and floored everyone there and it is clear why both Howard and Massey demanded star billing for Porter
The film met with some criticism on the grounds that the Nazis and their problem made them too sympathetic and some argues it was a great waste of taxpayer money. The success of the film stopped that. One suspects that with people like Junge in the technical crew, Powell and Pressburger were determined to indicate one can not paint all Germans with the same brush. The problem was Nazism not being German.
It was released as The Inavders in the US and was a big hit as well.
The film is the first of what Powell called a “composed film” – one in which the music was significantly critical that the film was edited to the music track. Here Ralph Vaughn Williams (who was the major British composer since Purcell) wrote the score and is given “star billing”.
This composed film idea would of course reach a climax in The Red Shoes, Tales of Hoffmann and Oh…Rosalina!!
Here the film’s opening of the great vistas of Canada which show us the beginnings of the idea of a composed films as Ralph Vaughn Williams score plays in the background
The film’s structure is episodic – 4 episodes each with its own star “cameo” Olivier as the French trapper, Walbrook as the Hutterite leader, Howard as the “anthropologist” and Massey and the deserter on the train. Hirth is the connecting link.
Each segment gives a different bit Nazi Nazi philosophy and each segment loses a German.
The propaganda that Canadians have reforged themselves in a great melting pot, is of course propaganda, but it was what the film was looking to do.
In the first sequence, there is an attack on Nazi ideology of racial superiority and interestingly enough, it is the Eskimo/Inuit who causes the first disaster for the Germans (it will also be the Indians who cause more trouble for them later by spotting one of them in the crowed NOTE hear the use of folk music in the score, something Ralph Vaughn Williams was a master at. His use of Alouette gets us raedy for the arrival of Johnny the Frenchman. So with a Scot and Frenchman and Eskimos the ethnic mix of Canada solidifying as Canadians however untrue is shown
The sudden shift in the shooting of the Eskimos is something of a jolt
The scenes of the plane crash are particularly dramatic (especially the dipping of the plane) There were many problems for the actors – one of whom nearly drowned.
The second sequence with the Hutterites has Hirth cross swords with Walbrook and the idea of a forceful leader who overrides government and tramples people’s rights is contrasted with their peaceable non-led existence which appeals to the “good Nazi” Vogel who as a baker once again sees his making of bread in the garden of Eden as an alternative and winds up getting him killed by the brutal and sadistic Hirth. His virtual religious diatribes find expression in politics.
The third sequence continues with Leslie Howard who decided to rewrite his part much to Pressburger’s horror. He was thought of in Britain as “the American Actor" and this may have been an idea he picked up with American stars) Pressburger said that he reversed the meaning and did it badly. He complained about his costume to which Powell replied that if he wanted a say in the costume he should have come to Canada and made the selecting himself. The character is finally aroused enough to take action (presumably what Pressburger wanted from the Americans.
The final act involved Raymond Massey (famous for his portrayals of Lincoln as the deserter who comes to understand what he is fighting for ends the film.
Interestingly enough, Pressburger wanted Hirth to make it to the US and be sent back to Germany where he would then tell what he had seen, but there was enormous hostility to this idea. There was already tension about having a German as a protagonist and the “patriotic” statements coming from the Canadians and not the British,
The use of the geography being filmed is not done solely to show that “we are really there” but rather to give some feeling of the expanse of the country and something about the geography’s impact on the characters.
Powell’s use of doubles in this (and other films) becomes something of a trick he exploits in many films in which actors are often shown in certain scenes, but doubled in others. The scenes for example with Howard in the canoe, in long shots are not Howard. They were shot in Canada and the close-ups in the canoe were added in England. The one of Howard in the canoe is possibly the worst one in the film. The shots of Anna in the field are of the major star whereas the close ups are of Glynis Johns in an odd case of a major star doubling for an unknown.