49th Parallel
Izenburua EEBBetan/US Title/Título en EEUU: The Invaders
BFI NFTVA-TIK DATORREN KOPIA/COPY FROM BFI NFTVA/COPIA PROCEDENTE DE BFI NFTVA
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A German U-boat is destroyed off the coast of Canada, and the surviving crew members set out to reach neutral America. On their travels, they meet a cross-section of Canadians, all with different ethnic backgrounds and beliefs, but all resistant to the Nazi arguments put by the Germans. As the band diminishes, only the fanatical Lieutenant Hirth is left, and he is finally captured by a Canadian hobo on the US border.
Powell had read an article about how Canada had come into the war on Britain's side despite internal French-Canadian hostility, and he understood how the forceful presentation of this issue could help win the most important propaganda battle of all: to bring America into the war quickly. Each sequence serves a precise ideological function and dramatic purpose. 49th Parallel was greeted as the first considerable fiction film of the war; good propaganda and good entertainment. It did record business and won Pressburger the only Oscar of his career, for its script. It also prompted the first link between Powell and Pressburger and their future financier. When the Ministry of Information's funds proved inadequate, J. Arthur Rank stepped in with £60,000 to help complete the film.
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