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Thanks for the memories!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I watched this movie a few nights ago and was well into it before realizing I'd seen it once many years ago. I recall the unique viewpoint of the story from the Germans' side but never knew the significance of the propaganda slant until I looked it up on here and read the reviews. No need for me to comment further on that aspect or on the virtues of the film itself; the various reviewers are more knowledgeable than I and have successfully deconstructed it far better than I could, but I thought it a remarkable coincidence that I should stop at an estate sale the VERY NEXT DAY and find a VHS tape of it with a plaid-clad Olivier flanked by Howard and Massey on the cover. I'd have bought it but I no longer have a suitable player.Incidentally, the movie played on a local broadcast station, one of those late-night-peppered-with-commercials things that makes it exasperating to watch and difficult to follow, but checking the schedule I found that it repeats on Sunday at noon so I will try again and pay more attention from the start in order to better appreciate the work.One thing I thought everyone overlooked was an exchange by the characters at the Hutterite community when Anna was describing the loss of her mother at sea. One of the Germans asked what ship she'd been on, leading me to think it would be revealed that U-37 had sunk that ship, but the thread was not followed and the moment was lost. I do agree about the numerous plot holes and inconsistencies.One final note: The plane on which Hirth flies back east alone looks like a Lockheed Electra, the craft in which Amelia Earhart vanished.

This is an unusual film in many respects. It features splendid music by Vaughan-Williams, and in order to let the sections of music finish on the soundtrack rather than cut it off, we are often treated to extended montage sequences of the magnificence of the wild scenery of Canada, where the film is entirely set. (The 49th parallel is the border between Canada and the United States. In the USA, this film was released under the title 'The Invaders'.) The cinematographer was Freddie Young, whose work with the Indian tepee lighting effects shows his early promise with creative use of light. Camera operator was Skeets Kelly. Together, they did one bold 'avante garde' shot from a small boat as it rams ashore from a lake. This was very quickly cut away from, perhaps even too quickly, by the restless pace imposed by the editor, David Lean, who was soon to become a famous director. Numerous already famous people collaborated on this early wartime propaganda effort, which manages to be relatively light on propaganda and heavy on story. And a good story it is too, written and conceived by Romanian emigree Emeric Pressburger, for which he won a well-deserved Oscar. The film was ably directed by the always talented Michael Powell. The one stand-out bad performance is by Laurence Olivier, who wrongly imagined that he could play a French-Canadian outdoorsman. Despite showing his chest and acting hearty, he fails pathetically to pull this off, and his mechanical mouthing of the accent is far too laboured. He was so often his own worst enemy, by calculating rather than feeling his characters. The opposite is true of the delightful Lesley Howard, who creates a wonderful, eccentric and whimsical character of a vacationing scholar who is on the verge of becoming a Scarlet Pimpernel at any moment (he had made 'Pimpernel Smith' earlier the same year.). Niall MacGinnis is superb as a pathetically regretful Nazi who just wants to go back to being a baker and living a quiet life. Anton Walbrook is magnificent in his intensity as the leader of a pacifist religious sect, and he gets to deliver the best speech in the film. But the finest acting of all is by Eric Portman, who is absolutely terrifying as a fanatical Nazi blind to all reason. Glynis Johns makes an appearance as a fey young girl with a quavery voice, who gets a jibe in at the Nazis by overcoming her innate timidity. This was a very clever propaganda film, because its messages were deeply embedded in an ingenious story line. That story line is innovative and highly dramatic. A German submarine surfaces in Hudson Bay on the Atlantic Coast of Canada, during the period before America was in the War, but Canada, as a British colony, was already a combatant. Six men led by a lieutenant (played by Portman) go ashore in search of food and water supplies, but before they can go far, their submarine is sunk by aerial bombardment, leaving the six men stranded. The Canadian authorities are unaware that these six Nazi seamen are on the loose. The story then becomes the incredible odyssey of their journey across Canada, and the havoc they cause, as they try without food, water, or money to reach Vancouver on the Pacific Coast and take a ship to Japan. Naturally, lots of people get in their way and are killed. This whole project is very well pulled-off indeed, and makes exciting viewing even today.

Where do I begin reviewing this comedy of errors. A German U-Boat sinking ships in the Atlantic decides to sail thousands of miles to Hudson's Bay for supplies (Germany would have been closer). They sail to the far west side of Hudson's Bay where no U-Boat ever entered during WWII because they would find no shipping targets there. The U-Boat surfaces and raises the national flag instead of the German naval ensign. They send ashore six men for "supplies." For some fathomless reason, not one but three RCAF Hudson bombers are patrolling this area? They attack the U-boat whose captain fails to dive on their approach but instead chooses to fight them off by personally manning the lone machine gun. A fitting ending to the most ill-advised journey of any submarine. The Nazi invaders occupy a dwelling ashore with rifles and fixed bayonets, what cramped submarines carry bayonets? They shoot poor Laurence Olivier to put a merciful end to his horrible performance. The Nazis then skyjack a sea plane which conveniently one of them knows how to fly? They run out of fuel and crash into a cold north Canadian lake where all manage to swim ashore with no sign of hypothermia. There in the middle of the most sparsely populated area of Manitoba they find a commune of German speaking Christians, whom they promptly alienate? They then decide to "walk" over a thousand miles to Vancouver to board a Japanese ship. On the way they meet effete Leslie Howard in his canoe paddling to his teepee full of valuable paintings. Need I go on? This is the kind of film that gives propaganda a bad name. No wonder many Canadians found all the stereotypes laughable. A shame so many good actors were wasted on this total fantasy. The biggest joke is that the film actually won an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Were standards that low in the 1940's.

SYNOPSIS: A shipwrecked U-boat crew hikes across Canada during 1941 in an attempt to make it back to the Fatherland.CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER Differences in ideology and lifestyle are contrasted by a band of Nazis and the down-home plains-folk they encounter as the Germans try and escape across North America. A propaganda film that is meant to show the differences between democracy and dictatorship.PROS AND CONS At first, I didn't know what to make of this film. It started a bit slow and didn't really seem to have a focus. Add to this, the early appearance of Laurence Oliver as a French-Canadian trapper who was a bit on the irritating side. This may have been accurate, since I haven't met many French-Canadian trappers. For all I know, they may indeed by pompous, arrogant jerks.After the first half hour of the film, it settles down into a 'journey' film about the Nazis and all the people they meet along the way. Each encounter is meant to show the differences in the ideology between the two nationalities. With each successive encounter, the Nazis are whittled down by desertion, capture or death.The more the film went on, the more comical the Nazis became. At almost every encounter the Germans took the opportunity to glorify the master plans of Der Fuhrer. After every fiery speech glorifying the Nazi ideal they are met with blank stares from the locals who see them as mindless robots that have no clue about the the world they find themselves in.The film is an early tour-de-force for some great talent. Laurence Oliver is young and a bit too edgy in his role as the trapper. Leslie Howard (after his stint as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind) is engaging as the odd ball writer living in the woods and studying Indians. I didn't realize it until I was reading the credits, but the young girl on the Huterite farm is a very young Glynis Johns (I had a crush on her as a kid). Raymond Massey is out of his usual character as an AWOL Canadian soldier. The cinematography is by Freddie Young, who went on to Oscar fame in some of the classic Hollywood films of the 1950s. Last but not least is a score by Raugh Van Williams.In the end, this is a morality tale meant to show Canadians what they were fighting for in WWII. Some of the cinematography is beautiful and the acting is entertaining if not somewhat over done in places. The title to the film refers to the border between the United States and Canada. At the end of the film, the remaining Nazis try to escape into the United States (which had not yet entered the war). Needless to say, the United States saves the day but not in the way you might expect. This was an entertaining film that left me smiling but its message might be lost on the younger viewers of today.