General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

49th Parallel

49th Parallel is a 1941 British propaganda thriller directed by Michael Powell, written by Emeric Pressburger, and produced for the British Ministry of Information, in which the survivors of a sunk Nazi U-boat attempt to cross Canada and reach the then-neutral United States. It was released in the United States as The Invaders.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Michael Powell (director and producer); original story and screenplay by Emeric Pressburger, scenario with Rodney Ackland³
Production	Ortus Films, sponsored by the Ministry of Information; UK, 1941, 123 minutes, black and white¹^•³
Plot	Six survivors of a German submarine sunk by Royal Canadian Air Force bombers off Hudson Bay try to reach safety in the neutral United States²
Principal cast	Eric Portman (Lieutenant Hirth), Laurence Olivier (Johnnie), Leslie Howard (Philip Armstrong Scott), Anton Walbrook (Peter), Raymond Massey (Andy Brock), Glynis Johns (Anna)³
Key creatives	Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, cinematography by Frederick Young, editing by David Lean³
Awards	Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story (Pressburger); nominated for Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay⁴
US release	Premiered in the USA in March 1942, by which time the United States had been in the war for nearly four months⁵

Spoilers

Story and propaganda method

The plot follows six survivors led by the unflappable Lieutenant Hirth (Eric Portman) as they move across Canada and encounter a cross-section of Canadians, French, Scottish, Inuit, German, Native American, and English, in encounters the film's admirers describe as alternately lyrical, humorous, and savage.¹^•² The encounters serve to contrast Canada's democracy and ethnic diversity with the Nazis' moral bankruptcy.¹

The film was unusual in making Nazis the protagonists and showing them as ruthless, dedicated, and, up to a point, resourceful, balancing their strengths against their flaws. Its centerpiece is Hirth's long pro-Hitler speech to a German Hutterite colony, answered by an anti-Nazi speech from Anton Walbrook's settler Peter, filmed in long takes.⁷ Niall MacGinnis's Vogel is portrayed as a "good Nazi," a redeemable German who tries to defect and is executed by his comrades; the film attracted some criticism at the time for this portrayal.¹^•⁷ The film's ending, in which the last survivor is beaten by the Canadian soldier Andy Brock, was protested in vain by co-writer Rodney Ackland as countering fascism in its own spirit of violence.⁷

Purpose and production

For their third collaboration, Powell and Pressburger were engaged by the Ministry of Information to make a propaganda film, a concerted attempt to influence opinion in neutral America into supporting its government's entry into the war.¹ Pressburger later recalled how he had struggled to find a theme addressing the main propaganda aim of the moment: how to persuade America to enter the war against Hitler. He and Powell devised the plan of showing how easily an escaping German crew could cross Canada, separated from America only by the dotted line of the 49th Parallel.⁶ Pressburger proved an enthusiastic propagandist, saying, "Goebbels considered himself an expert on propaganda, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two."¹

Government funding. The art historian Kenneth Clark, briefly head of the Ministry of Information's Films Division, invested government funds in developing the film, the only wartime feature film to be part-funded in this way.⁶ Powell said the ministry first put up £5,000 for research in Canada, and that after France was falling, he sold the idea to Minister of Information Duff Cooper and the Treasury put up £50,000 in dollars.¹ This form of public funding of propaganda fiction was quickly halted; extra money came from the tycoon J. Arthur Rank, whose success with the film helped set him on the way to becoming a major backer of British films.⁷

Shooting in Canada. The crew crisscrossed the Atlantic and the length and breadth of Canada, covering more than 50,000 miles making the film.² Powell described working against time to catch the harvest for the Hutterite (member of an Anabaptist communal farming sect, like Amish) sequence, shoot in the Rockies, and reach Hudson Bay and the Labrador coast for the submarine scenes before the ice came early. Raymond Massey's sequence was shot in a small documentary studio in Montreal because he was already in the Forces.¹ Pressburger, classified in Britain as an "enemy alien," was not allowed to go to Canada; on returning from it he found himself imprisoned and threatened with deportation until Powell and the Ministry of Information intervened.¹

Casting had its disruptions. The German actress Elisabeth Bergner, the only woman in a leading role, left after shooting a few scenes in Canada, having signed on only to reach America; she was replaced by the unknown Glynis Johns. Olivier and Massey almost pulled out, and the ministry threatened to cancel over budget overspend until Rank provided the rest of the money.¹

Reception and significance

The film was a success at home and became the biggest British hit to date in American cinemas; the Treasury and Rank made their money back comfortably.¹ At the end of 1941 the trade journal Kinematograph Weekly announced that 49th Parallel had beaten The Great Dictator and Lady Hamilton to its biggest box-office winner of the year award.⁸ Its persuasive power was never truly tested as propaganda, however: it was not premiered in the USA until March 1942, nearly four months after the Americans had entered the war.⁵

At the Academy Awards it won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story for Pressburger, and was nominated for Best Picture and for Best Writing, Screenplay (Ackland and Pressburger).⁴ The National Board of Review gave 1942 Best Acting awards to Glynis Johns and Anton Walbrook.⁴

Place in the partnership. The film consolidated the Powell-Pressburger partnership and showed a way forward for British cinema in ambition and funding; it is the last of their collaborations to carry separate credits rather than the joint "written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger."⁷ It was the first of two collaborations with the editor David Lean, and its American success underpinned Rank's establishment of independent production companies including The Archers and Lean's Cineguild.¹^•² Ralph Vaughan Williams, then sixty-nine, made his motion picture scoring debut with the film.²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1934 to 1962

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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