MUBI

I have a real soft spot for The 49th Parallel. It’s certainly not held up by many as the best of Powell and Pressburger but it’s one of those films I find myself drawn to again and again – P&P’s warm and involving characterisation, the landscapes of Canada, Vaughn Williams’ evocative score (given its due reverence as an ‘honorary’ character in the title sequence) are all scrumptious trimmings to a thoroughly exciting story.
Along with Hitchcock’s WWII propaganda films ‘Lifeboat’ and ‘Foreign Correspondent’ and Cavalcanti’s ‘Went the Day Well?’, it is the very best of its type – a call to arms that also happens to be cracking good cinema.
The cast list reads like a roll-call of all the great (mostly) British character actors of the day and, excepting the misfire of Olivier’s phony accent, no-one puts a foot wrong. And how marvelous that Powell & Pressburger made such a successful piece of anti-Nazi propaganda and still managed to sneak in not just one of their trademark ‘good’ Germans but two – Anton Walbrook as Peter, the ‘leader’ of the (German!) Hutterite commune [his blistering speech is deeply moving and is certainly the heart of the film’s message] and Niall McGinnis as Vogal, the German soldier who finds his conscience just a little too late – his demise being the quiet tragedy of a man who wanted a return to a simple life baking bread, instead of being an unthinking killer!

This movie is what you get when Hitler goads you with bubblegum kush and MDMA to accompany him on a hitchhiking adventure through Canada. Laugh with him as you both gorge distustingly on poutine and eskimo meat. Stare at Anton Walbrook and wonder why you’re not working on his settlement in the fields, living like your sexy forefathers might have. Sucker-punch Hitler in the gut and steal his mustache. It’s time to live again, and it will be hard to ever forget this imperative.