Canadian Content: The 49th Parallel

Even if you've never visited Canada, you've probably seen it at the movies. However, it might have been called New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. And the only reason you might have recognized it is if you had brought a Canadian along and they had muttered about how those were Canada Post boxes on the street corner.

However, Canada playing Canada at the movies is a rarer find. So, when I found out that the Archers (AKA Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, my favourite director/producer team in film) made a movie set in Canada and called (of course) The 40th Parallel, I had to rent it.
Now, when I say The Archers are my favorite, that's an opinion based entirely on four gorgeous, fever dream-like movies: Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp and Peeping Tom. I'm also rather partial to I Know Where I'm Going. And yet, I've been burned by them before, by a stodgy little picture called The Small Back Room, which featured a 8 foot tall bottle of booze as a prop.

The 49th Parallel isn't half as ridiculous, but it isn't half as good as Colonel Blimp either. Powell was pretty direct, even back then, that it was made as propaganda to encourage the Americans to enter the war. And when there's propaganda afoot, awkward speechifying is sure to follow.

The movie follows a group of German sailors who, after their sub is blown up by Canadian airmen, attempt to travel the True North Strong and Free to enter into the United States Then Neutral. Along the way they meet many people, from a French Canadian trapper in the North to a Hutterite farmer on the prairies, who've prepared impassioned speeches to tell them why Canada is so great and will win the war, as if they had expected a troop of Germans to come goose-stepping over the horizon.

Way more exciting than the actual movie, where the closest Olivier gets to an actual woman is about 15 meters.

From there to the end, it's a fairly predictable hike. However, there's one reason to see the movie and that's Laurence Olivier's attempt at a French-Canadian accent. He doesn't quite make it to the Quebec. Hell, he doesn't even seem to make it to France, as it sounds like he got stuck halfway between Scotland and Sweden. It's hilarious. And, to give the man credit, he really makes the plaid flannel work.