Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941)

Andy Brock: The government says, "We want men to fight the Nazis, join today." So I joined. I figured they were in a hurry. That was three hundred and eighty seven days ago. Four divisions and a lot of drafts have gone overseas, and what's number B987642 doing? Guarding the Chippewa Canal. Who'd want to steal it anyway?

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Lieutenant Hirth: Yes, I am a Nazi. Heil Hitler!

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Philip Armstrong Scott: Nazis? That explains your arrogance, stupidity, and bad manners.

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The book 'The Film Business - A history of british cinema 1896-1972' by Ernest Betts states that this film " . . . is one of the first large-scale attempts at fictional propaganda by the British Government during World War II. It was partly financed by the Government and was given top priority and a prestige send-off by Vincent Massey, High Commissioner for Canada, where the film was made. No other project of the war was so boosted. Money, publicity and stars were unstintingly forthcoming - Laurence Olivier, Eric Portman, Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook and Elisabeth Bergner. Of the film's budget of £130,000, £40,000 was supplied by the taxpayer. On location it soon ran into difficulties. Miss Bergner left the picture after a disagreement over the part she was playing. Efforts to persuade her to return were unsuccessful and she was replaced by Glynis Johns."
Raymond Lovell nearly drowned in the scene where the seaplane crashes in the lake as he couldn't swim and the plane sunk a lot quicker than anticipated.
Commissioned by the Ministry of Information to raise worldwide awareness (American in particular) of the Nazi threat. However, it was intended for Canadian consumption also, as many French Canadians did not want to be at war with Germany and did not want to fight. Vichy France was an ally of Nazi Germany, and many French Canadians in Quebec were pro-German. One of the reasons Laurence Olivier, the biggest star in the film, played a French Canadian trapper named Johnny who tells the Nazi officer he is a "Canadian" in the film and not "French" was that it was intended also as propaganda to promote pro-British feeling in Quebec. When Canada resorted to conscription to swell the ranks of its Army, there were draft riots throughout Quebec, so intense was the feeling against the United Kingdom, which of course had subjugated New France less than 200 years before. Anti-war sentiment was so rife throughout Canada, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King declared that only volunteers would be shipped off to Europe.
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