Trivia and Quotes
Trivia
 Michael Powell forgot that Newfoundland was a Crown Colony and not a part of Canada, and when they moved the full-sized submarine model there it was impounded by Customs & Excise, which demanded that import duty be paid. The matter was finally resolved when Powell appealed to the Governor of Newfoundland, citing their work for the war effort. Newfoundland finally became a Canadian province in 1949. The British national press complained about the film`s sympathetic portrayal of Nazis. Emeric Pressburger`s rebuttal was that there must be reasonable Germans as well as ruthless ones. Michael Powell joined in by writing a letter to The Times, defending the film`s stance. At any rate, it didn`t impede the film`s success - it was the biggest grossing film in the UK in 1941, and the biggest grossing British film to date in the US.
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All of the opening travelogue was shot by Freddie Young with a handheld camera out the windows of trains, cars and planes.
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Raymond Massey, Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier all agreed to work for half their usual fee for the war effort.
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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.
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Elisabeth Bergner was originally cast in the role of Anna. Initially the Hutterites were only too happy to assist with the filming until one day Bergner was spotted by a Hutterine woman smoking and painting her nails, which so incensed the woman that she slapped Bergner full in the face. Filming was halted until Michael Powell pleaded with the community to let them continue. Bergner was eventually replaced by the much younger Glynis Johns (although Bergner can be seen in some long shots). It also transpired that the main reason Bergner had joined the film was to get to America-as a German Jew living in England, she obviously felt that the Nazis were a little too close for comfort.
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Esmond Knight was first choice to play Lieutenant Hirth, but he had enlisted in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of war.
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Anton Walbrook donated half his fee to the International Red Cross.
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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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Emeric Pressburger said, "Goebbels [Josef Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister] considered himself a master of propaganda but I`d thought I`d show him a thing or two". Ironically, Pressburger`s status in Britain at the time was as an enemy alien, so when he returned from filming in Canada he found himself imprisoned and threatened with deportation. Thanks to the intervention of Michael Powell and the Ministry of Information, this did not happen.
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While some people may think that this film was inspired by Franz von Werra`s escape from a Canadian POW camp (as portrayed in The One That Got Away (1957)), von Werra wasn`t sent to Canada until Jan `41 and his escape wasn`t reported until he got back to Germany in April `41. This film was written as Powell & Pressburger went to Canada in late `40 and production was under way by Jan `41. Powell & Pressburger wouldn`t have heard about von Werra until the film was almost completed.
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The submarine used in the opening scenes was a replica built in the Halifax shipyards. The Canadian government, although cooperative in the production, could not spare one of its own submarines, which were then patrolling waters in defense of its borders.
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Peter Cushing had gone to Hollywood before the war, but things hadn`t worked out too well, and he ended up doing a variety of odd jobs, which is how he came to be making props (not acting) on 49th Parallel. One day he had the job of making flags for model boats to be pushed around a map, and he made a lot of swastikas and laid them out in his digs. They were found by his landlady who promptly called the police.
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Although this film was nominated for 3 Academy awards, the title `The 49th Parallel` is no where to be found in Academy records. That`s because it released in the US as `The Invaders`, which is how the Academy has it listed.
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The depiction of U-37 in this film is fictional. U-37 has no known sailings around Canada, or what was then still a Crown Colony, Newfoundland. The real U-37 was the second most successful boat of the war (U-48 having the highest score) and was eventually scuttled on 5th May 1945 at Horup Haff, Denmark despite the sinking depicted in this film.
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