If you get a chance to, see this perfect film.Try streaming it at Amazon or on Pub D Hub for free on Roku.Sometimes it comes on Turner classic movies.
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It's worth paying to see such a gem
Steve
Some film critics think that "49th Parallel" is the quintessential WW2 movie...a microcosm describing the mentalities of the German point of view of pre-war Europe (weak decadent democracies ) and unsuspecting potential victims (neighboring countries) who thought Hitler was hot air and war was a far away concept.
The Nazis regarded themselves as supermen and as the war began, their armies and aircraft won victory after victory, seemingly proving their point. They actually felt that one German soldier, sailor or airman was equal to ten of their flabby adversaries. For example, during the German airborne invasion of Crete a.k.a "Operation Mercury", German paratroops jumped into battle with only light weapons...machine pistols, rifles, grenades, and Lugers . No provisions for shipments of mortars, machine guns or artillery were made for the initial drop...they were to be brought in later by seaborne forces. It was felt that elite German paratroops would "storm" their way through any resistance and achieve all objectives.
It didn't work out that way. The paratroopers found themselves pinned down in small pockets and most of their officers and sergants mown down while leading gallant but suicidal assaults. The German air invasion would have been a bloody failure if not for a few lucky breaks and some incompetent British leadership. Still, it was a wake up call for the German High Command about elite troops and how they bleed red blood like everyone else. No more mass paratroop drops for the Nazis although they felt their elite Waffen SS forces should still be employed as special assault troops because of their Germanic audour.
In the movie, there are several scenes where the U-Boat men on the lam build themselves up with the superman myth while facing the overwhelming odds of getting away with their thievery, cheap subterfuge and murder. It seems almost melodramatic ridiculousness to us but at the time, the Nazi superman mentality was real enough. Johnny, the trapper, dared to make fun of it all, even with his last breath. That drove several of the Nazis nuts with frustration.
It's clear the the German' sailors are initially successful with their plans when they attack unsuspecting people without warning...just like the early months of the war. But once the Canadians get wise to these maurading Nazi maniacs, the superman myth doesn't help them very much. Like Leslie Howard said, "...it was a fair fight. One armed Nazi superman against one decadent democrat. How will Mr. Goebells factor that ?
Good movie. One of my favorites.
CmdrCody
Great call, Commander. A true gem of a film.
What impresses me about the film is what you say. It's how the Germans felt. Here, we see about the six most basic ways a German soldier could see it, with six very different soldiers: 1. The completely devoted evil Nazi idealist commander: 2. The arrogant aristocratic upwardly mobile snob: 3. The vicious, brutal thug at home with murder: 4. The best of them, the noble hero, who was dealt with by this Nazi machine the way they dealt with "all that was good and healthy": 5. The career soldier who obeyed commands, and lost his incentive when he lost his uniform: 6. The common, cowardly, opportunistic every man, simply making the best of everything in an evil empire.
It was taking these different personalities, and how they saw their Nazi machine, and showing how the machine would fail.
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time
Michael Powell was criticized in many quarters for showing the Germans in varying lights, as individuals, instead of in the usual maniacal, monolithic madman image Nazis were usually portrayed in in WWII films.
Not that this film is devoid of such propaganda; most of the German characters may be best described as two-dimensional rather than three. Still, this is a far cry from the one-dimensional portraits most films drew of the Axis enemy at the time. The film's more subtle and involved manner of exploring the German sailors' personalities, understanding what makes them tick, seeing them as individuals, was innovative during World War II.
Plus the overall story is just so unique and interesting.
Yet another example of why Michael Powell was one of British (and world) cinema's most remarkable talents.
Michael Powell was criticized in many quarters for showing the Germans in varying lights, as individuals, instead of in the usual maniacal, monolithic madman image Nazis were usually portrayed in in WWII films.
Of course, The Spy in Black was a World War One film, released in 1939 before the outbreak of WWII, so any criticism of being "soft" on the Germans seems more something that would have arisen after September 1, 1939, than before.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp always struck me as essentially anti-German, not just anti-Nazi, though the harshest treatment was reserved for the Nazis. Theo (Anton Walbrook's character) is made more sympathetic once he winds up a refugee from Hitler, and is even put in the position of being critical of Wynn-Candy for his "principled" but archaic "gentleman's" stand about preferring defeat to using base or underhanded methods to win the war (in the speech he was to have delivered on the BBC before the censors pulled it). There seems nothing particularly exceptional, or exceptionable, about the character of Theo, but then in the midst of the war I can understand that any deviation from the usual one-dimensional evil Nazi characterization would be objectionable to most people in Britain (and America).
Yet consider the fact that that character had at least defected from his country, not because he was persecuted but out of principle -- inferring that only a German who took the extraordinary step of abandoning Nazi Germany was worthy of redemption, at least by the audience. But in 49th Parallel Vogel (Niall McGinness) had loyally served his country. Though not a bad sort, he "went along", and even balanced out his humane gesture of handing Johnny the French trapper his crucifix by carving a swastika into the wall with his bayonet (after ripping down the magazine photo of the Royal Family labeled "Le Roi et le Reine du Canada"...an image and text I doubt was ever widely circulated in Quebec!). Only at the last does he come to grips with the contradictions in his life, and then mostly because he's spurred on to do so by his clear affection for Anna and love of the Hutterites' lifestyle...all, of course, tragically too late.
Vogel's allegiance to Germany and the ends (if not the means or ideology) of its Nazi masters is there from the first, in contrast to Theo's rejection of them from the first (reaching the literal breaking point with the advent of war). Yet somehow the character of this reluctant but still loyal servant of the Reich in 49th Parallel is supposed to be more principled or sympathetic than that of its outright opponent in Colonel Blimp. A bit inconsistent.
Emeric Pressburger's more nuanced attitudes towards distinguishing between Nazis and Germans was unusual, especially during the war. Some of his fellow refugees never made such distinctions. Billy Wilder, a shrewd man who knew when to get out and where to go, lost his family in the Holocaust too, but never forgot or forgave either the Germans or, especially, his native Austrians, whom he felt were liars and hypocrites and complicit in the Nazis' crimes. (He once said of his former compatriots, "The Austrians are the smartest people in the world. They've convinced everyone that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian.") His films, even the ones not concerned with the war (i.e., most of them) are shot through with nasty or unsympathetic characters with decidedly Germanic names.
Still, Pressburger's experiences and work were echoed by many of his fellow refugees from the Third Reich. The bizarre part is that so many of them either wound up as actors portraying Nazis, or as writers or directors devising Nazi characters, in films. Conrad Veidt, who of course eventually transitioned from Britain to the U.S., once said he didn't mind portraying Nazis because he understood them and felt his first-hand experience with them would help him make audiences understand just how evil they were, and most other German refugees felt the same way. (Ironically, Veidt, in his last film, Above Suspicion, was given the chance to play a good German, helping an American couple elude the Nazis.)
Of course, there were hundreds of film people -- writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, composers, set designers and so on -- who fled Germany once the Nazis took power. While some ended up in Britain (and a few unwise ones chose to remain in the illusory refuge of France or the Soviet Union), the vast majority went on to the safer climes (and better pay) of the United States and resumed their careers in Hollywood. The look and sound of American films was greatly and permanently altered by the introduction of all this European talent. There were few Hollywood films after the early 1930s that were not influenced by these German filmmakers. Michael Powell's quote, about the multinational nature of many British film crews, had some truth, though exaggerated. But it was -- and is -- far more applicable to American films, which since the invention of the industry have essentially been made by no one but immigrants...or people not long removed from that status!
The Spy in Black was set in WWI but although it premièred in March didn't go onto general release until later in 1939. The earliest review I have is in Picturegoer & Film Weekly dated October 14th 1939 where it's described as a "topical film".
The promotion of the film made use of the reports of the attack on the fleet in Scapa Flow by U-47 on 14 October 1939. They sank WWI-era battleship HMS Royal Oak
As for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, check out " The Shame and Disgrace of Colonel Blimp" (http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/43_Blimp/TheShameAndDisgrace OfColonelBlimp.html)
Steve
OMG. (An acronym I'm sure the late founders of the presumably late Sidneyan Society would doubtless have taken as proof of the decadence of the modern world despite their heartfelt and prescient warnings of 70 years ago.)
That "little book" of E.W and M.M. was some dense bit of work, befitting their powers of reasoning.
So, a film has to show everything that happens to its characters (such as Wynn-Candy's winning his VC and massacring animals out on the veldt)? None of this can simply be disseminated through dialogue? The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp misrepresents reality and spreads defeatism because it uses sets?
I do like their repeated concern that perhaps the single most dangerous element of the film, in terms of its ability to subvert the British way of life and invite World War III, is that it was shot in Technicolor. OMG, indeed.
By that standard, no one should fear The Spy in Black, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft is Missing or A Canterbury Tale, though that wee contradiction never illuminated any corner of their dim little minds.
I did like their citing General Montgomery for his expert opinion of the difference between the British and German soldier: morale. An attribute apparently absent from the German, but present in the Brit...provided, of course, the British soldier is "well led", for even Monty must plainly state that the British soldier is "terribly bad" if his leadership is poor. Hmmm...a well-deserved pat on the back from Monty to -- Monty. How Germanic of him.
But you're right in your introduction, Steve: the Robsons' turgid, repetitive, meandering tome contains so many errors about the films and history in general that it's too much to bother to refute. P&P's worthless, unwholesome, subversive, pro-WWIII pictures aside, it's amazing how the Germans are always plotting wars of conquest even while lulling the outside world to sleep by composing music and writing books; whereas the Englishman never plots war and fights only in defense. It was darned nice of a quarter of the planet to willingly place themselves -- nay, humbly beg to have themselves placed -- under the British flag without a shot being fired and only with the utmost reluctance of His or Her Majesty's government. How did you guys achieve all that without war or even planning? Oh, yes, good leadership and morale. Got it.
Anyway, it's comforting to know that the Robson duo with four initials and half a wit between them have faded into anonymity these past seven decades; as has, I trust, the Sidneyan Society, whose former headquarters probably now houses a delicatessen. But thank you for keeping their memory alive. I think.
(Can you provide the link to your P&P website's home page? I'd like to rummage about for more great things. Thanks!)
It's wonderfully lunatic isn't it?
The home page of the PaPAS site is at http://www.powell-pressburger.org/
It's a collection of news about events, screenings & releases, reviews, essays& images and reports from past events.
Tomorrow we will unveil the English Heritage Blue Plaque on the old Archers' office near Baker Street. Instigated by me 12 years ago, it's been a long process but it's finally going to happen. There will be some interesting people coming along to help us commemorate and celebrate the lives & work of Powell & Pressburger
Steve
Can I return briefly for a moment to the treatment of Germany in ''49th Parallel'' and the later ''Colonel Blimp''?
The earlier film, as I see it, is exposing two current threats to remote Canada and the neutral USA. First is the immediate danger that German submarines sail your waters and can sink your ships. Second are the inherent dangers in Hitler's dictatorship, characterised by wars of aggression and the imposition of Nazi ideology on the unfortunate countries he overcame.
In ''Blimp'', there is a longer and more nuanced perspective. Germany had been an enemy of Britain and its allies since the beginning of the century, long before the Nazi party was even formed. Before 1918 a militaristic state with limited democracy, it attacked innocent neighbours, treated conquered civilians appallingly and fought dirty with things like poison gas. What the Nazis added to this lethal mix (if I may simplify drastically to keep things short) was their racial policy. Not just that the Germans were the best in the world, but that other races were to be subjected or exterminated.
''Blimp'' also goes into more depth, of course, over the dilemma of The Good German.
I think your observations are quite right, Charlot47, though I'd slightly modify your take on the depiction of Germans in 49th Parallel. True, it is rather un-nuanced and a tad over-the-top, but given the circumstances prevailing in the world at the time it was produced more than understandable.
The chief aim of the picture is to show what the Germans are about and what the Nazi ideology means to the free world, and accomplishes this by depicting its characters less as rounded individuals and more as living representations of aspects of Nazism -- admittedly, making them somewhat two-dimensional in the process, although their human frailties and weaknesses are given full play. Yet even in this, they take care to show at least one "good" German, Vogel (the baker), and how Nazism devours even its own nationals. (Though I suppose the immigrant Hutterites are also examples of "good Germans".)
Colonel Blimp was criticized at the time for not depicting the Germans as essentially entirely evil or venal. In that sense it is a rather remarkable picture to have come from the film industry of an enemy nation in the middle of a world war.
This movie is super good, what else is great is the opening music, it really is fantastic, plus some of the greatest actors of all time.
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