I just finished watching 49th Parallel and realized that Desperate Journey is an inverted way of telling the same story.
Of course it's way over-the-top hollywood adventure, but it looks like Warner Bros liked 49th so much they decided to make the same story turned inside out.
I see it closer to Powell and Pressburger's "One of Our Aircraft is Missing" that was released a few months prior to "Desperate Journey."
shareIn fact, according to Wikipedia, Desperate Journey was indeed inspired by 49th Parallel, as an "inverted" tale of the same basic idea -- enemy soldiers fleeing across hostile territory...except that here, the "enemies" were the Allies -- the good guys.
There are obvious parallels, so to speak, with One of Our Aircraft is Missing, but though that film came out three months before DJ, the latter had been in development and pre-production long before Aircraft was released, so had no impact on Desperate Journey.