Posted on 08/28/2020 7:39:52 PM PDT by hardspunned
https://youtu.be/OdTILENaYXw
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
The scene with the Hutterites is great, but the whole movie also works well. Leslie Howard does a ob playing a wealthy dandy who is tougher than he looks, and above all, values good sportsmanship. This is probably the greatest propaganda movie I have ever seen.
It is especially pertinent because my English ancestors emigrated to Canada and were pioneers on the prairie.
I just watched "The Great Dictator." Chaplin's speech at the climax of the movie is fantastic as well.
But it’s Raymond Massey who gets the pleasure of beating the coon dog $*it out of the Nazi at the last of the movie.
Mark Steyn’s excellent review, which got me to watch it.
https://www.steynonline.com/7956/49th-parallel
My Canadian wife also approves of this movie.
That’s where my (other thread) movie line came from !
“ Cuz I’m not askin for those pants... I’m just taking ‘em.”
I just added it to my queue on DVD.com (netflix). From their description:
The great Laurence Olivier leads an impressive cast in this wartime thriller about a Nazi U-boat crew stranded in Canada during World War II. Led by the fanatical Lt. Hirth (Eric Portman), the crew finds refuge in a small rural community while planning an escape across the border of the still neutral United States. An early work from British director Michael Powell, the film was seen as a propaganda piece urging America to join the Allied effort.
Cast: Eric Portman, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Richard Epcar, Raymond Lovell, Niall MacGinnis, Peter Moore, John Chandos, Basil Appleby, Finlay Currie, Ley On, Anton Walbrook, Glynis Johns, Charles Victor, Frederick Piper, Raymond Massey
Director: Michael Powell
It’s free on YouTube
I’ve watched the movie many times. That particular scene seems very appropriate to the times we are currently facing.
Agreed on your praise of Mark Steyn. Certainly a scholarly piece and well put. I saw the film in England as a small boy in WW2. Always remember the phrase spoken by actor Leslie Howard.
Wars may come and wars may go, but art goes on for ever.
It was thought at the time that the film was aimed at French Canadians. Many in Quebec did oppose the war at the time, including Pierre Trudeau - later Prime Minister. Others joined in the fight against fascism and fought with distinction.
I have a hard time with YouTube movies. The quality is usually poor. Netflix often has Criterion Collection movies with excellent restorations.
When you watch that Charlie Chaplin speech, you realize that Chaplin’s perfect world is the world of the democrats today. Chaplin was a prophet.
Great film. Wonderful to get a look at Canada circa 1940. And the scene in the teepee at the lake. The actor who played the author and refined gentleman died about a year later. Germans shot down his airliner between Spain and England.
Churchill mentions in his history of WWII rumors that a German agent misidentified a man resembling himself, who boarded the plane, as him. The speculation was that this is the reason that particular plane was targeted. Leslie Howard played the same type character in The Painted Desert and Gone With the Wind.
Yes, its the Criterion Collection version on YouTube.
I caught tones of modern “wokeness” and collectivism in his speech, but overall it was about liberating mankind from nazism.
Agree that it was about liberating mankind from nazism. But chaplin’s means of doing so was via “wokeness” and collectivism. Think about it. How do you defeat nazis by “wokeness” or collectivism. (Chaplin did not talk about defeating the nazis on the battlefield— as happened.)
Rather it appears that Chaplin’s idea was to turn the germans into “woke” collectivists—as is currently the case in Germany today. ...and as well the US democrat party.
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