A World War II U-boat crew are stranded in northern Canada. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral U.S.
In the early years of World War II, a German U-boat (U-37) sinks Allied shipping in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and then tries to evade Canadian Military Forces seeking to destroy it by sailing up to Hudson Bay. The U-boat's fanatical Nazi Captain sends some members of his crew to look for food and other supplies at a Hudson Bay Company outpost. No sooner than the shore party (lead by Lieutenant Hirth) reaches the shore, the U-boat is spotted and sunk by the Canadian Armed Forces, leaving the six members of the shore party stranded in Canada. The Nazi Lieutenant then starts to plan his crew's return to the Fatherland. He needs to reach the neutral U.S., or be captured. Along the way, they meet a variety of characters, each with their own views on the war and nationalism. In this movie, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger show their ideas of why the U.S. should join the Allied fight against the Nazis.—Steve Crook <[email protected]>
A narrator explains how the 49th parallel forms "the only undefended frontier in the world" between Canada and the United States. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence in early 1940's, U-37, a German U-boat (captained by Kommandant Bernsdorff (Richard George)), has just sunk a Canadian freighter. It evades the RCN and RCAF patrols by moving to Hudson Bay as it is running low on supplies, and this is the only place they can safely attack.A raiding party of six (Lieutenant Hirth (Eric Portman), Lieutenant Kuhnecke (Raymond Lovell), Vogel (Niall MacGinnis), Kranz (Peter Moore), Lohrmann (John Chandos) and Jahner (Basil Appleby)) is put ashore to obtain food and fuel at a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, but the U-boat is soon sunk by RCAF bombers.The six are now alone, without protection, travel across Canada to reach the neutral United States and return to Germany. Led by Lieutenants Hirth (Eric Portman) and Kuhnecke (Raymond Lovell), the small band encounters and often brutalizes a wide range of people. One by one they are captured or killed - sometimes by their own.
Initial victims include the Inuit Nick (Ley On) and a French-Canadian trapper Johnnie (Laurence Olivier), at the trading post (Johnnie was a firm believer that Germans are like ordinary humans and won't be doing the reprehensible acts that they are accused of, like genocide). Hirth captures the post and wants Johnnie to help the Germans get to the rail line. He says that Germans want to help the French and wants Johnnie to help as he is also French. Johnnie is shot dead when he tries to use the radio to warn the company HQ.
When a float-plane is dispatched by the HQ to investigate reports of the sinking near their trading post, the Germans open fire (they learn about it from Nick's radio and prepare themselves by changing into local clothes and stocking themselves with food and ammunition), killing the pilot and some of the local Inuit. They steal the aircraft (Kuhnecke pilots the craft) and head south but cannot achieve take-off because they are overloaded (They are forced to throw off all supplies and even the rifles). One sailor steps out onto a float to throw out the guns and is shot and killed by an Inuk (a member of the Inuit), thereby lightening the load for take-off. The plan is to locate the bush railway and ride it to Winniepeg, which requires 15 hrs of flying time.
The float-plane runs out of fuel (Kuhnecke was sure that the main tank and emergency tanks were full, but he never checked the emergency tank before taking off) and crashes in a lake in Manitoba, killing Kuhnecke. The Germans are welcomed to a nearby Hutterite farming community by Anna (Glynis Johns), who is about to turn sixteen. The fugitives assume that the Hutterites (Community folk where everyone does whatever they can for the community and no one is paid Vogel starts baking bread as that was his profession before he was drafted for the war) are sympathetic to the Nazi cause, but some of them are refugees from Hitler's Germany.
Hirth's fanatical speech (Hirth appeals to the German ancestry of the entire community and wants them to help their fatherland in the war effort) is eloquently refuted by Peter (Anton Walbrook), the community's leader. Peter tells Hirth that Canada offers Peace, security and tolerance that Hitler takes pride in stamping out in Europe. Peter also talks about the freedom in Canada, while in Europe Hitler and the state dictates everything.One of the sailors, Vogel (Niall MacGinnis), would rather join the community (He saves Anna when she barges into Hirth's room and tells him that she hates all Nazis and will report him to the police.The others are angry as they wanted to kill Anna) and ply his trade of baker (Peter invites Vogel to stay even after Hirth's speech), but he is tried by Hirth and summarily executed for desertion and treachery.
Hirth, Lohrmann and Kranz arrive in Winnipeg. Hirth decides they will walk to Vancouver (which is 2000 Kms away, as the US border is being watched closely) and catch a steamship (which sails in a month's time) for neutral Japan. They hijack a motorist for his car and take a train that stops in Banff, Alberta, during Banff Indian Days. A Canadian Mountie addresses the crowd (Giving them descriptions of the 3 men and asking the crowd to look at each other and identify the suspects) and Kranz is arrested when he panics (he was carrying an oilskin rug, which was reported in the description).
Fleeing across the Rocky Mountains, the two remaining men are welcomed to his lakeside camp by an eccentric English writer named Philip Armstrong Scott (Leslie Howard), who takes them for lost tourists. They turn on him (after he talks derogatorily about Hitler and compares Hitler's speeches to speeches of tribal leaders in Canada & US), burning his manuscript and his precious paintings. Scott and his men pursue them (Hirth and Lohrmann rouse the camp as they try to escape on horses).
Lohrmann finally rebels against Hirth's leadership, knocks him out and takes off by himself. Lohrmann is cornered in a cave. Scott is wounded but enters the cave and beats him up in revenge for his destroyed manuscript and paintings. One of his men comments, "The boss has knocked him clear out!"
Hirth, the last fugitive, is given the Iron Cross first class in his absence. Nazi radio praises him; the rest of the world wonders where he is. He meets Andy Brock (Raymond Massey), a Canadian soldier who is absent without leave, in the baggage car of a Canadian National Railways train near the Canadian-US border. Hirth knocks Brock cold with the butt of his gun and steals his uniform and dog tags, planning to impersonate him. Brock regains consciousness wearing only his shirt, and Hirth holds him at gunpoint, hiding, while customs inspect the car.
Brock is horrified and Hirth is pleased to learn that the car is crossing into the United States at Niagara Falls. Hirth surrenders his gun to a U.S. Customs official and demands to be taken to the German embassy. Brock explains that Hirth, now world famous, is wanted in Canada for murder. The U.S. border guards cannot find any official reason to send Hirth back, until Brock points out that neither of them is listed on the freight manifest. The Americans happily use this pretext to send the car, along with Hirth and Brock, back to Canada for "improperly manifested cargo". The penultimate shot shows Brock donning his uniform cap and telling Hirth to put his hands up. "I'm not asking for those pants, I'm just taking them!" Dissolve, to the sound of a solid punch, to the train backing over the bridge, and the credits roll.
