Trivia / 49th Parallel

• Billing Displacement: Although he is first billed, Leslie Howard (Philip Armstrong Scott) does not appear until 1 hour and 28 minutes into the film. Similarly, although he is third billed, Raymond Massey (Andy Brock) does not appear until 1 hour and 49 minutes into the film and has only eleven minutes of screentime.
• Completely Different Title: The film was released in America as The Invaders.
• Doing It for the Art: Raymond Massey, Leslie Howard, and Laurence Olivier agreed to work for half of their usual fee for the war effort. Anton Walbrook donated half of his fee to the International Red Cross.
• Fake Nationality: Most of the actors who played Canadians.
• The Other Marty: Elisabeth Bergner was originally cast in the role of Anna, the Hutterite woman. Initially, the Hutterites were only too happy to assist with the filming until one day Bergner was spotted by a Hutterite woman smoking and painting her nails, which incensed the woman so much that she slapped Bergner in the face. Filming was halted until Michael Powell pled 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 movie was to get to America; as a German Jew living in England, she felt that the Nazis were a little too close for comfort, and so safely emigrated to the U.S.
• Real-Life Relative: Raymond Massey's brother Vincent Massey, then Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and future Governor General, read the prologue.
• Uncredited Role: Arthur Horman did a week's uncredited work on the script in Montreal, writing the Laurence Olivier and Raymond Massey sequences. He later wrote Desperate Journey, which has a similar story.

---