Canadians find this WWI Brit propaganda film a real knee-slapper. It encompasses every cartoon of Canada found in both the British and American stereotype canon. That canon holds that Canada is about the size of Maryland (or Lancashire) and populated by Indians, trappers, Eskimos and Mounties. Anyway, here's the plot.
A German submarine hunting in the Gulf of St Lawrence runs low on fuel. So the captain decides to take ship and crew to an outpost on Hudson's Bay. Getta map, Helmut! Canada ain't Switzerland. That's a few thousand nautical miles. It's easier to get to Hamburg from the Gulf than it is to get Hudson's Bay!
Nonetheless, they arrive and send a landing party. The outpost seems to be populated by the entire Chinese population of Vancouver masquerading furs and all in the middle of summer as Inuit. But wait. Here's Laurence Olivier as a Quebecois trapper. Un vrai homme. When he finds out that his visitors are Boche he gives them a real tongue lashing. 'My father, 'e was in the first war. Ah, we really gave you guys a licking then, ma foie!'
The landing party, stranded when the sub is sunk by an air patrol, steals a plane and flies to Winnipeg. Winnipeg? Okay. Halifax would have been better, but whatever. Then, hearing that a way of escape lies through the port of Vancouver, they start to walk yes WALK from Winnipeg to Vancouver. 'Ere. 'Old on, mate. In't it a bit far for a toddle? Well, yes. About 3000 miles. Eee. Blimey.
After several adventures that reduce their numbers, the Huns arrive in you might guess this Banff, Alberta. Which is, of course, crammed with native persons tarted out in feathered head dress. And red-coated Mounties of course. And Trevor Howard, playing an English recluse who lives in you guessed it a wigwam. To make things more hilarious, he decorates the inside of his tent with original paintings by Picasso.
Don't stop now. There's more. One German survivor gives up on the Vancouver escape and travels (who knows how?) back to Ontario where he hops a freight train into the United States. In the freight car he meets a drunken Ontario farmer, played by Raymond Massey, who offers him a swig of home produced wine. In the only realistic sequence in the film, the German takes one swallow of Ontario wine and, looking nauseous, hands it back. When I was last in Ontario, I visited a local 'winery' and I have to agree with the Hun. Ontario wines are instant emetic.
The film ends when the German arrives in the U.S. only to find the Americans have (finally!) joined the war.
If you are Canadian, this film is well worth the rental price. In addition to the laughs, there is a short appearance by the drop-dead beautiful Glynis Johns, object of several of my erotic fantasies when I was 13 years old in 1954.
55 out of 99 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Tell Your Friends