Hitler. Notable crew members included Freddie Young as director of photography, David Lean as editor. Raymond Massey's brother Vincent Massey, then Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and future Governor General, read the prologue. 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. Ralph Vaughan Williams provided the stirring music, his first film score. It was directed by Muir Mathieson and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Along with the credits for the actors before the title at the beginning of the film, there is a credit for "The music of Ralph Vaughan Williams". The film was meant to cost £68,000 but ended up costing £132,000 of which the government provided less than £60,000. Ironically, Pressburger was still an "enemy alien” as far as the British government was concerned, and when he returned from Canada, he was imprisoned and threatened with deportation until Powell and the Ministry of Information intervened. American release The film was picked up by Columbia Pictures for a 1942 American release and retitled The Invaders. American censors cut 19 minutes from the film, including the speech by the fanatical Nazi commander who claims that Eskimos are "sub-apes like Negroes, only one step above the Jews", which was removed to avoid offending segregationists in the American South. The American film trailer was made on the set of the film The Talk of the Town, under the title It Happened One Noon, with stars Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman telling the director George Stevens about seeing the exciting film during a two-hour lunch break. Reception Critics Critics' reviews of 49th Parallel were generally favourable, with the New York Times reviewer effusing, "Tense action... excellent performances. An absorbing and exciting film!" and Variety concluding, "This is an important and effective film. Opening scenes promise much, and it lives up to expectations. Every part, to the smallest bits, is magnificently played...." 49th Parallel holds a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 7.1/10. Leonard Maltin gives the film 3.5 out of 4 stars to this "Taut, exciting WW2 yarn.." and its "...Top-notch cast, rich suspense and characterizations". Box office According to Kinematograph Weekly it was the most popular film at the British box office in 1941. The Times