Disparaged throughout their careers as flamboyant artistes, the British team of director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger couldn't have made a straight World War II propaganda piece if Winston Churchill himself had been the gaffer. The proof's in this release of their 1941 thriller, a look-out-America allegory of isolationist peril in which a stranded U-boat crew mounts a seven-man invasion of Canada. With its urgent speechifying, it would be an American Legion Hall classic if not for the devious structure (which places our identification with the enemy) and the strikingly odd characters (including Laurence Olivier's French-Canuck trapper, his goofiest performance ever).
The best extra is the 46-minute propaganda short "The Volunteer," with Ralph Richardson relaying the wartime exploits of his inept dresser -- perhaps the most unhurried, digressive plea ever made to grab a rifle for God and country. Disparaged throughout their careers as flamboyant artistes, the British team of director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger couldn't have made a straight World War II propaganda piece if Winston Churchill himself had been the gaffer.
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