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Borderline Cases

Accession number: 
1949.0004
Production Years: 
1949

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
996 (35mm)
Length (minutes): 
11
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario: 35mm, VHS.
"Film about the border between the United States and Canada, with emphasis on quirky aspects of the border such as communities that straddle the border. The film begins with a staged shot of women driving a car to the border and one talking about a cute customs officer, followed by a teacher pointing to the border on a globe. This is followed by images of the border from British Columbia to New Brunswick, showing boundary markers and geographic features that mark the boundary. There are visuals of: a golf club that is partly in the United States and partly in Canada; Oak Island, Minnesota; Windsor, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; the neighbouring communities of Rock Island, Quebec and Derbyline, Vermont, where the Opera House is partly in the United States and partly in Canada; Mrs. [Corbeau], whose house is partly in each country and who had to obtain special permission from the Amercian government to move her pet parrot into the part of the house on American territory; Beebee Plain, Vermont, which has a post office right across the street form a post office on the Canadian side; hospitals in one country that treat people from the other country, such as Chipman Memorial Hospital in St. Stephen, New Brunswick; other things shared by St. Stephen and the neighbouring community of Calais, Maine, including water being pumped at the waterworks in St. Stephen and then piped across the river, and the supply of gas used for cooking. The fire department serves both places. The legion band is sponsored by veterans' organizations of both countries and includes veterans carrying the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack as they march across a bridge from one country to the next."

Bibliography: 

"...Film Clips...," Film News (September 1949): 21.

"BORDERLINE CASES (10-min.) dealing with the 3000 miles of undefended frontier between the U.S. and Canada, is an unusual short subject (by Associated Screen Studios of Montreal). An amusing film, it tells of cows that eat American grass all day and give good Canadian milk at night; shows an 'international' country club, with the tee in one country and green in the other...Especially valuable to politicians and after-dinner speakers who have long held the friendly borderline dear to their hearts, as to all adolescent and adult group."

Comments: 
An American version was prepared by Associated Screen News and distributed by Universal International.