THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

US, 1959, 180 minutes, Black and white.
Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer, Diane Baker, Ed Wynn, Lou Jacobi.
Directed by George Stevens.

This Oscar-winning film came from a very popular play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. They adapted their play for the screen. It was based on the very popular diaries of Anne Frank and the books written about her during the fifties. The play has been very popular over a number of decades.

Direction is by George Stevens who had made his mark in the thirties with dramas and comedies and had won Oscars in the fifties for A Place in the Sun, 1951 and for Giant in 1956. This film was his project after Giant. He was later to make The Greatest Story Ever Told.

The story is a familiar one of Dutch Jews hiding in an attic from the Nazis. There is intense interaction in the people hidden in the attic. They are found ultimately and sent to concentration camps. (An interesting comparison can be made with the seventies film The Hiding Place which showed the effect on the Christians hiding the Jews - their being discovered and sent to concentration camps.)

The film received many nominations for awards and Shelley Winters won an Oscar for best supporting actress. The film introduced Millie Perkins - though she did not have a strong star career after this but appeared in many films as a character actress. Stand-outs in the cast were Joseph Schildkraut and Ed Wynn. A number of stars to make their mark at 20th Century Fox, Richard Beymer and Dianne Baker were in the supporting cast. The Diary of Anne Frank is long, solemn, was made in Cinemascope and black and white photography. It is a film which is impressive and moving – though it does communicate its solemnity perhaps too strongly. Nevertheless, a recommended humane document.

1. The classic status of the film? The various versions and remakes? Documentaries and features? A film of the 50s, from a stage performance to the screen? Within fifteen years of the culmination of the events? The impact later? Anne Frank as an icon of World War Two and the Holocaust?

2. The screenplay and its use of the diary, the quotations? The diary kept in the apartment by Miep? Mr Frank finding it? His promotion of the diary?

3. The work of George Stevens, his style, old-fashioned, the locations and the Anne Frank house, the interiors? Black and white widescreen photography? The emotional score?

4. The framework with Otto Frank, his return to the apartment, the news of the deaths? The end and his narration of his search for his family and the news of their deaths?

5. The voice-over, Anne, the diary? Anne at thirteen to fifteen, a young teenager, noisy, changing over the two years, her moods, hopes, relationships, clashes, even with her mother? Ready to be arrested and go to the concentration camp?

6. The 1942 situation, Holland and the occupation, the round-up of the Jews? The sympathetic Dutch helpers? Miep and Mr Kraler? Offering the rooms, their care, the visits, bringing food, sharing the news, the Christmas cake? The nature of the rooms, the door and the cover, locked, the silence during the day, movement during the night? The risks? The curtains, any indication of movement or noise being a danger? Its taking its toll on the families?

7. The Frank family, Otto and Edith, their personalities? Otto as a leader, the reasons for hiding, the rumour that they had gone to Switzerland? Margot as a pleasant person, quiet, the contrast with Anne at thirteen, her eagerness? Her response to the gift of the diary, the picture of the queen, the film stars? Her interactions? Otto and his leading his children in prayer? Margot more introverted, the discussions with Anne, the possibility of jealousy concerning Peter?

8. Mr and Mrs Van Daan, the kindness on the part of the Franks, their kindness to the Franks on their arrival from Germany? Their personalities? The clashes about possessions, Mrs Van Daan and her furniture etc? Her fur? Mr Van Daan as a big man, hungry? The clashes? The clashes between the two? Peter as their son, keeping him at a distance? Mr Van Daan caught with the food? Mrs Frank and her outburst, wanting him sent out of the apartment immediately? His sense of shame? The D-Day? news interrupting the clash? Mrs Van Daan and her fur, Anne spilling the milk on it, her husband selling it?

9. The dentist, his being accepted, his having the room, his personality, his taking a long time in the bathroom, his pessimistic tone, his concern about the food, his fear of the police, wanting to answer the phone at the time of crisis?

10. Peter, his age, not so intelligent, a loner, with Margot? With Anne, his change of attitude? The attraction to Anne, their talking, confiding, his sense of patriotism, the kiss, his willingness to go with his father when Mrs Frank wanted the Van Daans out of the place?

11. The issue of the thief, the people hearing him down below, fearing that he suspected their presence? The blackmail for higher pay? The betrayal?

12. The people occupying themselves during the day, reading, talking, the gift of the radio, the music, the news? D-Day? Food, limitations, the ration cards? The issue of the potatoes? The Christmas cake and dividing it?

13. The comments about comparing their internment in the building with the suffering of those in the camps?

14. The sense of humanity, the dialogue, Anne’s diary and the issues, teens and adults, the teens considering the adults old-fashioned, the meaning of life, Anne’s vision of the sky and its beauty?

15. The soldiers coming, the group being ready, packing, Anne’s last entry?

16. Why has Anne Frank’s inspiration continued for so long? What does it touch in people’s sense of humanity?