THE HIDING PLACE

US, 1976, 147 minutes, Colour.
Julie Harris, Eileen Heckart, Jeannette Clift, Arthur O'Connell, Nigel Hawthorne, David de Keyser.
Directed by James F. Collier.

The Hiding Place is a didactic fable, with explicit religious intent, Dutch Protestant piety, this war story is factual, adapted from the memoirs of Corrie Ten Boom, who makes an appearance at the end. Starring a professional cast including Jeanette Clift as Corrie and Julie Harris as her saintly sister Betsy, the film blends drama and preaching fairly well. It is a harrowing experience; while Diary of Anne Frank portrayed the Jewish sheltered, we see here the Christian shelterers, rewarded for their charity by concentration camp horror. God is sought in the midst of this seemingly purposeless suffering (portrayed most vividly) which has strong impact, especially for a feminine audience. A recommended cinema sermon.

1. The intention of the producers of this film? Entertainment, preaching? The commercial values behind the production? The actresses, the music?

2. The preaching value of the film? How successful through characterisation and plot? Through the issues explored? Explicit preaching? The title of the film and its reference to the place for the Jewish refugees, to the hiding place in the human heart as from the Psalms?

3. The effect of the two-part structure? The first half in Holland itself and the sheltering of the Jews? The transition to the concentration camp story? The differing types of response to each part? The ultimate overall effect?

4. Audience presuppositions in responding to this kind of film, e.g. the sheltering of refugees as from The Diary of Anne Frank? Response to concentration camp stories? Sympathy for the Jews and their persecution during the war? Sympathy for the victims of the concentration camps? Antagonism towards the Nazis?

5. How important was it that the film was based on real life and real characters? The credits sequences and the establishment of the Ten Boom family? The ending with the portraits of the actors and the photos of the real characters? The introduction of Corrie Ten Boom and her comments at the end? How did this affect audience response?

6. The film's portrait of Holland during the war? The Dutch people, their way of life, the cities with shops and the streets and ordinary business? The invasion of the Germans and the change of the way of life? Hunger and the queues for bread etc.? The Black Market? The ominous German presence and the Police State? Dutch police collaborators? The Ten Boom shop and their trying to do business during the war? The young German soldier and the focus on the clockmakers?


7. The Ten Boom family as illustrated during the credits, the centenary of the family, their skill with the clocks, the girls and their work in the shop? The family as individuals and the portrait of an earnest Dutch family? Caspar and his patriarchal presence? Corrie and Betsy as middle-aged unmarried women? The impact of the war, their reaction to the war? To the officer and his continued presence? Their teaching and taking the children on walks and encountering the German presence? Nervousness with the brutality emerging around them? How credible were they as an ordinary family in these war conditions?

8. Their decision to become involved? The request for the mother and child? Christian charity as a motivation? The simplicity of their faith and their literal interpretation of the Gospel? The building of the hiding place and the providence behind getting the implements and tools and paint etc.? Their skill in covering the presence of the Jewish refugees? The sequences of the rehearsals and the timing for people taking cover? The atmosphere of continued danger, the suspense, especially with the arrival of the German soldiers?

9. Comment on the types of refugees passing through the house? Their effect on the Ten Boom family? Their presence, Jewish prayer, culture? The interaction of Jews and Christians? The families, the shelter? The Professor and his arrogance at demanding to be hidden? His not co-operating with the wash-up and other details? How was this character a focus for what was happening for the refugees? The pathos of the refugees when the family was arrested and the suspense of their being released by K.I.K.?

10. Corrie's moral dilemma when asked to betray the Jewish betrayer? Was her moral decision correct? The repercussions for her arrest, the family's arrest and imprisonment and deaths? The transition of the arrest sequence with its brutality for ordinary people in ordinary streets? The transition to the concentration camp sequences of the film?

11. Corrie in prison and the long sequences of her isolation, her interrogation and walk in the sunlight? Her attitude towards the German interrogator and her not giving anything away? His puzzlement at her attitudes?

12. The visual presentation of the train trip to Ravensbruck? The meeting with Katje? As the antithesis of Corrie? And yet the bond between them and Betsy accompanying them to Ravensbruck? The pathos of the separation from their father and his death?

13. Katje as a type? Her scrounging in the prison, delivering the meals, working in the Black Market? Her bond with the sisters? Helping them on the train, in Ravensbruck? With the Bible and other necessities? The effect of the two sisters on Katje throughout her imprisonment?

14. The attention to detail of the concentration camp? The effect on the audience of seeing a women’s concentration camp and the sufferings in such detail? The wardress and her brutality? The work sequences, punishment, line-ups, the dormitory? The rules and regulations and the humiliation? The hunger? Medical needs?

15. How clear were the options for the women in the camps? The various discussions of moral and religious issues? The religious approach, the Bible readings, the singing, the optimistic hope? Providence as having a meaning? Katje as representing the pragmatist, her stealing, negotiating with the German nurse, her being punished by the brutality on her hand? The Polish pianist and her comment on God's cruelty?

16. Corrie as a character throughout the film? Her Dutch nature, simplicity, religion? Her fortitude in helping the refugees and her weariness? Her reaction to arrest and imprisonment, courage? The possibility of becoming bitter? The bond with Betsy helping her to retain her faith? Her prayer and her reliance on providence, especially as regards the Bible? Even the point about the lice having a meaning?

17. Betsy as ideal goodness? How credible was she as a person? Her suffering, her model for those in despair? Her dreams and her death? The pathos of her illness, her being taken to another ward? Corrie looking in the window and her absence?

18. Katje and her helping in the camp, her bond with the German nurse? The ambiguous attitudes of the nurse and her helping the prisoners? The brutal treatment of Katje and the injuries to her hand?

19. The odd nature of Corrie's release and the sequence of her leaving the camp? The effect on her and the experience of imprisonment? Her contemporaries being killed? Her mission after being released?

20. The events of World War Two seen in the retrospect of many decades? what perspective can they be seen in? The evils of the times? The human suffering, the meaninglessness of the suffering? How much meaning, religious meaning, faith? The impact of telling such stories for later generations?