The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

The Diary of Anne Frank
Directed by George Stevens
Written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from their play and the book by Anne Frank
1959/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/George Stevens Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Anne Frank: I know it’s terrible trying to have any faith when people are doing such horrible… But you know what I sometimes think? I think the world may be going through a phase, the way I was with mother. It’ll pass. Maybe not hundreds of years, but someday. – I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.[/box]

George Stevens makes a 3-hour movie about a bunch of people cooped up in an attic gripping and cinematic.  I have tears in my eyes from the first shots of the seagulls to the last.

This is a true story based on the diary of a adolescent Jewish girl who was in hiding with her family in Amsterdam between 1942 and 1944.  The Frank family are wealthy German Jews who fled to the Netherlands when the Nazis took power.  After the German occupation, some brave and righteous Gentile resistance workers take the family of four – Otto (Joseph Schildkraut, mother Edith, and daughters Margot (Diane Baker) and Anne (Millie Perkins) into hiding in a hidden garret above their offices in a spice warehouse.  The Van Daan family  – Hans, Petronella (Shelley Winters) and son Peter (Richard Beymer) join them.  The Van Daan parents whine and bicker while teenage Peter silently seethes.  Later, friction is hightened further when a panicky and prickly bachelor dentist by the name of Dussell (Ed Wynne) joins the group.

The story follows daily life in the garret through the eyes of the sensitive, gifted Anne as she blossoms from girlhood to early womanhood.  Days are filled with monotony and petty drama interrupted by moments of pure terror.  I think everyone knows how the story ends. Recommended.

It’s been years since I’ve seen this but the very music over the opening credits starts my tear ducts working. Even the happiest moments hurt when one knows what all that hope would amount to.  Stevens was great with his actors and the entire cast shines here.  It’s a great coming of age story as well as a Holocaust drama.  Recommended.

The Diary of Anne Frank won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Winters); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Supporting Actor (Wynne); Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.  I think Schildkraut should also have been at least nominated.

Trailer