Other Titles • The Diary of Anne Frank • Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank (1959)
Synopses for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
1.
George Stevens (Giant) directed this 1959 film adaptation of the hit play based on the writings of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl from Amsterdam who hid in an attic with her family and others during the Nazi occupation. As Anne, Millie Perkins is something of a milky eyed enigma and--in retrospect--too old for the part; but she is surrounded by an outstanding cast, including Joseph Schildkraut as Anne's patient father, Ed Wynn as a cranky dentist who moves into Anne's "room," and Shelley Winters as the loud Mrs. Van Daan. Stevens turns the many overlapping dramas of the caged characters into the foundation of Anne's growth as a young woman, ready for life and love just at the moment the dream comes to an end. Beautifully shot by cinematographer William C. Mellor, and written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from their stage production. --Tom Keogh
2.
George Stevens' life-altering experience of witnessing the death camps after WWII was doubtless responsible for his desire to adapt the famed diary of the teenaged Jewish girl, played by Millie Perkins. With the feared 'Green Police' or Dutch Gestapo combing Amsterdam in search of Jews, Anne, her parents, Otto (Joseph Schildkraut) and Edith (Anna Huber) another Jewish family, the Van Daans, and a dentist Albert Dussell (Ed Wynn) take refuge for two years in a small attic provided by Gentile shop owners Kraler (Douglas Spencer) and Miep (Dody Heath). Despite their precarious situation, and the sense of claustrophobia created by having to live together in such crowded conditions, covering the windows during the day, and keeping as quiet as possible at all times, the families carry on as best they can. For Anne, her platonic romance with Peter Van Daan (Richard Beymer), the attractive son of often voluble parents, makes the experience more bearable than it is for the adults, whose sense of foreboding is palpable. By surrounding the inexperienced Perkins with a talented cast of veteran performers, which also includes Shelley Winters and Lou Jacobi, Stevens achieves a moving portrait of Frank's innocent precocity, with her ultimate fate the tragic subtext of this intensely compelling film.
3.
A diary discovered in the attic of an Amsterdam factory reveals the plight of a Jewish refugee family that lived there in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation.
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
<>
Movie Database
In Theaters
