The Diary of Anne Frank 1959

d. George Stevens

c. Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelly Winters, Richard Beymer, Lou Jacobi, Diane Baker, Ed Wynn

This wonderful film is packed with fine performances and superb art direction as it tells the well-known story of the Frank family forced into hiding in an Amsterdam attic to escape persecution from the Nazi’s.

Director Stevens had what I like to call a lyrical eye and approach to filmmaking as evidenced here. There are a couple of scenes that are long with no dialogue that are so poignant and constructed in such a way that makes them haunting and unforgettable.  One is where the 2 young people (Perkins and Beymer) are on opposite sides of a bombed out room where laundry is hung out to dry. Perkins is staring out a broken window while Beymer is playing with a paper boat in a tub of water.  She makes her way over to him by going under the laundry with her head poking up between the clothes lines on which are hung sheets. She reaches him and he is unresponsive so she goes back to her window where he  later joins her. All this played out under a lush and incredible score by Alfred Newman. This is what movies were made for.

Millie Perkins, a fragile and exquisite beauty was a successful model and cover girl when she was chosen out of thousands of hopefuls to play the lead in her first film. She took a lot of heat by critics because of her performance, who accused her of not rising to the occasion by delivering a more or less bland realization of a romantic, passionate and astute writer. But I thought she did just fine for a first effort alongside such heavyweights such as Winters, Wynn and Jacobi.  The climactic scene takes place at that broken window where Perkins and Beymer are peering out and having a heartfelt conversation when off in the distance a police car siren starts out soft and gets louder until the 2 realize the siren is  meant for them and that arrest and death were imminent. The scene ends with them in a spontaneous and passionate kiss as the police  car screeches to a halt in front of their hiding place.

This romantic and tragic tale won 3 Oscars, cinematography, art direction and a best supporting actress for Winters who later donated it to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam.