Actors - The Diary of Anne Frank

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	Actors - The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank is a 1959 motion picture of the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, which was based on the diary of Anne Frank. It was directed by George Stevens, with a screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It won three Oscars.

Brief synopsis

When concentration camp victim Otto Frank returns to his former hiding place after the war he is given his daughter's diary. The story recorded therein of how he hid his wife, two daughters, the three members of the van Daan family, and a dentist Albert Dussel, in an attic from the Nazis for two years is shown in flashback. Their growing tensions, their food shortages, and Anne's falling in love with Peter van Daan are set against the backdrop of wartime Amsterdam. After two years the building is raided by the Nazis and all of its occupants are sent to their deaths in concentration camps.

From stage to screen

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett's stage adaptation of the bestselling diary of Anne Frank, on which this film was based, premiered in October 1955 to salutary reviews and stunned audiences. Kenneth Tynan, who attended the 1956 Berlin premiere described it in his review as 'the most drastic emotional experience the theater has ever given me. It had little to do with art, as the play is not a great one, yet in its effect, in Berlin, at that moment of history, transcended anything that art has learned yet to achieve. It invaded the privacy of the whole audience.' European audiences who remembered the Nazi occupiers were forced to confront the reality which faced many of their fellow civilians: persecution, expulsion, deportation, and death. A few critics noted that the 'Anne' of the play had little resemblance to Anne Frank as she revealed herself in the published diary, and the widow of the man 'Albert Dussel' was based on begged the screenwriters without success to portray him faithfully, but generally audiences connected the 'Anne' of the play with the author of the now bestselling book, and they attended performances in droves. Its success immediately suggested a film adaptation and on May 20 1957 Anne Frank's father Otto Frank (the sole survivor of his immediate family) signed a contract with 20th Century Fox giving his approval and shooting started the following spring with 3 million dollar budget.

It was hoped that the cast of the original stage production would reprise their roles on film, and Joseph Schildkraut and Gusti Huber did return, but Susan Strasberg who had played Anne, declined, and the search for an actress to play the lead began. The role was offered to Natalie Wood, who also declined. Otto Frank's first choice was Audrey Hepburn. She was born the same year as Anne and had lived through the war in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, had read the diary in Dutch shortly before it was published in 1947. It devastated her and in spite of a personal meeting with Otto Frank she, too, turned down the role. She felt she was too old to play a teenager and that the experience of reliving the war would be too traumatising. Hepburn remained friends with Otto Frank until his death in 1980 and became patron of the Anne Frank Educational Trust UK. After much searching the lead role went to teenaged model Millie Perkins and the remaining cast were secured.

George Stevens filmed the exteriors on location in Amsterdam around the actual house the family had hidden in, but recreated the hiding place as a set in a Hollywood sound stage. Great care was taken to make the film look as authentic as possible. Otto Frank and one of the men who had helped hide him and his family, Johannes Kleiman, were brought in as technical advisors to the props department so that the hiding place could be refurnished according to their memories. Some scenes were more authentic than expected; one point features Hendrik van Hoeve, the greengrocer who supplied black market vegetables to the hideaways, playing himself. A final scene which showed Millie Perkins as Anne in Auschwitz was filmed but cut from the edit after an unfavourable response from the test audience. Stevens replaced it with a more uplifting shot of the sky with a voice-over from Perkins. Although the film was not a commercial success and opened to mixed reviews it was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three.

Cast

Millie Perkins
as Anne Frank
Joseph Schildkraut
as Otto Frank
Shelley Winters
as Petronella van Daan
Richard Beymer
as Peter van Daan
Gusti Huber as Edith Frank
Lou Jacobi
as Hans van Daan
Diane Baker
as Margot Frank
Douglas Spencer
as Kraler
Dodie Heath as Miep
Ed Wynn
as Albert Dussell

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