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THE DVD SHELF: "The John Barrymore Collection" and "The Diary of Anne Frank"
By Steven Suskin
21 Jun 2009
Anne Frank's diary was published in Amsterdam in 1947; published in English in the United States and Great Britain in 1952; and adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett into a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play in 1955. Hollywood, in the person of director George Stevens, soon beckoned, resulting in the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank [Fox], which has now been released in a new, 50th Anniversary edition. The film had enormous value in its day, bringing the true-life story to a significantly wider audience than had been reached by the book and play. (The book has gone on to be widely taught across the world, but in 1959 the events were still less than 20 years old.) The film is, indeed, a fine representation of the tale — though certainly not a substitute for the diary itself. The film, mind you, is three hours long.
Mr. Stevens, Goodrich & Hackett, and the cast do a fine job. Millie Perkins, a 20-year-old magazine cover girl without acting experience, was placed in the title role; Perkins is okay, although we are told that Susan Strasberg — who created the role in the stage version — was infinitely better. (Bonus materials include newly-filmed memories of the film from Ms. Perkins and Diane Baker, who played her sister.) Stevens retained three central performers from the Broadway cast, Joseph Schildkraut and Gusti Huber (as Anne's parents) and Lou Jacobi. He also added two bonafide stars — vaudeville-Broadway-radio headliner Ed Wynn and Hollywood's sultry Shelley Winters — and placed them in character roles; both were nominated for featured Oscars. The film was nominated for eight Oscars in all, with Ms. Winters joined in the winner's circle by the cinematographer and art director. "Ben-Hur" picked up 11 Oscars that year — and where is "Ben-Hur" now?
(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations"as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books.)
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