It’s a weird feeling, watching a movie when you already know the ending is a tragedy. Most people walking into a screening of the film Diary of Anne Frank know exactly what happens to the girl in the attic. They know about the green police, the betrayal, and the spice-mill hideout in Amsterdam. Yet, George Stevens’ 1959 masterpiece manages to make you forget the inevitable for a while. It focuses on the life, not just the death. Honestly, it’s kinda miracle of cinema that a story so claustrophobic—set almost entirely in a few cramped rooms—can feel so expansive and alive.
George Stevens didn't just stumble into this project. He was a man deeply changed by what he saw during World War II. He was part of the US Army Signal Corps and was actually one of the first filmmakers to enter the liberated concentration camps like Dachau. He saw the horror firsthand. When he sat down to direct the film Diary of Anne Frank, he wasn't just making a Hollywood drama. He was processing his own trauma. You can feel that weight in every frame.
The Casting of Millie Perkins and the Ghost of Audrey Hepburn
Most people don't realize that Millie Perkins wasn't the first choice for Anne. Not even close. The production team really wanted Audrey Hepburn. Can you imagine? Hepburn was the biggest star in the world, and she actually had lived through the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. She knew the hunger. She knew the fear. But she turned it down. She said it was too painful to revisit those memories. It’s a heavy thing to ask an actress to relive her own childhood nightmare for a paycheck.
So, they found Millie Perkins. She was a model with basically zero acting experience. It was a huge risk. Some critics at the time thought she was too "American" or too polished, but if you watch her now, there’s an authentic spark there. She captures that annoying, brilliant, hopeful energy that Anne had. Anne wasn't a saint in her diary; she was a teenage girl who picked fights with her mom and had a massive ego sometimes. Perkins gets that. She makes Anne feel like a real person, which makes the ending hurt even more.
Joseph Schildkraut as the Emotional Anchor
While Perkins was the lead, Joseph Schildkraut as Otto Frank is the soul of the movie. He had already played the role on Broadway, so he lived in Otto’s skin for years. There’s a specific scene where he returns to the annex after the war. He’s the only survivor. The way he handles Anne’s scarf—it’s devastating. He doesn't have to say a word. You see the entire history of a broken man in his eyes.
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How the Film Diary of Anne Frank Recreated the Secret Annex
The set design for this movie is a masterclass in psychological filmmaking. They built a replica of the Prinsengracht 263 annex on a soundstage, but they made it slightly larger to fit the massive CinemaScope cameras. To keep the actors feeling "trapped," George Stevens famously kept the set under tight conditions. He wanted them to feel the passage of time. He wanted them to feel the dust.
The lighting is everything here. Since the inhabitants of the annex couldn't open the windows or go outside, the light only comes in through cracks or small skylights. It creates this constant tension between the beautiful world outside and the gray, stagnant reality inside. You see the dust motes dancing in the light, and it’s a reminder that even the air they breathe is stagnant.
Sound as a Character
In the film Diary of Anne Frank, silence is terrifying. The sound design uses the noise of the warehouse below—the workers moving crates, the sirens in the distance, the barking dogs—to remind the audience that one wrong step could be fatal. When a thief breaks into the building, the silence in the attic is so thick you can almost taste it. Stevens understood that what we don't hear is often scarier than what we do.
The Controversy of "Universalizing" the Story
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. In the late 50s, Hollywood was terrified of making things "too Jewish." It sounds ridiculous now, but there was a real push to make Anne’s story feel universal, like it could happen to anyone. Some critics, like Cynthia Ozick, later argued that this stripped the story of its specific historical context. They felt the movie leaned too hard into Anne’s "all people are good at heart" quote while ignoring the reality of why she was being hunted in the first place.
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It's a valid critique. If you look at the script, written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, it softens some of the sharper edges of Anne’s diary. It focuses on the romance with Peter Van Daan. It focuses on the Hanukkah celebration. It’s a bit of a "Hollywood-ized" version of the Holocaust. But honestly? For 1959, this was groundbreaking. It forced a massive global audience to look at the human cost of hatred. It put a face to the statistics.
Why George Stevens Chose CinemaScope
Most directors would have shot a movie about a tiny attic in a boxy, 4:3 aspect ratio to make it feel small. Stevens did the opposite. He used CinemaScope, the wide-screen format usually reserved for Westerns and epics. It was a bizarre choice that actually worked.
By using the wide frame, he could show multiple characters in different rooms at the same time. You see the Van Daans bickering in the background while Anne is writing in the foreground. It emphasizes that there was no privacy. You were always being watched. You were always on top of someone else. The "epic" width of the screen actually makes the smallness of the rooms feel more oppressive because you can see exactly how little space they have to move.
The Ending That Isn't in the Movie
The film ends before the camps. We see the Nazis breaking down the door, and then we jump to Otto Frank after the war. We don't see Bergen-Belsen. We don't see the typhus. Some people think the movie lets the audience off too easy. But maybe that’s the point. By ending with the arrest, the movie preserves Anne as she was—a writer, a dreamer, a girl full of life. It leaves the horror to our imagination, which is often more powerful than anything a special effects team could recreate.
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Impact on Pop Culture and Historical Memory
Before the film Diary of Anne Frank, the diary was a successful book, but the movie made it a global phenomenon. It changed how schools taught the Holocaust. It turned the annex in Amsterdam into a pilgrimage site. Today, millions of people visit that house, and many of them are picturing the scenes from the 1959 film as they walk through the rooms.
It’s worth noting that there have been many adaptations since. There was a BBC miniseries, an animated version, and even a "found footage" style web series on YouTube recently. But the 1959 version remains the gold standard. It has a certain weight to it. Maybe it’s the black-and-white cinematography. Maybe it’s the fact that it was made so close to the actual events. Whatever it is, it holds up.
Key Facts About the 1959 Production
- Academy Awards: The film won three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for Shelley Winters, who played Mrs. Van Daan.
- Shelley Winters' Sacrifice: She actually donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, where it is still on display today. She felt the award belonged to Anne, not her.
- The Score: Alfred Newman wrote the music. It’s haunting and beautiful, using traditional Jewish motifs without being overbearing.
- The Runtime: At nearly three hours, it’s a long sit. But it needs that time to make you feel the boredom and the slow crawl of years spent in hiding.
What You Should Do Next
If you want to truly understand the impact of the film Diary of Anne Frank, don't just watch the movie in a vacuum. Context is everything.
- Read the Definitive Edition of the Diary: The 1959 film was based on the "Version C" of the diary, which was heavily edited by Otto Frank. The newer "Definitive Edition" includes Anne’s thoughts on her sexuality and her more difficult relationship with her mother, which were cut from the film.
- Watch the Documentary "Anne Frank Remembered": This 1995 film features actual footage of Anne (the only known film of her) and interviews with Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide the family.
- Visit the Digital Anne Frank House: If you can't get to Amsterdam, their website has an incredible VR tour of the secret annex. It puts the scale of the movie sets into perspective.
- Compare Adaptations: Watch the 2001 miniseries starring Ben Kingsley as Otto. It’s much more brutal and focuses more on the life in the camps, providing a stark contrast to the 1959 version's more hopeful tone.
The story of Anne Frank isn't just a history lesson. It's a warning about what happens when we stop seeing the humanity in our neighbors. The 1959 film, for all its Hollywood polish, succeeds because it makes us love Anne. And when you love someone, you care about what happens to them. You care about the world they lived in. That’s the real power of cinema. It keeps the past from becoming just a bunch of dates in a textbook. It keeps it human.
Actionable Insight: When watching the film today, pay close attention to the character of Miep Gies. She represents the "upstander"—the person who risks everything to do what is right. In a world that often feels divided, her role in the story is perhaps the most relevant lesson for a modern audience. Seek out her memoir, Anne Frank Remembered, to see the story through the eyes of the woman who saved the diary for the world.