Frieda (film)

Frieda
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Basil Dearden
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Screenplay by	Angus MacPhail and Ronald Millar
Starring	David Farrar Glynis Johns Flora Robson Albert Lieven Mai Zetterling
Music by	John Greenwood
Cinematography	Gordon Dines
Editing by	Leslie Norman
Release dates	19 June 1947 (UK)
Running time	98 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Frieda is a 1947 British film, directed by Basil Dearden, screenplay by Angus MacPhail and Ronald Millar and was produced by Michael Balcon.^[1]

Synopsis

Frieda (Mai Zetterling) is a German woman who helps English airman Robert (David Farrar) to escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp as the Second World War nears its end. She loves him; he is only grateful to her. In a church between the Russian-German lines however, Robert marries her, so that she may obtain a British passport. Together they eventually arrive in his Oxfordshire home. Frieda meets his family - his mother, his small stepbrother Tony, Judy (Glynis Johns), the attractive widow of Robert's brother, and Aunt Eleanor (Flora Robson), a figure in local politics and vehemently anti-German.

At first the townspeople are bitterly hostile to Frieda and Robert is forced to give up his job as a schoolteacher. Gradually however, the ill will retreats, and she is accepted - though not by Eleanor. She is befriended by Judy, who, unknown to Robert, is now in love with him. As Robert settles into a new life, working with Frieda on a farm, he begins to lose his prisoner-of-war heaviness. He sees Frieda in a new light. But then they see a film dealing with the horror of Bergen-Belsen and Frieda fears their marriage will not survive its revelation of her countrymen's cruelty. But Robert clings on to what they have established between them.

Suddenly an ex-German soldier appears - Frieda's brother Richard (Albert Lieven). Thinking he had been killed Frieda is initially overjoyed. He had been captured and allowed to volunteer for the Polish Army. Soon she realizes however that he has remained a Nazi at heart. His wedding present to Frieda - a swastika on a chain. In a pub he is denounced as one of the guards at a concentration camp. To Robert, in private, he admits the truth of this accusation, and even claims that Frieda had known and approved of his actions. They fight, and Robert revolts now against everything German as vile and polluted.

Frieda, fearing that she has lost Robert now, attempts suicide. Just in time, Robert reaches her and the shock brings him to a realisation of what he risked losing. He perceives that his faith in her was justified. Even Nell (Flora Robson), confesses that her sweeping anti-German bigotry was wrong :"You cannot treat human beings as though they were less than human - without becoming less than human yourself."^[2]

Cast

• David Farrar as Robert
• Glynis Johns as Judy
• Mai Zetterling as Frieda
• Flora Robson as Aunt Eleanor
• Albert Lieven as Richard
• Barbara Everest as Mrs.Dawson
• Gladys Henson as Edith
• Ray Jackson as Tony
• Patrick Holt as Alan
• Aubrey Mallalieu as Irvine

References

External links

• Frieda at the Internet Movie Database
• Frieda at allmovie