Freedom Radio

Dr Karl Roder is a German doctor who enjoys his practice and comfortable life in Germany in the late 1930's. However as the months pass he notices the Gestapo rising to power in the country, with many of his professional friends being 'disappeared' for the slightest of reasons. Eventually his student meeting of doctors is broken up as part of the new rules on gatherings. His first experience of the new regime firsthand is when he sees a minister decrying the ruling power only to be removed from the pulpit and later be reported dead in a twisted and deceitful report. Frustrated by what he sees happening, Roder turns to a radio building friend for help and soon he has made the first broadcast of Freedom Radio – but the Gestapo are soon trying to find him and shut him down.

When screened on television this film still bares the certificate from the BBFC that rates it as suitable for 'adult' audiences meaning that this is actually part of the film. At the time I'm not sure why they felt this was appropriate for that rating but they did, certainly watching it didn't really give me any idea as to what was so bad about the content here. The film is set within Germany and shows some elements of the community (albeit Germans with good clean English accents as opposed to the Gestapo who have a forced accent!) that were willing to stand up and decry the actions of the Government. Maybe this is why it was rated A for adults, because it is easier to see a whole country as the enemy during a war rather than accept that the people are essentially just people. Anyway, aside from this bombshell (!) there is nothing really to the film that justifies seeing it and explains why it is so rarely seen these days.

The plot goes down the roads of a standard type of thriller but it lacks any real thrills and the story is told without much in the way of excitement. The use of footage of Hitler himself makes the film slightly more interesting but the main narrative is lacking a real bite to keep me interesting. Looking abck now we all know the atrocities that were carried out in the name of Germany so the vague hinting about disappearing scientists etc is hardly shocking or informative, but maybe at the time it had audiences on the edge of their seat with revelations about concentration camps, but my god the realities of the places is much worse that what this film can depict. The cast are pretty solid but none of them really make any impression. Brook doesn't prove himself as leading man material in a performance that is fairly stilted and stiff. The support cast are pretty good with some emotional performances but I can't remember any of their names.

Overall an interesting film in terms of the 'different' (at the time) things it does in regards mentioning camps, showing a German resistance and showing Hitler but in terms of narrative it is pretty dull, lacking a real tension. The shock effect is also gone as we are much more aware of the true horror than we were in 1941, this leaves very little for the modern viewer – hence it being pretty unknown nowadays.

An interesting fact about "Freedom Radio" is that Warners had beaten 2 Cities to it the previous year with the much grimmer & hard hitting "Underground" where the principal exponents were 2 brothers - one a defiant anti-nazi & the other a committed party member - one set against the other against a background of terror & mistrust under a merciless Gestapo regime. This is by far the superior treatment and establishes a suspenseful,dangerous atmosphere where serious infractions like listening to or indeed operating subversive radio transmissions intending to tell the truth about nazi policies invite the severest punishments. Basically,"Freedom Radio" narrates a similar situation from a British viewpoint and with a distinctly British cast of well known players in what was an early piece of propaganda from Asquith whose family politics were well set. It is a polished production under a wartime budget with cameos by several well known players of the day. Raymond Huntley/Clifford Evans & unbelievably Bernard Miles strut around resplendant in immaculate & bemedalled Gestapo suits with young Derek Farr and Joyce Howard caught up in the plot to aid wealthy dentist Clive Brook finally act in defiance of the regime that needs to strangle the truth. The Truth was not out there & Brook has a marital struggle to convince Diana Wynyard- a firm party sympathyser & keep his actions from reaching her nazi friends. Brook & Wynyard were no strangers to the stage and had the leads in Noel Coward's "Cavalcade"(1933). The former has also played Sherlock Holmes & prior to FR was a stiff upperlipped naval officer in Ealing's early WW2 naval epic "Convoy". Diana Wynyard made a name for herself in the lead of "Gaslight" on stage & on screen before MGM reprised it with Ingrid Bergman and tried to suppress the former. "Freedom Radio", again is studio-bound but this does not affect the story. Some dialogue is of the day and the edited newsreel inserts are obvious. A twist in the plot has one of the nazi leads a sympathyser & a nice,moment of suspense as Derek Farr,the radio technician infiltrates a huge Party gathering under the nose of a suspicious armed guard and cuts the connections relaying a speech by Hitler. There are several witty lines such as mentioned by earlier critics & direction is above average as should be expected from "Puffin" = Cottage On Dartmoor"/"Pygmalion"/"Way To The Stars" & "The Winslow Boy".

As an ex-RAF Wireless Op I appreciated the Gestpo method of searching out the illegal transmissions using the old 2-beam method of DF.In fact,this might just get a rough location of a strong signal but a third beam would be much more accurate as used some years later by the FBI in "White Heat" when hunting down Ma Cody in her bugged car. There's a touch of irony when the ending of FR parallels that of "Underground" in that the Truth will not be silenced by mere suppression.

This film has a lot to say about to what extent the allied powers knew about the horrors of the Nazi regime by 1940. The "cleared for general viewing" notice that appears just before this film starts adds a small something to this film now.

It tells its story of a decent doctor in Nazi Germany effectively. No explicit violence is used - yet its remarkable how powerful a bullet-riddled door or a Nazi thug approaching a young girl for "assistance" about her grandmother can be.

The movie is set in Austria at the time of the Anschluss-its merger with Nazi Germany .The main character is a well respected and highly placed medical man ,Dr Karl Roder whose patients include the world's most famous ex- housepainter ,the testicularly challenged Herr Hitler himself .Roder detests the Nazi party but his actress wife Irena is less politically aware and is flattered to be appointed as a party functionary (Director of Pagenntry).

Roder sees his anti-Nazi friends disappear and one ,a priest ,is murdered before his eyes .(The theme of anti-Nazi German clerics was explored in the contemporaneous movie Pastor Hall which is worth watching as well).He resolves to strike back by opening a propagandist and wholly illegal radio station -Radio Freedom with the aid of a young engineer whose fiancé has been abused by the Nazis The movie is crisply directed by the ever dependable Anthony Asquith and it makes good use of authentic period footage of Nazi rallies and parades.The cast make no attempt whatsoever to speak in German or Austrain accents and the clipped tones of the West end stage of the time are heard from leading players such as Clive Brook and Diana Wyngarde as Roder and Irena .Raymond Huntley is an impressive villain and the cast includes such stalwart supporting players as Martita Hunt ,playing a snooping neighbour,Joan Hickson and the Hammer studios luminary to be .Clifford Evans ,and Bernard Miles The movie does conjure up the sense of suspicion ,fear and distrust of the era and serves as an effective counter to the pacifist nonsense of such trash as John Ford's celluloid garbage "The World Moves On" Well made and worthy but not top drawer

In the months leading up to Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia, Hitler's own doctor gradually realises the Nazi's oppressive regime is wrong and must be opposed. His resolve is strengthened as he witnesses his wife and brother-in-law blithely embrace National Socialism.

Rather nifty and extremely stylish little mid-war British propaganda piece, fascinatingly mixing cut-glass accents and 'stiff-upper-lip' acting styles with Nazi uniforms and thuggery. Though all scenes are studio-bound, this actually lends itself to the clinically oppressive atmosphere, as the viewer watches characters apparently walking late-night Berlin streets, or steering a motor launch along a canal, or watching a train pass, all the time knowing that they are confined under a sound stage roof.

Freedom Radio contains an array of delicious performances, particularly amongst the supporting players - Martita Hunt as a duplicitous alcoholic, eyes flashing as she takes revenge on an innocent neighbour; Raymond Huntley's oily senior Nazi officer determined to outfox and destroy any resistance; the beautiful John Penrose's captivating portrayal of Otto, a young man seduced and corrupted by the Nazi regime. We even see a brief, early appearance by Joan Hickson over 40 years before Miss Marple! Try and track this down if you can - a must for all fans of British pre- and inter-war film and long-gone British character actors alike.