picture show

These movies where crowd pullers (as was BRIEF ENCOUNTER),the cinemas at the time burst to capacity,I remember queuing around the block with my parents,even getting to the stage of still wanting to get in,although the film had already started at the last showing.Thus missing the titles.Remember vividly on the occasion of WATERLOO ROAD that happening

WANTED FOR MURDER(1946) was very popular,a great story,amongst my favourites as well.A gem,especially the theme music.

But FRIEDA & THE SEVENTH VEIL always stood shoulders above the highest rankers at the box office.Exceptional films for that period..

Another little gem,THE WEAKER SEX(1948) Dir:Roy Ward Baker,about service life on the home front,should also get a mention.

Perhaps one day they will release these on DVD (Frieda/7th.Veil/The Weaker Sex)so everybody can enjoy again.I believe Wanted for Murder is available in the States,but why not here on Region 2.Portman at his best.

Brief Encounter

Hard to believe THE SEVENTH VEIL isn't on DVD. After all, it is the 10th most successful film at the UK box office of all time (cf. C4's Ultimate Film).

Never heard of FRIEDA before, it sounds interesting.

Steve Crook

It is. It stars David Farrar as Robert Dawson, anRAF pilot who was shot down over Nazi Germany and Mai Zetterling as Frieda, the German girl who helped him avoid capture. With a very strong supporting cast.

After the war Dawson goes back to Germany to find Frieda and thank her. He finds her living in terrible conditions and decides to marry her and bring her back to England. But will his family and friends, and the people in his village, be as wiling to accept someone who was so recently classified as an enemy?

Made in 1947 so memories of the war were fresh in everyone's mind.

Glynis Johns plays Judy Dawson, Robert's sister who does her best to accept and like Frieda, but it's a struggle as German's so recently killed people she loved.

Flora Robson plays Nell Dawson (an aunt I think), a lady with political ambitions who makes no secret of her unwillingness to accept a German as a friend or a member of the family.
Nell: With every month that passes things will become easier for you. Six months from now you'll be accepted here.
Frieda: By you?
Nell: By nine people out of ten.
Frieda: By you?
Nell: I'm the tenth.

There's an amazingly powerful scene where Robert and Frieda are at the cinema when they show the newsreel about the discovery of the concentration camps.

Then Frieda's brother arrives.

Definitely on worth seeing

Steve

dpgmel

Agree 100% with what Steve says about "Frieda", IMHO still very relevant to today and Flora Robson turms in a crackerjack performance

CaptainWaggett

Frieda was discussed at some length in the recent War Stories documentary on BBC4.