It's a splendidly done movie, a tale of eight Jews hiding in a Dutch attic for two years during the war, effectively directed by George Stevens and magnificently photographed by William Mellor.

And I can't watch it very often because I know how it's going to end and it's embarrassing to be moved. I feel the same way about some other tragedies. I want to warn Janet Leigh before she steps into the shower in "Psycho." I want to tell Montgomery not to send the Polish airborne into the hellish cauldron of Arnhem. I want Vincent and Paul to found their artists' colony in Arles. I don't want to watch Brutus going around begging for one of his friends to run him through with his own sword. I want to grab Romeo and tell him Juliet isn't really dead. I want Stanley Kowalski to shut the hell up and let Mitch marry Blanche DuBois, not that he'd listen.

On top of that, I can't just dismiss this as just a movie, because, before that it was a play, and before that it was an historical event. Well, mostly. Someone went through the historiography of Anne Frank's diary and found it had been sanitized over the years, first by Mr. Frank, then by the playwrights. She was pretty candid about her sexual development, and not nearly as forgiving as the movie makes her out to be. She was more nearly human than the figure we see on the screen.

Millie Perkins is Anne. She's not bad considering her age but there are some painful moments too. Everyone else is professional at least. The director, George Stevens, started his career with Laurel and Hardy two reelers and masterpieces like "Kentucky Kernels" but went on to develop an extremely effective directorial approach that was his alone in movies like "Shane" and "A Place In The Sun." He's very good here and uses the Cinemascope screen like a master.

There are moments of suspense, terror, sentiment, and even some comedy, but the film can't escape it's historical roots. How could civilized human beings do things like this to one another?

I admire this movie quite a bit because it refused to give in to an over-idealized version of events in order to portray the families as somehow noble or transcendent. While this IS true of some of them, some others are truly annoying and difficult to like--in particular, the lady played by Shelley Winters. She was so annoying and realistic (as many of us are far from being angels), that Miss Winters won the Oscar for her performance. The movie COULD have chosen the easier way out by portraying everyone hiding in the movie as saint-like, but its deliberate choice for realism provides a much more believable and universal story. Excellent performances all around and an incredibly heart-wrenching conclusion. A must-see film.

Based on the famous diary and the stage play, this is the story of one of the most well known victim of the Nazis. In 1942, she receives the blank diary on her 13th birthday. Soon, the family is hiding in the attic of her father's business with others. A few employees would help them stay hidden for over 2 years before they are discovered by the Nazis.

Surprisingly, there is real tension especially during the robberies. The quiet brings a heighten intensity. The cast's acting is generally great. There is a poignancy with this first film production of the material. The only drawback is Millie Perkins. Her inexperienced acting actually works for her in this case although as a twenty year old, playing Anne at 13 is a little off. She doesn't have the youth to play the character's brattiness. It's a minor problem in an otherwise terrific production.