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Mike-764's summation is obviously that of an updated US presentation & not that of the original short story originally set in the '20s by one of Britain's most popular & prolific spinner of yarns with a twist,W W Jacobs.Through the 30s-50s it was a popular choice for Rep groups and BBC Radio and rates with the best - the famed "Sorry,Wrong No!" as a suspencer for the imagination. Small wonder it was a popular choice for the US "Suspense" series. Adaptations from the 50s for film & TV have altered the "McGuffin" but not always for the best. I probably saw this particular version but not recently, so I can't properly rate it. I have,however,read the play & it is that with which I am familiar. Listen to this in the dark in the original version with the original finish which is the real clincher. Who - or what was knocking at the door after that final wish? Would you have opened it?

After sticking it out to the grim & dreadful closing 15 minutes of this co-Italian production, I felt the need for a stiff brandy. Not knowing anything of the film nor of the incident that led to the final atrocity I was kept riveted after the first half hour since the often chequered and frustrated direction of the account often leaves the conclusion in doubt and one hoping the worst will be thwarted at the last moment.When 32 of a company of marching German soldiers are wiped out by a small bunch of Italian underground in a wet deserted street which results in a furious local Commandant(McKern) demanding immediate and exaggerated retaliation but is reminded by his subordinate(R Burton) that with the Americans beating at the city gates, he lacked the proper authority,it being more politically prudent to "go through channels". Burton has a tenuous understanding with a local priest Fr Antonelli(Mastroianni)who represents the large Christian population & the Vatican who gets personally involved in a struggle to cool what becomes a strategic battle between the various ranking officials who refuse permission or don't wish to know, his pleading & reasoning with Burton as one born to obey orders and caught in the middle of a thankless and unwanted military situation is ordered to compile a reduced list of hostages and then arrange the execution squad. It is a matter of history that Pope Pius,ruler of the Vatican & representative of everything Catholicism stood for, if not a collaborator with the Nazis was at least partisan, so Fr Antonelli finding the hostage situation finally becoming a growing reality desperately seeks his intervention to prevent the accelerating executions only to be met with a polite & devious refusal. There are a few moments of amusement in watching the growing frustrating of McKern repeatedly defeated by ranking responses to his demands but the suspense is held until the point where Burton rigid to his code, rebukes the inevitable damnation of his soul in openly defying Fr Antonelli & as a man out on his own stonefacedly proceeds with his "final solution" without official knowledge of the civil authority. How the final contrived business is planned with the utmost secrecy and perpetrated even to the extent of destroying all evidence of the atrocity and the grim,details of every last moment takes a pretty strong stomach.....the notorious sequence from Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" springs to mind. One final nasty shock remains for Burton who has promised the priest he will fire the first shot. The whole "business", like Lidice is historical truth... Hitler clearly saw the assassination of one high ranking official significant enough to wipe out an entire village & its population- the significance here was a mere 30 odd footsloggers of minor importance. One point did bother me about why these officials really cared about protocol and did not simply go out & seize the first unwitting hostages they found and not stand on ceremony about details. But this is a true story we are told.

A few old faces like Anthony Steel & Peter Vaughan pop up briefly whilst the acting is generally quite acceptable with Burton almost as stone faced and cold as in "Villain" . What was his reason for taking so unsympathetic a part? Nevertheless, as one reviewer has remarked it has the look of a cheap production and a good deal is shot in semi-darkness. Definitely not for children under 14!

The crumbs of comfort come with the closing credits when we are audibly reminded of the War Trials' sentences of death or imprisonment for these men, Only Kesselring got off lightly as the top authority to issue the proper orders. Fr Antonelli finally demonstrated the bravery of Sidney Carton in his horror of this massacre in Rome.

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.