Frieda

One of the bravest, controversial Post war films around. A very uncomfortable and sensitive subject, treated delicately and with style. This must have been very hard viewing in 1947when it was released, shining a bright light on our humanity and making us consider our own prejudices and potentially shameful capabilities.

Mai Zetterling, David Farrar, Flora Robson, and Glynis Johns star in Frieda from 1947.

Farrar is a pilot who brings his fiancé, a German woman, home to England, after she helps him escape.

The war is still going on, and she is not welcome. Farrah's sister (Robson) is running for office. When asked about the presence of Frieda, she says that just by virtue of Frieda being German, she bears the same sins as the Nazis.

Meanwhile, Robson encourages her brother's widow (Johns) to try to get Farrar away from Frieda.

Once the war ends, things become easier for Frieda, and she is accepted by the community.

One day her brother (Albert Levein) appears. He gives her a necklace with a swastika on it.

Good story of facing prejudice and coming to terms, for Frieda, of the horrible events that took place in her country.

Very good performances as some harsh realizations come to light for all involved.

Intelligent British post-war drama focusing on the problems of assimilation of Germans in the UK during, and in the wake of, WWII. Mai Zetterling is the German girl whom RAF pilot David Farrar marries out of gratitude and duty after she helps him escape the Nazis. Upon their return to his home town however she is met by mistrust and prejudice from the unlikeliest sources. The strong storyline is weakened somewhat by the eventual appearance of Zetterling's brother, whose eyes bulge fanatically whenever the word 'Nazi' is mentioned. The central theme is as relevant today as it was back in the 1940s

This film was made in 1947 when this country was just coming to terms with the fact that it would have to live with the new Germany.The film does not take into account the fact that there were already thousands of German refugees in this country who had fled Nazi persecution.For example in the film industry there were actors such as Conrad Veidt and technicians such as Mutz Greenbaum.Therefore what only seems to have been considered by this film are bad Germans,as played by Albert Levien and the passive German as played by Swede,Mai Zetterling.So what is ignored are the millions of Germans who did oppose Hitler,the social democrats and communists who were thrown in concentration camps.I felt that Levien's revelation as a nasty Nazi was rather over dramatic and rather spoiled the balance of the film.I also wonder what audiences of the time would have made of the newsreel of Belsen concentration camp shown when the couple are in the cinema.very thought provoking.

This is an amazing psychological drama about a German girl being brought out of the war by an Englishman who eventually marries her, creating great controversy in his small native town, as his elder sister (Flora Robson) is a leading local politician. She is ardently against all things German, consistently denouncing all Germans just because they are Germans, and her case is perhaps the most interesting one in the film , how it develops, and how she finally gets the last word: "You can never treat any human beings as less than human without becoming less than human yourself." It could have been said by Plato. David Farrar is outstanding as usual as the soldier who refuses to give up Frieda, and Man Zetterling, who herself lived in Germany during a period of her life, is absolutely convincing and outstanding in acting this very sensitive part. I was deeply impressed by the depth of the script and the actors' perfect rendering of it in bringing it more than alive, and although the scenery is rather the same all through with no great practical drama, the inner drama is the more vivid, intensive and spiritually dramatic. This was yet another ace among the productions of Basil Dearden.