''Freedom Radio'' (a.k.a. ''A Voice in the Night'') is a 1941

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

propaganda film directed by

Anthony Asquith Anthony William Landon Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among oth ...

and starring

Clive Brook Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English film actor. After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States ...

, Diana Wynyard, Raymond Huntley and Derek Farr. It is set in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and concerns an underground German resistance group who run a radio station broadcasting against the totalitarian Third Reich. It was shot at

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

Paul Sheriff Paul Sheriff (13 November 1903 – 25 September 1960) was a Russian-born British art director. In early life he used the names Paul Schouvaloff, or Paul Shouvalov.Also Pawel Alexandrowitsch Schuwalow () He won an Academy Award and was nomin ...

Plot

The story begins in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

just before the beginning of the

. Dr Roder is physician to some important members of the Nazi party but prefers being at his luxurious house with his wife, Irena, and servants. Irena's brother Otto returns from Italy and they throw a party with many interesting and high-ranking attendees. During the party the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

call, requiring his immediate attendance. At his club, the main servitor, Sebastian, announces the club is closing and they will not see him again. His wife Irena is an actress, and after her performance it is related that Adolf Hitler very much admired her performance. She is offered a post in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

as Reich Director of Popular Pageantry. At church the priest decries the deposition of a fellow priest, inciting an attack by a group of SS officers including Otto who glares at the shocked doctor. The priest is killed but the press release blames the congregation. Hans Glaser is trying to get a radio sales licence and the doctor says he will try to help. He tells his fiancee Elly who runs a newspaper stall, despite various papers regularly being confiscated. Frau Schmidt is pestered by her neighbour who wants to borrow lard. The neighbour eavesdrops and hears her listening to French broadcasts. The neighbour reports her to the SS who smash her radio and arrest her just as the granddaughter Elly arrives. An SS officer assaults the girl. After interrogation she is sent to a "rest home". Dr Roder and his wife start drifting apart especially when he says the Nazi party is like a cancer. She leaves him and goes to stay in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

. Things get worse, with beatings, interrogations and book burning. The doctor asks Hans to build a secret radio. Hans first suspects a trick. The doctor explains he wants to create a "Freedom Station"... both knowing they face death if caught. They use a basement under a toy shop and smuggle parts in through toys brought for repair. He creates a secret radio station transmitting on 26.9, from which he broadcasts condemnations of Hitler and prays for a "better" Germany to arise from the ashes of his ruined country. The unauthorised broadcast is intercepted and a public announcement made saying "do not listen to 26.9" accidentally promoting the station. They broadcast each evening at 10.30pm. The birth of "Freedom Radio" sees the creation of an underground group of anti-Nazis who regard Karl as their leader. Multiple people ring the doctor to wish him happy birthday... but it is not his birthday. Captain Muller explains to his superiors how triangulation can be used to calculate where the signal is coming from. He blames Goebels for jamming the signal which then cannot be traced. Otto visits Irena when the radio is on, they both think they recognise Dr Roder's voice. Otto is asked to join Muller's detection unit. Fenner starts doing more of the live broadcasts and the doctor's voice is put onto a gramophone record for broadcast. His friend Rudolf has friends on each side. It is intimated to Rudolph in a coded message that Germany will invade Poland on the following Friday. It is discovered that Hitler will be making a major broadcast from a stadium and Hans goes to rig up a bypass to allow their own message to be broadcast instead. Ironically Irena is in charge of organising the pageantry of the huge rally. She has a special seat with Rabenau. Hitler starts to speak then it jumps to Roder... he speaks for under a minute before the power is switched off. Hans escapes dressed as an SS officer. They suspect Dr Roder and burst into his clinic. They find nothing. Meanwhile Hans gets home and finds Elly in his room.. she looks broken, like an old woman. She has been in a concentration camp. His wife returns and accuses him of being a traitor. He vows to make one last broadcast. Otto appears and chats with Mrs Roder; he overheard them talking and believes she knows where her husband is going to make the broadcast from. She is taken to Ranenau's office, but tells them the wrong place. However, they work out that Dr Roder had indicated a photo in a frame as the site of the broadcast. The SS identify it as Spiedler's cottage. As Ranenau tells Irena that there will indeed be war she goes to Dr Roder to warn him that the Gestapo are coming to the cottage. But the doctor sets up the transmitter in the back of a van. Irena joins him. The Gestapo close in and locate the van. They fire a machine gun into the van killing the doctor but not before he broadcasts their plan to invade Poland. As he is killed, first Irena takes over the broadcast, then, when she is killed, others in the group broadcast that good people were murdered that day, but that they will continue to broadcast the truth.

Cast

as Dr. Karl Roder * Diana Wynyard as Irena Roder * Raymond Huntley as Rabenau * Derek Farr as Hans Glaser *

Joyce Howard Joyce Howard (28 February 1922 in London – 23 November 2010 in Santa Monica, California) was an English actress, writer, and film executive. After studying at RADA, she was spotted by film director Anthony Asquith in a play at London's Emb ...

as Elly Schmidt *

Howard Marion-Crawford Howard Marion-Crawford (17 January 1914 – 24 November 1969), the grandson of writer F. Marion Crawford, was an English character actor, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the 1954 television adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. In 1 ...

as Kummer * John Penrose as Otto *

Morland Graham Morland Graham (8 August 1891 – 8 April 1949) was a British film actor. Graham had a career on the stage spanning over 35 years. He was known as a character actor, but also wrote a one act comedy, ''C'est la Guerre'', which was first perfo ...

as Father Landbach *

Ronald Squire Ronald Launcelot Squire (25 March 1886 – 16 November 1958) was an English character actor. Biography Born in Tiverton, Devon, England, the son of an army officer, Lt.-Col. Frederick Squirl and his Irish-born wife Mary (Ronald's surname 'Sq ...

as Rudolf Spiedler *

Reginald Beckwith William Reginald Beckwith (2 November 190826 June 1965) was an English film and television actor, who made over one hundred film and television appearances in his career. He died of a heart attack aged 56. Beckwith was also a film critic and ...

as Fenner * Clifford Evans as Dressler *

Bernard Miles Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 190714 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th ce ...

as Captain Müller S *

Gibb McLaughlin George McLoughlin (19 July 1879 – 30 June 1961), known professionally as Gibb McLaughlin, was an English film and stage actor. Early days McLaughlin was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England in 1879. For about 10 years he was a sales ...

as Dr Weiner *

Muriel George Muriel George (29 August 1883 – 22 October 1965) was an English singer and film actress. She appeared in 55 films between 1932 and 1955. She also appeared on the variety stage and sang on radio with her second husband Ernest Butcher for thir ...

as Hanna *

Martita Hunt Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havish ...

as Frau Lehmann - Concierge *

Hay Petrie David Hay Petrie (16 July 1895 – 30 July 1948) was a Scottish actor noted for playing eccentric characters, among them Quilp in ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' (1934), the McLaggen in '' The Ghost Goes West'' (1935) and Uncle Pumblechook in ''Great ...

as Sebastian * Manning Whiley as SS Trooper * Katie Johnson as Granny Schmidt * George Hayes as Policeman *

Everley Gregg Everley Gregg (26 October 1903, in Bishopstoke, Hampshire – 9 June 1959, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire) was an English actress. Early in her career, she became associated especially with plays of Noël Coward. She began making films in the ...

as Maria Tattenheim * Marie Ault as Old Woman Customer *

Abraham Sofaer Abraham Isaac Sofaer (1 October 1896 – 21 January 1988) was a Burmese-born British actor who began his career on stage and became a familiar supporting player in film and on television in his later years. Life and career Although Sofaer was b ...

as Heini * Joan Hickson as Katie * Pat McGrath as Kurt * Wyndham Milligan as SS Guard * Bunty Payne as Ema *

William Hartnell William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the first incarnation of the Doctor in ''Doctor Who'' from 1963 to 1966. In film, Hartnell notably appeared in '' Brig ...

as Radio Operator

Critical reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic wrote that "this is a frankly propagandistic drama...The admirable emotional restraint which went into the making of several of the better British war films seen here in the past year is sadly lacking."

Sky Movies Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema ...

called the film, "gripping, strongly cast and more subtle than most propaganda thrillers of its time...And film buffs may spot Katie Johnson, later to win fame in '' The Ladykillers'' but here, 13 years earlier, already in granny roles!"

Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz Wolfgang Gans Edler Herr zu Putlitz (; born 16 July 1899 in Laaske, German Empire, today part of Putlitz, Germany; died 3 September 1975 in Potsdam, German Democratic Republic) was a German diplomat. He resisted the Nazis and provided informati ...

, German diplomat operating for British intelligence, recalls in his autobiography working on the film as a consultant at Shepperton in the winter of 1939–40.''Unterwegs nach Deutschland'', Berlin 1956, p. 284-285 (English translation: ''The Putlitz Dossier'', London 1957).

External links

*
Freedom Calling! The Story Of The Secret German Radio

German Peoples Radio - Wikipedia

References

{{Anthony Asquith 1941 films British World War II propaganda films Two Cities Films films Films directed by Anthony Asquith Films with screenplays by Anatole de Grunwald Columbia Pictures films Films shot at Shepperton Studios Films set in Berlin British war drama films 1941 war films 1941 drama films 1940s English-language films