Linkshoch
Wonderful Movie
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Leofwine_draca
FREEDOM RADIO is another British propaganda movie of the Second World War, but at least it remembers to be entertaining. This time around the setting is Nazi Germany, where a number of good-hearted people become disillusioned by the rise of the Nazi party and their heavy handed ways, so they set up pirate radio broadcasts in order to combat the endless propaganda of the Nazi state. It's a little odd to see familiar British character actors like Raymond Huntley and Bernard Miles playing Germans without a hint of an accent, but the story feels fresher and more original than most and the characters are sympathetic. Things build to an appropriately moving climax.
tombancroft2
This film is currently turning up regularly on Film4 in the UK. It's still worth watching for a flavour of the sort of stuff bring shown during the second world war. Not too propagandist - in fact most of the bad things shown proved to be fact when the war was won.Incidentally, one reviewer seems to think that the doctor was German - he was in fact Austrian (like Mr. Hitler!).I didn't realise that the action was taking place in Austria as one reviewer tells us.Like others I had no problem with the actors not trying to speak with German accents. I prefer this to half the cast speaking the Queen's (or should it be King's) English and all the 'baddies' speaking with 'evil' German accents.At the date of this comment the film is appearing on Film4.
James Owen
This is the sort of intelligent movie you simply won't meet with in modern cinema. Yes, it's blatant propaganda, and yet the film serves so much more as a clarion call for justice, civility, and yes, freedom too. What we have in the lead character, Dr. Roder has got to be one of the most real, most believable and admirable heroes in of cinema.My advice is don't get bogged down with the occasional stuffiness of the production, enjoy this exultation on the bravery inside those who are able to stand up for what they believe in.It's a shame Freedom Radio will only ever get seldom showings on obscure channels in the mid-afternoon. This is the sort of film we'd do well to show in history classes.
mail-671
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.
