The Diary of Anne Frank *** (1980, Melissa Gilbert, Maximilian Schell, Joan Plowright, Doris Roberts, James Coco, Scott Jacoby, Clive Revill) – Classic Movie Review 12,332

Melissa Gilbert is excellent as Anne Frank in director Boris Sagal’s strongly cast, stalwart, moving 1980 TV movie remake of the 1959 feature film The Diary of Anne Frank.

It re-tells the real-life story of two Jewish families and a talky elderly dentist who hide in a terribly cramped, confined Amsterdam warehouse attic for two years during the German occupation of Holland.

Father Otto Frank (Maximilian Schell) hides his wife Edith (Joan Plowright), his teenage daughter Anne Frank (Melissa Gilbert) and her sister Margot (Melora Marshall), but Anne starts to fall for the other family’s son Peter Van Dann (Scott Jacoby).

The Diary of Anne Frank is a sincere and affecting film, written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and based on Goodrich and Hackett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1955 Broadway play from Anne Frank’s diaries, The Diary of a Young Girl.

The cast are Melissa Gilbert as Anne Frank, Maximilian Schell as Otto Frank, Joan Plowright as Edith Frank, James Coco as Hans Van Daan, Doris Roberts as Petronella Van Daan, Clive Revill as Dr Dussel, Scott Jacoby as Peter Van Daan, Melora Marshall as Margot Frank, Erik Holland as Mr Kraler, and Anne Wyndham as Miep Gies.

Scott Jacoby is the grandson of Lou Jacobi, who played Peter Van Dann’s father, Hans Van Dann, in the 1959 film.

It premiered on NBC on November 17, 1980.

Though both films are scripted by  Goodrich and Hackett, this time it is more thoughtful and character driven than played for suspense, and at 109 minutes is much shorter than the 1959 version that runs three hours.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,332

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