FREEDOM RADIO (AKA "A Voice in the Night") 1941This production is an early WW2 British propaganda film set just before the start of the war.Clive Brook plays a doctor who just happens to be on of Adolf Hitler's personal medical team. Brook is married to a successful stage actress, Diana Wynard. Also in the mix here is Wynard's brother, John Penrose, and Gestapo man, Raymond Huntley.The Nazi Party has been in control for 6 years and the country is falling deeper under Hitler's grip. Brook and a group of friends from his school days meet for drinks every couple of weeks. It seems that every meeting there are fewer and fewer friends showing up. The men are running afoul of various Government edicts and are ending up in the camps. Brook is growing more annoyed with the direction Germany is going.Matters come to a head when his priest friend, Morland Graham is killed while being arrested. One of the SS types making the arrest was his wife, Wynard's brother, John Penrose. Brook has had enough and decides to set up a resistance group.The small group of close friends and like-minded types set up a mobile radio broadcaster. They use this to hit the airwaves spreading the truth on the Nazi machine. The Gestapo types are increasingly hot under the collar over their inability to catch the "Freedom Radio" crew.The main reason that they can stay ahead of the Nazis, is that their radio is onboard a small motor launch. They are always on the move which prevents the Gestapo from getting a radio position fix. The group pulls a big move and sabotage one of Hitler's speeches. This however results in the death of one of the group.Brook's wife, Wynard, is flattered by the attentions of the Party and accepts a political appointment. She cannot understand Brook's growing dislike of the regime.The Gestapo pulls out all the stops and finally corners Brook and Wynard, who has now joined her husband. The two are shot dead and the end of the "Freedom Radio" is announced over the airwaves. The surviving members of the group are however soon back on the air continuing the struggle.This quite watchable film was put out when the British were still for the most part, on the losing end of the conflict. The acting is acceptable, though Brook is a tad too stiff lipped for me. He always reminded me of the British version of American actor, Richard Dix.Worth a look if you can find it.

The movie is set in Austria at the time of the Anschluss-its merger with Nazi Germany .The main character is a well respected and highly placed medical man ,Dr Karl Roder whose patients include the world's most famous ex- housepainter ,the testicularly challenged Herr Hitler himself .Roder detests the Nazi party but his actress wife Irena is less politically aware and is flattered to be appointed as a party functionary (Director of Pagenntry).Roder sees his anti-Nazi friends disappear and one ,a priest ,is murdered before his eyes .(The theme of anti-Nazi German clerics was explored in the contemporaneous movie Pastor Hall which is worth watching as well).He resolves to strike back by opening a propagandist and wholly illegal radio station -Radio Freedom with the aid of a young engineer whose fiancé has been abused by the Nazis The movie is crisply directed by the ever dependable Anthony Asquith and it makes good use of authentic period footage of Nazi rallies and parades.The cast make no attempt whatsoever to speak in German or Austrain accents and the clipped tones of the West end stage of the time are heard from leading players such as Clive Brook and Diana Wyngarde as Roder and Irena .Raymond Huntley is an impressive villain and the cast includes such stalwart supporting players as Martita Hunt ,playing a snooping neighbour,Joan Hickson and the Hammer studios luminary to be .Clifford Evans ,and Bernard Miles The movie does conjure up the sense of suspicion ,fear and distrust of the era and serves as an effective counter to the pacifist nonsense of such trash as John Ford's celluloid garbage "The World Moves On" Well made and worthy but not top drawer

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.

This film has a lot to say about to what extent the allied powers knew about the horrors of the Nazi regime by 1940. The "cleared for general viewing" notice that appears just before this film starts adds a small something to this film now.It tells its story of a decent doctor in Nazi Germany effectively. No explicit violence is used - yet its remarkable how powerful a bullet-riddled door or a Nazi thug approaching a young girl for "assistance" about her grandmother can be.