Freedom Radio

A Voice in the Night[1]) is a 1941 British propaganda film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Raymond Huntley and Derek Farr.

[2] It is set in Nazi Germany during the Second World War and concerns an underground German resistance group who run a radio station broadcasting against the totalitarian Third Reich.

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.

He tells his fiancee Elly, who runs a newspaper stall despite various papers regularly being confiscated by the authorities.

The neighbour is furious at being turned down for once; she eavesdrops and hears Frau Schmidt listening to French broadcasts, then maliciously reports her to the SS, who smash her radio and arrest her just as her granddaughter Elly arrives.

Dr Roder 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.

The birth of "Freedom Radio" sees the creation of an underground group of anti-Nazis who regard Karl as their leader.

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.

They fire a machine gun into the van killing the doctor but not before he broadcasts their country's plan to invade Poland.

In a magnificent cast, Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard give of their best as Karl and Irene and there are some cameos of acting worth remembering, for example Morland Graham as Father Landbach and Katie Johnson as Granny Schmidt.

"[5] The New York Times 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.

"[6] Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz, 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.