Frieda is a 1947 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring David Farrar, Glynis Johns and Mai Zetterling.
The story is set in the aftermath of World War II and revolves around the life of Frieda, a German woman who rescues an English prisoner-of-war. The two of them marry, although he does not love her. Together, they settle in Oxfordshire. Frieda has to confront the anti-German sentiment prevailing in post-war Britain, as well as the presence of her unrepentant Nazi brother.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: "You cannot treat human beings as though they were less than human—without becoming less than human yourself."
- All Germans Are Nazis: A major theme of the film (and a timely one for when the film was released in 1947) is to what extent this true. Frieda's brother Richard is a die-hard Nazi who believes that all Germans are one and that the Reich will rise again. Frieda admits that she, and all Germans like her who knew what horrors what were going on and did nothing to stand against them, must shoulder some of the responsibility.
- All of the Other Reindeer: At first, the townspeople are bitterly hostile to Frieda, and Robert is forced to give up his job as a schoolteacher.
- Citizenship Marriage: Frieda is a German woman who helps English airman Robert to escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp as the Second World War nears its end. She loves him; he is only grateful to her. In a church between the Russian-German lines, however, Robert marries her, so that she can obtain a British passport.
- Contrived Coincidence: Frieda's brother Richard was the concentration camp guard who scarred Jim Merrick's face, and he winds up in the same small English town where Jim lives, and Jim recognises him as soon as he sees him in the pub.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Robert smokes one, fitting his role as a dashing RAF pilot and his Pre-War Civilian Career as a schoolmaster.
- Everybody Smokes: Purely as an artifact of when the was made and is set—the last year of WWII and the immediate post-war period—almost every adult character smokes. However, it can be a little jarring for modern viewers to see people smoking in an already smoke-filled cinema with children present.
- Foreshadowing: After the Christmas party, Frieda stands on the bridge looking at the fast flowing river passing underneath it and Robert asks if she is thinking about taking a swim. Later, Frieda jumps from this spot in an suicide attempt.
- Grammar Correction Gag: After intercepting a passed note insulting his new German wife, Robert tells off the student who wrote it, finishing with:And by the way, the word is "Heil", spelled H-E-I-L, not H-I-L-E.
- Hard-Work Montage: Used to show Frieda and Robert undertaking their work on the farm.
- Interrupted Suicide: Frieda, fearing that she has lost Robert, attempts suicide, but, just in time, Robert reaches her and the shock brings him to a realisation of what he risked losing.
- Noble Bigot: Aunt Eleanor is vehemently anti-German and is one of the few locals in the village who does not come around to liking and trusting Frieda, but is otherwise shown as being an excellent Member of Parliament who works hard for her constituents.Nell Dawson: With every month that passes things will become easier for you. Six months from now you'll be accepted here.
Frieda: By you?
Nell Dawson: By nine people out of ten.
Frieda: By you?
Nell Dawson: I'm the tenth. - One-Word Title
- Passing Notes in Class: Not involving a crush, but one of Robert's students passes Tony a note insulting Frieda; Robert's wife and Tony's sister-in-law. Robert intercepts the note and delivers a withering putdown to the student who wrote it, ending with a Grammar Correction Gag.
- Pre-War Civilian Career: Before joining the RAF, Robert was a schoolmaster at a boys school. He returns to the school when he gets back to England, but resigns because of the tensions his being married to a German are causing among the students and faculty, and works on a farm for the duration of the war. However, once Frieda has been accepted in the village he is planning to seek a job at one of the Oxford colleges.
- Protagonist Title
- Sociopathic Soldier: Frieda's brother Richard. A former German soldier, he had been captured and allowed to volunteer for the Polish Army. However, he is still an unrepentant Nazi, who believes that Germans will band together and forge a new Reich. However, having been fighting his entire adult life, he has no interest in or use for peace, and delivers an angry rant to Frieda about how he wants to see the war continue forever.
- Sibling Triangle: Robert and his brother Alan were both in love with Judy. Judy chose to marry Alan. the situation becomes complicated when Robert returns from the war with his new bride Frieda, only to learn that Judy is now widowed; Alan having been shot down three months earlier.
- Spinning Paper: Used to show the war progressing towards its end, and Robert and Frieda's arrival in Oxfordshire.
- Those Wacky Nazis: As Robert and Frieda are attempting to adjust after learning the truth about Bergen-Belsen, an ex-German soldier appears—Frieda's brother Richard. Thinking he had been killed, Frieda is initially overjoyed. He had been captured and allowed to volunteer for the Polish Army. However, she soon realises that he has remained a Nazi at heart, his wedding present to Frieda being a swastika on a chain.
- Title In:POLAND-MARCH 1945 No man's land between the German and the Russian armies.
- Wartime Wedding: Opens with Robert and Frieda being married by a Polish priest in a bombed out church between the Russian-German lines in Poland in 1945. The flashback to Alan and Judy's wedding in 1940 also counts, with both the groom and the best man dressed in RAF uniform.
