Where to watch The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)? All streaming options explored

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is an American biopic that is an adaptation of the posthumously published Diary of Anne Frank. The film is based on the 1955 play of the same name, written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956.

Directed by the filmmaker George Stevens, it became the first film adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary and the original play. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) was released on March 18, 1959, and went on to win three Oscars in 1960. Interested readers can buy or rent the movie on multiple streaming platforms like Amazon and Google Play, among others.

Shelley Winters, Mille Perkins, and Joseph Schildkraut played the leading roles in the movie, and Winters went on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is rated 7.4 stars out of 10 on IMDb and 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Where to watch The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

This classic drama, with a running time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, has received positive reactions from audiences and critics for over seven decades. In 2006, the American Film Institute rated The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) eighteenth among the 100 most inspiring American films. Over the years, the movie has been uploaded on OTT platforms for streaming.

As per TV Guide, The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is available for purchase or rental on Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, and Prime Video.

Disclaimer: The availability of movie titles on OTT platforms changes periodically and may not be available in all countries. Readers are advised to recheck the streaming platform when reading this article.

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George Steven's son talks about the making of The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

A still from The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) (Image via 20th Century Studios)

George Stevens was a prominent American filmmaker who received two Academy Awards for his films A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956). He joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and served during World War II.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Geogre Stevens Jr. (son of George Stevens) said that while serving in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, his father saw humanity at its worst. He explained that this ended up changing his father's perspective on looking at the world and humanity.

“He never lost kind of his optimistic spirit. But I think he saw what human beings were possible of doing.” George Stevens Jr. mentioned.

Anne Frank was part of a Jewish family who were hiding from the Nazi soldiers from 1942 to 1944 in a small attic during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Nazi Germany a few months before World War II ended. She was the youngest daughter of Otto Frank, who edited and published his deceased daughter's diary, which later became the book The Diary of a Young Girl. He was the only survivor of the family after the Holocaust.

Richard Beymer and Millie Perkins in a still from the movie (Image via 20th Century Studios)

George Stevens Jr., who served as the associate producer in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), recalls his experience of meeting Otto Frank with his father. He started by saying:

“Dad was on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Then we went to Munich and the next morning went to Dachau. It was his first time there since 1945.”

Stevens Jr. continued:

“We went to this little office and this tall man opened the door, It was Otto Frank. We went in and sat with him and his wife, whom he met in Auschwitz. He was getting the first look at the man who was going to tell his daughter’s story."

He concluded:

"After a moment, he went over to the filing cabinet and brought something wrapped in cloth and put it on the desk and unfolded it in front of us. It was [Anne’s] red diary.”

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As per an NBC News article published on November 12, 2024, five masked protestors were seen waving Nazi flags outside of Fowlerville Community Theatre in Michigan on November 9, 2024. The theatre reportedly staged The Diary of Anne Frank, a play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, on which The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is based.