Stalag 17 (1953)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Donald Bevan (play) and
Edmund Trzcinski (play) ...

Release Date:

10 August 1953 (Brazil)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

Hilarious, heart-tugging! You'll laugh...you'll cry...you'll cheer William Holden in his great Academy Award role! (from reissue print ad)

Plot:

When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German POW camp barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Spy | Pow | Barracks | Guard

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	Sgt. J.J. Sefton
Don Taylor	...	Lt. James Dunbar
Otto Preminger	...	Col. von Scherbach
Robert Strauss	...	Stanislas Kasava
Harvey Lembeck	...	Harry Shapiro
Richard Erdman	...	Sgt. 'Hoffy' Hoffman
Peter Graves	...	Price
Neville Brand	...	Duke
Sig Ruman	...	Sgt. Johann Schulz
Michael Moore	...	Manfredi
Peter Baldwin	...	Johnson
Robinson Stone	...	Joey
Robert Shawley	...	'Blondie' Peterson
William Pierson	...	Marko the Mailman
Gil Stratton	...	Clarence Harvey 'Cookie' Cook (as Gil Stratton Jr.)

Runtime:

120 min | Germany:116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:G | South Korea:12 (2004) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:12 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #15866) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

John Show Ranch, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Billy Wilder filmed the movie at a studio-owned ranch in Calabasas, California. He wore his best shoes and made sure cast and crew saw him with those shoes on in the mud. Wilder felt he could not ask his co-workers to work in the mud unless they saw him do the same.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Its a week before Christmas. Every morning at 6:00 it's roll call for the prisoners of Stalag 17. Although in the middle of December in southern Germany the sun will never rise before 8:00 the roll call in the movie is in full daylight.

Quotes:

[Shapiro received 7 letters at mail call]
Animal: What do all those broads say?
Shapiro: What do they always say?
Animal: Lemme read one.
Shapiro: It's not good for you, Animal.
Animal: Hey, this is with a typewriter... it's from a finance company.
Shapiro: So it's from the finance company. So, it's better than no letter at all. So they want the third payment on the Plymouth.
[dropping each letter on the floor in turn]
Shapiro: So they want the fourth... the fifth... the sixth... the seventh... So they want the Plymouth.
Animal: Sugar Lips Shapiro. Amazing, ain't it?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Billy Wilder Speaks (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again

Another WW II POW classic.

Despite the fact that this movie got made 10 years before the WW II POW classic "The Great Escape", the movie is still known as the 'other' WW II POW movie. While I do admit that "The Great Escpae" is still a better movie than this one ("The Great Escape" is probably one of my favorite all time movies) this movie is a great and classic one as well.

Just like "The Great Escape", the movie knows to create a perfect balance between its drama and comedy. This movie could easily been turned into a heavy war drama but instead a more light approach gets picked, without loosing any of its serious and more dramatic power. It makes the movie entertaining as well as effectively powerful. It can be assumed that "The Great Escape" and its style got inspired by this movie.

The movie is a 'great' portrayal of the lives of American officer POW's, in a German stalag. They try to make the best of it, with very limited resources. Every small thing and things that are out of the ordinary are the things that make them go through their days and is what's keeping them alive. The first halve of the movie isn't even about the William Holden character and he is just one of the boys. It isn't after about halve way through the movie that the story takes to take shape and the main plot of the movie becomes obvious. In advance you would just expect from this movie to be one about POW's trying to escape. But the story is way better written and layered than that though.

But it above all things is also a very well made and especially directed one, by 6 time Academy Award winner Billy Wilder. He also received a directing nomination for this movie. It's a '50's movie but it doesn't feel like one. The movie seems to be ahead of its time with its story handling, directing and just overall style of film-making. The camera-work is especially great and worth mentioning.

William Holden does a great job at portraying a complicated character. At first you just don't know what to think of him and he isn't a very likable character but he slowly turns into a strong and more important character, that starts doing the right thing. Holden also actually won an Oscar for his role in this movie, despite the fact that he never really wanted to do this movie. It was the only Oscar he ever got, which makes it quite ironic.

A great powerful, entertaining classic, which was truly ahead of its time.

10/10