| Photos (see all 25 | slideshow) | Videos |
| 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.) | |
| Jay Lawrence | ... | Bagradian | |
| Erwin Kalser | ... | Geneva man | |
| Edmund Trzcinski | ... | Triz' Trzcinski | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Ross Bagdasarian | ... | Singing soldier (uncredited) | |
| Rodric Beckham | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Richard P. Beedle | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Don Cameron | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Janice Carroll | ... | Russian woman prisoner (uncredited) | |
| Jarvis Caston | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Tommy Cook | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| James Dabney Jr. | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Yvette Eaton | ... | Russian woman prisoner (uncredited) | |
| Carl Forcht | ... | German lieutenant (uncredited) | |
| Ralph Gaston | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Jerry Gerber | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Ross Gould | ... | Von Scherbach's orderly (uncredited) | |
| Russell Grower | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Alla Gursky | ... | Russian woman prisoner (uncredited) | |
| Peter Leeds | ... | Barracks #1 POW getting distillery (uncredited) | |
| Wesley Ling | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Harald Maresch | ... | German lieutenant (uncredited) | |
| Bill McLean | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Svetlana McLe | ... | Woman POW (uncredited) | |
| John Mitchum | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Robin Morse | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| William Mulcahy | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Joe Ploski | ... | German guard-volleyball player (uncredited) | |
| Harry Reardon | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Paul Salata | ... | Prisoner with beard (uncredited) | |
| James R. Scott | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Bill Sheehan | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| A. Gerald Singer | ... | Steve aka The Crutch (uncredited) | |
| Mara Sondakoff | ... | Russian woman prisoner (uncredited) | |
| Warren Sortomme | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Audrey Strauss | ... | Woman POW (uncredited) | |
| Herbert Street | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Anthony M. Taylor | ... | Bit part (uncredited) | |
| Bob Templeton | ... | Bearded Prisoner (uncredited) | |
| Lyda Vashkulat | ... | Woman POW (uncredited) | |
| John Veitch | ... | POW (uncredited) | |
| Steve Wayne | ... | Soldier (uncredited) | |
| Alexander J. Wells | ... | Prisoner with beard (uncredited) | |
| Max Willenz | ... | German lieutenant (uncredited) | |
Directed by | |||
| Billy Wilder | |||
Writing credits | ||
| Donald Bevan | (play) and | |
| Edmund Trzcinski | (play) | |
| Billy Wilder | (writer) and | |
| Edwin Blum | (writer) | |
Produced by | |||
| William Schorr | .... | associate producer | |
| Billy Wilder | .... | producer | |
Original Music by | |||
| Leonid Raab | (uncredited) | ||
Cinematography by | |||
| Ernest Laszlo | (director of photography) | ||
Film Editing by | |||
| George Tomasini | |||
Art Direction by | |||
| Franz Bachelin | |||
| Hal Pereira | |||
Set Decoration by | |||
| Sam Comer | |||
| Ray Moyer | |||
Makeup Department | |||
| Wally Westmore | .... | makeup supervisor | |
Sound Department | |||
| Gene Garvin | .... | sound recordist | |
| Harold Lewis | .... | sound recordist | |
Special Effects by | |||
| Gordon Jennings | .... | special photographic effects | |
Editorial Department | |||
| Doane Harrison | .... | editorial advisor | |
Other crew | |||
| Max Kolpé | .... | technical advisor (uncredited) | |
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| The Great Escape | Empire of the Sun | Hart's War | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Albert R.N. |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
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Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 relies on folds of comedy and a cynical attitude to elevate a story that seems out of a crime novel. Here we have a cast of characters, and the undercurrent is 'who's the rat?' in a bunker as the secrets shuffled around (i.e. that there's a tunnel for escape) and the Germans know right away. There's fun in that, and in being able to 2nd guess who the informant really is- at one point I thought the old adage "it's the quiet ones you got to watch" would come forward- but Wilder is brilliant at transforming this as some solid suspense and dramatic tension while ALSO making a really snappy (sometimes) dark comedy. It's a movie about personality, despite the plot being somewhat important, and with the actors themselves delivering a lot for the characters' sakes.
William Holden is the first given attribute as the star, playing the sort who, for a conventional movie-goer audience, seems easy to peg: too full of himself, sneaky, has the motive to be the informant. But as the layers come into focus, he's more than meets the eye, and Holden (against his better instincts, as he didn't want the role originally) fills it in with his subtle swagger and great sarcastic touch carried over from Sunset Blvd. Then there's Otto Premminger, a big surprise as he is mostly known as a director, as the Commandant, taking up and stealing every scene he's in (only Erich von Stroheim in Grand Illusion beats him out as tour-de-force Commandants). Then there's supporting work from the desperate 'clowns' (Robert Strauss's Betty Grable obsessed Animal and Harvey Lembeck's Shapiro), and the cool Don Talyer in a turn as Dunbar. They're all at their best.
While it almost appears to be more entertaining than it perhaps should- considering, as Cookie's opening narration says, movies about the army have been glamorized and this story is different- it's kind of like the Hollywood 50s answer to something like A Man Escaped. Bresson's film is cold and detached and immediate in dramatic impact, while Stalag 17 wants to be a big hit. There's a lot of humor, some unexpected, some that are meant to be big laughs (i.e. Animal and Shapiro's scheme to get into the Russian prison), and they all connect. It's simply a really entertaining movie that has transcended its period, thanks to Wilder's faith in (and more than likely proponent of) an ironic, witty sensibility to otherwise dark and gloomy cinematic terrain.