IMDb > Stalag 17 (1953)
Stalag 17
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Overview

User Rating:
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Down 2% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Billy Wilder
Writers:
Donald Bevan (play) and
Edmund Trzcinski (play) ...
(more)
Contact:
View company contact information for Stalag 17 on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
10 August 1953 (Brazil) more
Genre:
Comedy | Drama | War more
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. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(4 articles)
Walk Of Fame Honour For Mission: Impossible Star
 (From WENN. 23 October 2009, 6:26 PM, PDT)
Old Ass Movies: Escape ‘Stalag 17′
 (From FilmSchoolRejects. 13 September 2009, 11:17 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
the perennial 'feel-good' American POW movie more (101 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

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)
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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)
 
Crew verified as complete


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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parents
Runtime:
120 min | Germany:116 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | German
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
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 more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The film is based on a play of the same name which is based on the experiences and reminisces of its authors Donald Bevan and 'Edmund Trzcinski' both of whom were prisoners of war in Stalag 17B in Austria during World War II. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: When Sefton is lying in his bunk with the back of his head to the guys that are marching around the chess table, he notices that the light cord is hanging lower, by its shadow. The problem is that at the moment he first notices it, the guys are all crowded together while marching around the chess table. He wouldn't have been able to pick out the light cord shadow amongst the shadow of all those guys. more
Quotes:
Marko the Mailman: Are the doors covered?
[the men cover the doors]
Hoffy: Yeah, they're covered.
Marko the Mailman: Okay, Steve, give them the radio.
[Blondie pulls a radio and earphones from under Steve's pant leg]
Marko the Mailman: You can keep it for two days.
Hoffy: Two days? We're supposed to have it for a week.
Marko the Mailman: You're lucky to get it at all! The boys are afraid the Jerries will find it in here. This barracks is jinxed!
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "The Penguins of Madagascar: The Hidden (#1.11)" (2009) more
Soundtrack:
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again more

FAQ

Where is the reference to adultery in "Stalag 17"?
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is "Stalag 17" based on a novel?
more

User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
the perennial 'feel-good' American POW movie, 9 April 2008
10/10
Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

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.

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