Goofs for
Stalag 17 (1953) More at IMDbPro »

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In at least two scenes, German solders are seen using US Browning 30 cal. machine guns; some still think of it as an error, but the use of captured enemy equipment was common by all sides in the war. A POW compound would be the ideal place to locate captured weapons, with a relatively limited ammo supply, while they still served to deter escape.
  
  
• Continuity: Just before Sefton reveals the spy, he throws an open jackknife onto the table and says, "Here's the knife to do it with. Only make sure you got the right throat." The knife quivers and barely sticks in the table. Shortly after, the knife is stuck firmly in the table, more upright.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: As the last seconds the film begins to fade out, you see Cookie whistling "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again", but the audio is not in sync.
  
  

• Continuity: Stanislas "Animal" Kasava is falling on his butt into the mud, but his white underwear isn't getting dirty. Two minutes later running to see the Russians girls, he falls again and then he's muddy all over.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The map of Germany in von Scherbach's office would in 1944 include not only Austria and Sudetenland but also Gdansk and the Polish Corridor, large parts of western Poland and the Saarland, all considered ethnically German by the Nazis and incorporated into the Reich.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): We learn from the escape plan in the beginning of the movie that the Stalag 17 prison camp is located on the river Danube near Linz, which is on the Austrian and German Border. Later in the movie, when the prisoners are watching the women in the Russian compound, Cookie claims that on a clear day, you could see the Swiss Alps with this telescope. Nobody could see the Swiss Alps with even the best telescope, from this point of view, because the Austrian Alps would definitely be in the way.
  
  
• Factual errors: Schulz is identified as a Feldwebel or Sergeant but he is wearing the rank insignia of an 'Unteroffizier' or Corporal. The German Army's rank insignia were on the shoulder straps. A Feldwebel's insignia would be 'lace' that went around all edges of the shoulder strap plus a star or 'pip' on the strap. Schulz's shoulder straps do not have lace at the bottom of the strap nor do they have have stars; that is the insignia of an Unteroffizier.
  
  
• 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.
  
  

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