Trivia for
Stalag 17 (1953) More at IMDbPro »

• The movie was shot in sequence (i.e., the scenes were filmed in the same order they're shown). Many of the actors were surprised by the final plot twist.
  
  
• The uncredited soldier singing at the Christmas Party is Ross Bagdasarian, also known as 'Dave Seville', the leader/creator/voice of 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'.
  
  
• Stalag 17 was not the inspiration for the TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (1965), despite the presence of a character called "Sgt. Schultz" and a somewhat put-upon Kommandant. The creators of "Hogan's Heroes" were sued over this very issue and were victorious.
  
  
• The role of Sefton was originally written for Charlton Heston. But as the role evolved and became more cynical, William Holden emerged as the director's choice. Holden was asked to see the play on which the movie was based. He walked out at the end of the first act. He was later convinced to at least read the screenplay.
  
  
• William Holden's acceptance speech for Best Actor was the shortest in Academy history up until that time. He said only two words: "Thank You." Holden hadn't meant to be so brief, but the televised TV broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony was running long, and was about to be cut off the air. Holden later took out an ad in the Hollywood trade publications thanking the people he had intended to thank in his speech. The briefness of Holden's speech was later surpassed by Alfred Hitchcock (who accepted his Irving Thalberg Award in 1967 with a simple "Thanks.") and by John Mills, who after playing a mute character in Ryan's Daughter (1970/I), accepted his 1971 Best Supporting Actor award with a simple smile and a thankful nod of the head.
  
  
• Charlton Heston was originally considered for the role of Sgt. J.J. Sefton, but when the script was altered to make the character less heroic, he was dropped in favor of someone more suitable for the role. Kirk Douglas stated he was next in line and declined the part, making William Holden the third choice.
  
  
• William Holden did not like the part of Sefton at all as written in the script, thinking him too selfish. He kept asking Billy Wilder to make Sefton nicer and Wilder refused. Holden actually refused the role but was forced to do it by the studio.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• This film was one of the biggest hits of Billy Wilder's career. He expected a big piece of the profits. The studio accountants informed him that since his last picture Ace in the Hole (1951) lost money, the money that picture lost would be subtracted from his profits on this film. Wilder left Paramount shortly after that.
  
  
• Cameo: [Edmund Trzcinski] the P.O.W. who receives what is obviously (to everyone but him) a "Dear John" letter.
  
  
• To improve the chances for commercial success in the West Germany Republic (at that time already an important market for Hollywood) a Paramount executive suggested to Billy Wilder that he should make the camp guards Poles rather than Germans. Wilder, whose mother and stepfather had died in the concentration camps, furiously refused and demanded an apology from the executive. When it didn't come, Wilder did not extend his contract at Paramount
  
  
• William LaChasse, had a bit part in the movie. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to be in several films after WWII. They bought him a SAG card and gave him a few lines in each film. Back then, there was no Screen Extras Guild. The real reason they made him an actor was a cheap way to use him as an Assistant Production Designer. He was actually a Prisoner of War for almost three years in Germany after being shot down in his B-17 by German Messcherschmidt Fighter pilot, Otto Peter Stammberger. The production depended heavily on his recollection of how the prison camp looked. He said it started out as a "B" movie, but after "New York" saw the dailies they gave Billy Wilder Carte Blanche.
  
  
• Kirk Douglas claimed he was offered the William Holden role, but turned it down because he had not been impressed by the stage play on which the film was based.
  
  
• The story takes place during the time of the "Battle of the Bulge" in December, 1944. The men learn about it on their secret radio before the Germans take it away.
  
  
• The Broadway play "Stalag 17" by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski opened at the 48th Street Theater on May 8, 1951 and ran for 472 performances. Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Robert Shawley and William Pierson reprise their roles in the movie.
  
  
• According to the Virgin Film Guide, this film provided the template and inspiration for the television sitcom series "Hogan's Heroes" (1965). Moreover, this is particularly also the case for one of its chief characters, Sgt. Johann Schulz (played by Sig Ruman) who is said to have provided the basis for the character of Sgt. Hans Georg Schultz in "Hogan's Heroes" (1965) (played by John Banner). However, this assertion as been disputed legally and lost though many people still believe it.
  
  
• This film was made three years after Sunset Blvd. (1950) and represents the re-teaming of director Billy Wilder and leading actor William Holden who worked together on Sunset Blvd. (1950).
  
  
• According to the Virgin Film Guide, Otto Preminger's POW Camp Commandant character Colonel Oberst von Scherbach in this film is a play on Erich von Stroheim's similar character Captain von Rauffenstein in Jean Renoir's, La grande illusion (1937). Although Preminger played a Nazi officer, in real life, he was Jewish.
  
  
• 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. Bevan, a B-17 tail gunner who was shot down over Germany in 1943, was the inspiration for the character Sergeant McIlhenny in Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
  
  
• Both of Billy Wilder's two only war films, Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and Stalag 17 (1953) received the same number of Academy Award nominations: three. Five Graves to Cairo (1943) received Oscar nominations in technical categories (Editing, b/w Interior Design, b/w Cinematography) whereas Stalag 17 (1953) received Oscar nominations in performance-related categories (Director, Actor, Supporting Actor), the latter winning Best Actor. Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and Stalag 17 (1953) were both released in years where another black-and-white World War II movie dominated at the Oscars: Casablanca (1942) winning three and From Here to Eternity (1953) winning eight.
  
  

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