Stalag 17 (1953)

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

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

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:

Spy | Escape | 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.)
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)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Paramount (1960) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1965) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Paramount Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• CIC Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Paramount Home Video (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Paramount Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Filmes do Brasil (????) (Brazil) (DVD)

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:

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.

Goofs:

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.

Quotes:

Sefton: The Germans know where Dunbar is.
Hoffy: How do they know?
Sefton: You told them, Hoffy.
Hoffy: Who did?
Sefton: You did.
Hoffy: Are you off your rocker?
Sefton: Uh-huh. Fell right on my head.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Express (2008)

Soundtrack:

When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again

the perennial 'feel-good' American POW movie

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.