Film Review
Amidst all of Billy Wilder's other great cinematic achievements,
Stalag 17 is a film that is all too
easy to overlook, and yet it is undoubtedly one of his most satisfying
films, one that would provide the yardstick against which all
subsequent prisoner of war films would be measured. Based on a
successful Broadway play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, the film
was ahead of its time, one of the first authentic war films to take a
comedic slant.
Stalag 17
not only gives a keen insight into the grim realities of life in a
German prisoner of war camp during WWII, it is also a highly
entertaining film, peppered with wisecracks and humorous situations
that bear Wilder's signature all too clearly. Some of the jokes
have gone on to have a life of their own, most famously the acid quip:
Sprechen Sie Deutsche? Then Droppen Sie
Dead!
Not only is
Stalag 17
extremely well written (we should not forget that Wilder was a
superlative screenwriter as well as a talented and remarkably versatile
filmmaker), it is superbly cast, and one of the reasons why the film
has stood the test of time so well is on account of its colourful
ensemble of acting talent. William Holden gives the performance
of his career as the cynical prisoner Sefton who is wrongly accused of
being a traitor - the actor initially refused the role because he felt
the character was too selfish, but it won him his one and only Academy
Award. Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck form a terrific double
act, the former (nicknamed Animal) fixated with Betty Grable, the
latter ending up doing a blonde drag act out of pity for his deluded
friend. The highly regarded film director Otto Preminger puts in
an appearance as the fearsome camp commandant - apparently there were
no ructions between him and Wilder on the set, despite Preminger's
reputation as a hard taskmaster.
Along with
The Bridge on the River Kwai
(1957) and
The Great Escape (1965),
Stalag 17 deserves to be considered
one of the finest prisoner of war films of all time. It not only
inspired the long-running television series
Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971), it was
also the forerunner to Robert Altman's
M*A*S*H
(1970), and showed that even in something as deadly serious as
war there is still a place for comedy. After all, in a mad, mad
world, humour is just about the only thing that keeps us all
sane.
© James Travers 2012
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Next Billy Wilder film:
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Film Synopsis
Stalag 17 is a German prisoner of war camp located somewhere on the
Danube. In late December 1944, the American airmen housed in
barracks four have formed an escape committee but on the night of the
escape the two would-be fugitives are shot dead as soon as they cross
the perimeter fence. It is as if the German guards had been
forewarned. Immediately, the prisoners begin to suspect that
someone in their midst is in the employ of the camp commandant, ready
to betray his comrades in return for privileges. The most obvious
culprit is Sefton, a cynical opportunist who runs a distillery and
organises gambling activities, for his own profit. When another
airman is fingered as a saboteur, mistrust turns to open hostility, and
Sefton is on the receiving end. However, Sefton is not the
traitor...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.