“Did they beat you?” asked the Red Cross Man. “I was playing Pinochle,” Sefton replied. “It’s a rough game.” ESSENTIAL MOVIE! Stalag 17 stars William Holden & is directed by the great Billy Wilder (nominated for Best Director), who also produced & co-wrote the script. Nominated for three Academy Awards & winner of one, Stalag 17 tells the gripping story of a P.O.W. camp during late WWII. Though a drama, Stalag 17 offers many comedic moments that out does many so called comedies. Sefton (William Holden, winner of the Best Actor Academy Award) is a hustler extraordinaire, trading with the Germans for special favors. He’s one of the most unpopular men (& a very unsympathetic character, no less) in Stalag 17. Everything has an angle & the bottom line is his profit. This so rules his life that only Cookie (Gil Stratton) will tolerate him. Cookie is Sefton’s assistant & lackey in his profit making schemes. Stalag 17 is full of dynamic characters. Col. Von Scherbach (Otto Preminger) is the camp kommandant, ruthless & uncaring.
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I LIKED IT BETTER THAN “THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI”. IT WAS NOT AS LONG AND DID KEEP YOU GUESSING.
WHAT “STALAG 17″ IS ALL ABOUT: “Stalag 17″ focuses on how men behave under real stress. In this case, the story begins as Cookie (Gil Stratton) narrates the theme of the next two hours — the story about the informant/traitor among them who aided their German jailers. Like all good stories, this one opens as closely as possible to the end. We, the audience, arrive in time to see two of the inmates attempt to escape and subsequently to get slaughtered by a waiting machine-gun nest after Sefton [William Holden] wagered that neither escapee [Manfredi or Johnson] would make it out of the compound alive. Over the next two hours we are given a series of clues: some real, some red herrings, and some impossible to decipher until the end. Through it all, we get to enjoy a tight story, terrific dialogue, excellent performances all-around, and a torrid pace that makes this 2-hour film seem like a very short movie. —–> THE CAST MEMBERS <—– William Holden – Sefton Don Taylor – Lieutenant Dunbar Otto Preminger – Von Scherbach Robert Strauss – “Animal” Stosh Harvey Lembeck – Harry Shapiro Peter Graves – Price Sig Rumann – Schulz Neville Brand – Duke Richard Erdman – Hoffy Michael Moore – Manfredi Peter Baldwin – Johnson Robinson Stone – Joey Robert Shawley – Blondie William Pierson – Marko Gil Stratton – Cookie/Narrator Jay Lawrence – Bagradian Erwin Kalser – Geneva Man —–> PRODUCTION CREW <—– Billy Wilder – Director / Producer / Screenwriter Donald Bevan – Play Author Edwin Blum – Screenwriter Edmund Trzcinski – Play Author Ernest Laszlo – Cinematographer Franz Waxman – Composer (Music Score) Doane Harrison – Editor George Tomasini – Editor Franz Bachelin – Art Director Hal Pereira – Art Director Sam Comer – Set Designer Ray Mayer – Set Designer Ray Moyer – Set Designer Gene Garvin – Sound/Sound Designer Harold Lewis – Sound/Sound Designer Wally Westmore – Makeup Gordon Jennings – Special Effects —–> THE MAJOR AWARDS <—– Best Actor (win) William Holden 1953 Academy Best Director (nom) Billy Wilder 1953 Academy Best Supporting Actor (nom) Robert Strauss 1953 Academy Best Director (nom) Billy Wilder 1953 Directors Guild of America Best Picture (nom) 1953 National Board of Review ABOUT THE DVD: EXCELLENT TRANSFER OF AUDIO AND VIDEO BUT NO FEATURES BOTTOM LINE: Arguably as good a film about World War II as ever there was creates a true anti-hero in William Holden as the film’s star.
Great movie. Well worth the price and it came in excellant conidition. I have watched this movie whenever it came on TV.
Great film by master director, writer, producer Billy Wilder (THE APARTMENT, BOUBLE INDEBTITY, SUNSET BOULEVARD). A pulse-pounding war/prison camp movie with comedy and suspense, and a deserved Oscar-winning performance by William Holden. He plays Sefton, one of the American POW’s in a WWII German prison camp who everyone suspects is a fink. Holden/Sefton must find out who the real traitor is and giving away secrets to the Germans from the prisoner’s barracks. The climax of the film alone is one of the greatest endings in film history as Holden/Sefton reveals the real snitch and redeem his credibility. Along with Holden, there is a great cast of supporting characters. Most notibly Robert Strauss as “Animal” and Harvey Lembeck as Harry Shapiro(aka Eric Von Zipper from those 60′s beach flicks) as the barracks’ clowns, Sig Rumann as Schultz, Otto Preminger as Von Scherbach, and a young Peter Graves (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE) as Price.
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