Stalag 17
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Template:Infobox Film Stalag 17 is a 1953 film which tells the story of a group of American soldiers held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp who come to believe one of their number is a traitor. Directed by Billy Wilder, it starred William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck (Strauss and Lembeck both appeared in the Broadway production) and Peter Graves.
The movie was adapted by Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum from a Broadway play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. The play began its run in May, 1951, continued for 472 performances and was based on the experiences of its authors, both of whom were POWs in Stalag 17B in Austria. The storyline is dramatic, skillfully interspersed with ironic and comedic references to 1940s American wartime culture which serve to develop the characters and realistic setting.
It won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (William Holden) and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robert Strauss) and Best Director.
Holden's acceptance speech for his Academy Award was the shortest on record: "Thank you."
The film was well received, and along with The Great Escape, it is considered one of the greatest World War II Prisoner of War films. Both Bevan and Trzcinski appear in the film as prisoners.
The film is currently available on VHS and DVD, and a Special Edition DVD was released on March 21, 2006.
Plot synopsis
Although the date is never revealed, Stalag 17 is set in the weeks surrounding Christmas, 1944. The prisoner-of-war camp is located somewhere along the Danube River in southern Germany. The story of a Nazi spy in Barracks Four is narrated by Clarence Harvey "Cookie" Cook (Gil Stratton).
One night, two prisoners, Manfredi and Johnson, escape through a tunnel the inmates have dug under the barbed wire. They are immediately shot as they emerge from the other end. The prisoners believe there is a spy in their midst since the Germans obviously knew about the tunnel, but the barracks security officer, Price (Peter Graves) fails to uncover his identity.
Sefton (William Holden) is the main suspect; he barters openly with the German guards for eggs, silk stockings, blankets and other luxuries. He also organizes rat races and various other profitable enterprises. The other prisoners are suspicious of his fraternization with the enemy, as well as envious of his success. Sefton himself is rather cynical, cold, and impersonal; he bets on whether Manfredi and Johnson will actually escape, then trades the cigarettes he wins to the Germans for an egg the next morning.
The lives of the prisoners are depicted, although in a somewhat sanitized way. They receive mail, eat terrible food, wash in the latrine sinks, and collectively do their best to keep sane and defy the camp's cruel and ruthless commandant, von Scherbach (Otto Preminger). They use a clandestine radio (shared by all the barracks) to pick up the BBC and the war news. (The antenna is their volleyball net.) Their "supervisor", Sergeant Schulz (Sig Ruman), confiscates the radio, another success for the "stoolie", whoever he is. Image:Stalag17.jpg
Sefton bribes the guards to let him spend a night in the women's barracks in the Russian section of the camp. The other prisoners spot him through Sefton's telescope, and conclude that this is his reward for informing the Germans about the radio. When he returns, he is accused of being a spy. At that moment, von Scherbach pays a visit to the barracks to apprehend new prisoner Lieutenant James Dunbar (Don Taylor), who the Germans correctly suspect of blowing up a German ammunition train while he was being transported to the camp. The men are now convinced that Sefton is the spy and viciously beat him, after which he is ostracized, but this just gives him the incentive and time to figure out who the real spy is.
On Christmas Day, the men find out that SS men are coming to take Dunbar to Berlin, to be executed for his act of sabotage. The entire camp creates a distraction and Dunbar is taken from the SS and hidden. The guards search the camp thoroughly, but can't find him. Later, the men of Barracks Four, excluding Sefton, plan to draw a name from a hat to see who will try to get Dunbar out of the camp, but Price volunteers first. At this point, Sefton reveals that the spy is Price. Sefton shows how messages were passed between Price and Schulz, then asks Price, "When was Pearl Harbor?" Price knows the date, of course, but Sefton traps him by quickly asking what time. Price betrays himself by answering 6 p.m. — the correct time for Germany.
With his fellow soldiers convinced, Sefton decides to take Dunbar out himself, for the reward he can expect from Dunbar's rich family. The men give Sefton enough time to get Dunbar out of his hiding place, the water tower, and cut the wire. Then, to distract the guards in the gun towers, they throw Price into the yard with tin cans tied to his legs. The ruse works: Price is killed in a hail of bullets (to the great annoyance of von Scherbach and Schulz), while Dunbar and Sefton make their escape.