Stalag 17

Name: Stalag 17
Genre: Drama, Comedy, War
Released: June 6, 1953
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 84
Cast: Don Taylor, Harvey Lembeck, Michael Moore, Neville Brand, Otto Preminger

1953

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	Your Score
7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Stalag 17

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 6, 1953 | TV-PG

Starring: Don Taylor, Harvey Lembeck, Michael Moore, Neville Brand, Otto Preminger, Peter Graves, Richard Erdman, Robert Strauss, Sig Ruman, William Holden

Summary: When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German P.O.W. camp barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.

Director: Billy Wilder

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, War

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 120 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Noel Murray

Stalag 17's irreverence likely didn't revolutionize moviemaking for adults so much as it paved the way for the likes of M*A*S*H and Animal House. Then again, that alone is an achievement worth celebrating. Read full review

100

Michael Wilmington

It's a shame the dippy TV knockoff Hogan's Heroes has supplanted memories of this great dark WWII POW comedy. Seeing it makes you understand why Schindler's List was a long-time Wilder project. [17 Oct 1995, p.3C]

100

Staff (Not Credited)

Unlike previous POW films, Wilder and co-writer Edwin Blum's script, based on the play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, presents the prisoners not as paragons of patriotic virtue but as real, self-interested, bored soldiers trying to survive. Holden is magnificent as the heel-turned-hero, but Stalag 17 is full of wonderful, well-directed performances. Read full review

David Parkinson

Interesting depiction with a pretty decent performance from Holden and supported by a credible cast. Read full review

The Guardian Philip French

Wilder takes the Broadway play, as well as the genteel camaraderie familiar from the British POW films, shakes it all up, makes it tougher, funnier, cruder and subtler. Read full review

Bosley Crowther

A humorous, suspenseful, disturbing and rousing pastime. Read full review

Pauline Kael

The gallows humor is entertaining, despite some rather braod roughhouse effects.

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User Reviews

CodyZamboni

Oct 27, 2019

One of William Holden's iconic roles as a wisecracking POW, who is suspected by his fellow inmates as a Nazi spy. Billy Wilder's subversive WW2 comedy / drama hits a home run most of the time. Some of the unnecessary slapstick scenes, detract from the overall impact. But whats left isOne of William Holden's iconic roles as a wisecracking POW, who is suspected by his fellow inmates as a Nazi spy. Billy Wilder's subversive WW2 comedy / drama hits a home run most of the time. Some of the unnecessary slapstick scenes, detract from the overall impact. But whats left is still so strong, so insightful, satiric and a little bittersweet.… Expand

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