X
- 1953
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h
- 1953
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h
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.
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Written By: Edwin Blum, Donald Bevan, Edmund Trzcinski, Billy Wilder
- 1953
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h
- 1953
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 2 h
Stalag 17
7.5
Where to Watch
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.
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Written By: Edwin Blum, Donald Bevan, Edmund Trzcinski, Billy Wilder
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
84
87% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
13% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
84
87% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
13% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Wilder consistently infused his films with wit and intelligence, offering comedy in his dramas and drama in his comedies. And Stalag 17 is a shining example. [28 Mar 2006, p.E1]
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.
One of the greatest mixes ever of gritty war drama and roll-on-the-floor hilarity. [29 Mar 2002, p.2A]
Interesting depiction with a pretty decent performance from Holden and supported by a credible cast.
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.
The legit hit about GI internees in a Nazi prison camp during the Second World War is screened as a lusty comedy-melodrama, loaded with bold, masculine humor and as much of the original’s uninhibited earthiness as good taste and the Production Code permit.
The problem is that the two moods aren't properly cross-fertilised, with the resolute bleakness of the settings and Wilder's direction positing a reality that is constantly undercut by the comic opera crew of Germans headed by Preminger. A fascinating film, nevertheless.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.5
81% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
19% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.5
81% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
19% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Writers Guild of America, USA
• 1 Nomination
