Year of Release: 1953Country of Origin: USA
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger
Plot outline: When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German POW camp barracks black-marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer (IMDb).
This is the movie that popular TV series Hogan's Heroes got the inspiration from. Up until now I've always thought that Hogan's Heroes is nowhere near the truth, a complete spoof of POW camp barracks stories. But after I watched Stalag 17 and did some research over the Internet, prison camps for Allied soldiers were actually not that bad, compared to concentration camps for the Jews. The harshest punishment they had to endure is boredom! Being locked up in a crowded barrack with very little to do. And then suddenly, in the hands of skillful Billy Wilder, the story becomes realistic and the characters become real. They need to do something to keep themselves occupied: those who are humourous would start to perform some tricks to amuse themselves and others, those who are entrepreneurial would start to carry out business to make a profit, even if it means black-marketeering, and those who are not so talented would start to devise a plan to escape. And these apparently apply to the captors too. William Holden earns his first and only Oscar for Best Actor playing the cynical sergeant J.J. Sefton, the black-marketeer. But it is Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck who steals the show playing the comic antics 'Animal' Kasava and 'Sugar Lips' Shapiro. While Otto Preminger and Sig Ruman give delightful performance playing the antagonists Colonel von Scherbach - the camp commandant, and Johann Sebastian Schulz - the comic sergeant. Overall, the movie is a perfect combination of a tight plot, sharp dialogue and great characters.
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment