Hidden Movie Gem: “Stalag 17”
Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from zty.
Movie Title: Stalag 17
Year: 1953
Written by: Written for screen by Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum, based on the play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski.
Starring: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck.
Directed by: Billy Wilder.
Plot Summary: 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.
Why I Think This Movie Is A Hidden Gem: I’m not sure how much of a hidden gem it is, having been written and directed by Billy Wilder, and William Holden having won an Oscar for his lead role in the movie. However, nobody I am in contact with on a daily basis has heard of this movie, and I haven’t seen it cited or referred to very much. Hopefully the movie might get more attention since a new blu-ray edition was released earlier this month. To me this is the perfect movie: a drama-comedy-suspense story, with wonderfully developed characters, amazing set-up and payoffs and such a satisfying ending. The dichotomies of this movie work so well. It’s dark but also comedic, and Sefton is an anti-hero you really root for.
My Favorite Moment In This Movie: When the POW’s implement Dunbar’s escape attempt.
My Favorite Dialogue In This Movie:
The opening narration sets the stage so beautifully:
Cookie: I don’t know about you, but it always makes me sore when I see those war pictures… all about flying leathernecks and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerillas in the Philippines. What gets me is that there never w-was a movie about POWs — about prisoners of war. Now, my name is Clarence Harvey Cook: they call me Cookie. I was shot down over Magdeburg, Germany, back in ’43; that’s why I stammer a little once in a while, ‘specially when I get excited. I spent two and a half years in Stalag 17. “Stalag” is the German word for prison camp, and number 17 was somewhere on the Danube. There were about 40,000 POWs there, if you bothered to count the Russians, and the Poles, and the Czechs. In our compound there were about 630 of us, all American airmen: radio operators, gunners, and engineers. All sergeants. Now you put 630 sergeants together and, oh mother, you’ve got yourself a situation. There was more fireworks shooting off around that joint… take for instance the story about the spy we had in our barracks…
Ach so…. (can’t given away the context here).
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: The attention to detail regarding the men’s relationships to each other. Every man in the bunk is an individual, they play off of each other so well, and as much as they rib each other and chafe against each other, they never hesitate to protect and stand up for each other. Witness Joey’s crucial role, even though he never speaks.
Movie Trailer:
You can see the entire movie online for free:
Thanks, zty! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Tomorrow: Another Hidden Movie Gem!
Note: We filled up the month of October and have a few left over for November, so I don’t need any more guest posts. Thanks to everyone who participated!