Genre Grandeur – Stalag 17 (1953) – Encore Review 5 – MovieRob

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Movies Told in Flashback (Movies where the main character is telling a story of something that happened in the past.) here’s a review of Stalag 17 (1953) by ME.

Next month’s genre has been chosen by Richard of Kirkham A Movie A Day and we will be reviewing our favorite Geriatric Story Movies (Movies about elderly characters.)

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Feb by sending them to geriatric@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

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“[preparing POWs for an important inspection] The barracks should be schpic, and also schpan!” – Sgt. Schulz

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (video, DVD, 28 May 2013, 5 Oct 2014, 24 Aug 2018, 26 Jan 2020, 4 Oct 2022 and 30 Jan 2024)

Link to original review – Here, Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – American POW’s in a Nazi camp during World War II, try to find out who is a spy in their midst who is giving valuable information to the enemy.

My Take on it – Such and amazing film that is so poignant no matter how many times I watch it. The choice to have the narrator be a very minor character helps accentuate the role of the other characters as the mystery is trying to unfold. The various characters add so much to the way things play out. The film does a superb job of keeping things “light” despite dealing with very serious subject matter. William Holden is perfect in the lead role and was very deserving of his Oscar for Bets Actor for playing this role. The story is told in a very clever way and despite focusing on a small story within a much larger one, they deviate every so often in order to help develop the personalities of some of the characters. This film heavily influenced the TV show Hogan’s Heroes which took things to another level. Billy Wilder does an amazing job directing and writing this film and is so profound in all that it says and does here. The dialogue is exquisite and helps enhance the story over and over again.

Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – To improve the chances for commercial success in West Germany (at that time already an important market for Hollywood) a Paramount executive suggested to Billy Wilder that he should make the camp guards Poles rather than Germans. Wilder, whose mother and stepfather had died in the concentration camps, furiously refused and demanded an apology from the executive. When it didn’t come, Wilder did not extend his contract at Paramount. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)