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Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

chuck2711 I loved this movie when I was a kid. Unfortunately the comedy doesn't seem as funny now, just juvenile. Many other reviewers agree with me and say this makes the movie unrealistic. On this point I have to disagree for the following reasons. The play upon which this movie was based on was written by two former prisoners of war. One of those writers played the role of the husband of the adultress who "found a baby left on the porch ". This man should know first hand what life in a POW camp was like. Secondly the comedic tastes of "The Great Generation" were not subtle. These were enlisted men. Just before the war, the country was experiencing the great economic depression. A high school education was not typical of these men. My father for example, had only attained a 6th grade education. Even though hollywood movies were replacing vaudeville circuit shows, they still existed and their level of comedy was still of the pie in your face variety.What I'm saying is; while today we may see the attempts at comedy as juvenile, it was very much typical of the times and that does not make this movie unrealistic.

Hitchcoc This is the first German prisoner of war movie I ever saw. While this is comedic at times, it is actually a serious drama (unlike an abomination like "Hogan's Heroes" which is loosely based on this film). The strength of this is the ensemble acting where we get to meet and enjoy the different prisoners. William Holden, because he is enterprising, becomes the focus of his own men when it seems that the Germans are getting information from inside the barracks. Because he seems to have the ear of the commandant, they are sure that he is he rat. It will be his job to find out who is really behind all this. Sometimes the dialogue is dated and the situations a bit hard to accept, but it is a good drama with a sort of mystery novel premise.

TheLittleSongbird Billy Wilder was a truly great director, whose best work was up there with the best films ever made (i.e. Sunset Boulevard) and even lesser films like The Emperor Waltz were still worth watching. Stalag 17 is not quite one of my favourites from Wilder but that doesn't stop it from being a classic.As always with Wilder's films, Stalag 17 visually is a very well-made film, and German PoW camp life is very effectively and accurately depicted as claustrophobic. It's beautifully photographed and atmospherically lit, still managing to look aesthetically pleasing while still making the claustrophobic setting as evocative as possible and never looking too flashy or static. As always, there is nothing really to fault Wilder's direction, his visual and writing always shines and he doesn't fail to make the story or characters interesting. Franz Waxman's score is another winner from him, stirring, luscious and haunting while always being appropriate to the film's mood and not being too syrupy.Stalag 17 has a very compelling story, with a good mix of the hilarious, the poignant and the foreboding, emotions are never forced, the pacing is both controlled and exciting, for me the comedy didn't get too much or too goofy and the suspense and tension reach nail-biting heights. The script superbly balances comedy, drama and even satire, what the film tried to be and do not once coming into question. The comedy, a lot of it deliciously dark, is genuinely funny and quite endearing, it may be too much or too goofy for some viewers (depending on whether the antics of Animal and Harry are to your tastes or not) but it appealed to me just fine, and Animal and Harry's antics were appropriately light-hearted and gave the film its heart. The drama doesn't fall into clichés and doesn't slow the film at all, also avoiding the mistake of some comedy-dramas seen of jarring with the comedy to the extent the film feels like two different ones. It's also very charming and poignant. The satire is sharp and biting without falling into attacking or bitterness, never does it feel like it's too much.The performances are spot-on from a top notch, and they are advantaged by the fact that the characters are interesting and their situation relatable without falling into stereotypes (even when more stylised that's even including the Germans). William Holden got a well-deserved Oscar for his powerful performance in a somewhat unsympathetic role, while Robert Strauss is funny and moving as Animal, the character that can be seen as the heart of the story, and Otto Preminger (in a surprise piece of casting, considering I know him better as a director) mesmerises as a particularly nasty character, looking like he was having a whale of a time. Harvey Lembeck, like Strauss, was part of the original Broadway run, and it's easy to see why in a fine performance that endears far more than it annoys. Sig Ruman gives a character that could have easily been a buffoonish caricature some welcome subtlety and genuine menace while clearly having a ball.Overall, another Billy Wilder classic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

SnoopyStyle It's the end of 1944. Sgt. J.J. Sefton (William Holden) is a cynic and an opportunist who bets against fellow prisoners escaping. They're American POWs in Stalag 17. The prison commandant Oberst von Scherbach (Otto Preminger) seems to have an informer in Barrack 4. Sgt. Frank Price (Peter Graves) is the prisoners' security chief. Animal (Robert Strauss) is the barrack's loud wild man. Duke (Neville Brand) is the hothead. For some, the obvious leak is Sefton who trades with the guards. After some more setbacks, the men beat up Sefton. Sefton figures that he needs to find the real leak.I don't really like the broad comedy coming from Animal and Harry. They just take the seriousness out of darker POW story. The two different tones keep stepping on each other. I really don't like the broad comedy. The secret informer is quite compelling although I would have made Dunbar fake the sabotage story. That would have worked even better especially considering Sefton talking about how his mother buying his way out of trouble.