Stalag 17
OFTEN referred to as one of the greatest Second World War movies ever, Stalag 17 remains a remarkable piece of film-making. Director’s Billy Wilder’s follow-up to his brilliant, if underperforming, Ace In The Hole, it tells the tale of an unlikely array of American airmen as they try to get through their time in a German POW camp as the war slowly winds down.
Adapted from Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski’s stage play (which was based on their experiences as prisoners of war), the film was a huge commercial success on its release in 1953. This week it gets it’s first ever European blu-ray debut by Eureka! DVD as part of their ongoing Masters Of Cinema series and it remains an intriguing proposition on every front.
A curious blend of straight-ahead drama and oddly basic black comedy, it makes for an occasionally bizarre viewing experience in 2015. Wildly swinging between serious dramatic moments and broad comic sequences that border on slapstick, it doesn’t always work.
There are some amazing elements at play in the production, however. Best of all is the great William Holden as prisoner JJ Sefton, a man whose wide-boy persona leads his fellow internees to believe he may be an informer involved in the callous murder of two of their number executed by German guards as they attempt to escape.
Just who is really relaying information to the ever-watchful Oberst von Scherbach (played by director Otto Preminger) only becomes apparent as the film reaches its dramatic conclusion, however.
Alongside the superb Holden, who sometimes feels as if he’s wandered in from a much more serious-minded film and deservedly won an Academy Award for his efforts, are Don Taylor as the War hero Lieutenant Dunbar and future TV stalwart Peter Graves as the blue-eyed 'all American boy' Price. Comic relief comes courtesy of Robert Strauss as Animal, who seems to spend much of his time obsessed with actress Betty Grable, and Harvey Lembreck as Harry.
Gil Stratton plays Sefton’s right-hand man Cookie and Robinson Stone plays the poor, shell-shocked Joey. Together this gang do their best to cope with the crushing boredom of camp life.
Wilder writes, produces and directs here and while he remains faithful by all accounts to the mood of the original stage production, the imprint of the great film-maker is all over everything here. There are satirical elements at play in the creation of Holden’s remarkable character, the exploitative POW who takes bets on the death of this colleagues, but there are also broader almost sitcom like moments that remind you of the exploits of Sergeant Bilko.
Wilder was nothing if not versatile and Stalag 17 shows another side to the man and his talent. The print is stunning and the stark cinematography leaps from the screen in all its 50s glory.
Extras on this impressive blu-ray release include audio commentary from actor Gil Stratton and co-playwright Donald Brevan, a documentary on the real heroes of Stalag 17 and a booklet containing an essay, interview material and some startling behind-the-scenes images.
