Synopsis
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.
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Cast
- William HoldenSgt. J.J. Sefton
- Robert StraussSgt. Stanislaus 'Animal' Kuzawa
- Don TaylorLt. James Dunbar
- Otto PremingerOberst von Scherbach
- Harvey LembeckSgt. Harry Shapiro
- Richard ErdmanSgt. 'Hoffy' Hoffman
- Peter GravesSgt. Frank Price
- Neville BrandDuke
- Sig RumanSgt. Johann Sebastian Schulz
- Michael MooreSgt. Manfredi
Recommendations
- 100
The A.V. Club
Stalag 17's irreverence likely didn't revolutionize moviemaking for adults so much as it paved the way for the likes of M*A*S*H and Animal House. Then again, that alone is an achievement worth celebrating. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Unlike previous POW films, Wilder and co-writer Edwin Blum's script, based on the play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, presents the prisoners not as paragons of patriotic virtue but as real, self-interested, bored soldiers trying to survive. Holden is magnificent as the heel-turned-hero, but Stalag 17 is full of wonderful, well-directed performances. - 100
Chicago Tribune
It's a shame the dippy TV knockoff Hogan's Heroes has supplanted memories of this great dark WWII POW comedy. Seeing it makes you understand why Schindler's List was a long-time Wilder project. [17 Oct 1995, p.3C] - 88
ReelViews
Stalag 17, despite often being labeled as one of Wilder's "lesser" films, is a bona fide classic, and an example of how an accomplished director can meld many elements into a workable whole. - 80
The Guardian
Wilder takes the Broadway play, as well as the genteel camaraderie familiar from the British POW films, shakes it all up, makes it tougher, funnier, cruder and subtler. - 80
The New York Times
A humorous, suspenseful, disturbing and rousing pastime. - 80
Empire
Interesting depiction with a pretty decent performance from Holden and supported by a credible cast. - 70
Variety
The legit hit about GI internees in a Nazi prison camp during the Second World War is screened as a lusty comedy-melodrama, loaded with bold, masculine humor and as much of the original’s uninhibited earthiness as good taste and the Production Code permit.
