History Film / Stalag17

''Stalag 17'' is a 1953 war movie set in a UsefulNotes/{{World War II}} German POWCamp, directed by Creator/BillyWilder and starring Creator/WilliamHolden, Creator/OttoPreminger, Don Taylor, Robert Strauss, Neville Brand, Harvey Lembeck, Sig Rumann, and Creator/PeterGraves. Adapted by Wilder and Edwin Blum from the hit Broadway play of the same name, which in turn was based on the real-life [=POW=] experiences of authors Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski.

The film is built on a double allegory: the same paranoia that causes the [=POW=]s to target Sefton had 1) enabled the Nazis easily to scapegoat the Jews and 2) induced Hollywood shortly before the movie's release to institute the [[RedScare Blacklist]] scapegoating left-leaning scriptwriters, performers, and others.

** Really, most of Sefton's trades fall into this, as he tends to get a good deal right when someone has died or something has been confiscated crom the barracks. He tries to convince the barracks that correlation isn't causation, but with suspicions and tempers flaring he is unsuccessful.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Many of the people in the camp are short-tempered and/or a [[Jerkass]], but all of them are shocked when they hear Manfredi and Johnson being executed.

** Played with by Sefton. He days he doesn't play chess, but is the one who outsmarts the spy. He even demonstrates a Fool's Mate while saying he doesn't understand the game.

* ProfessionalWrestling: Schulz mentions to the prisoners he did this in America before the war and plans to do so again when the war is over.

** Von Scherbach's face when he sees they killed the mole and not Dunbar.

'''Harry:''' I tell ya, Animal, those Nazis ain't-\\
'''Animal:''' (''angrily'') I said you could say it again; that doesn't mean you have to repeat it!

* WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat: A rare case of this being PlayedForDrama: when Von Scherbach takes Dunbar out of the barracks, Hoffy and the others yell at Bagradian and claim he must have let it slip about the "time bomb" Dunbar used to take out the supply train, while Bagradian snaps that he didn't tell anyone until they got to the barracks. On that, everyone turns and looks at Sefton.

* SycophanticServant: Cookie is a mild one to Sefton, although less so when he thinks Sefton might really be TheMole.

-->[''reading''] "...and you'll ''never'' believe this, but she has just my eyes and my nose!" Why does she keep saying I'll never believe it? I believe it. I ''believe'' it!

** Due to the lights being turned off (ironically because of the fake air raid they staged), Schultz and the mole don't notice that Sefton is still in the barracks, hiding behind a blanket.

** Due to the lights being off (ironically because of the fake air raid they staged) Sxhultz and the spy don't notice that Sefton is hiding behind a blanket.

* EvilIsPetty: After getting muddy water splashed on his boots, the commandant cancels the miniature Christmas trees he was going to put in each barracks and orders that the delousing showers be done with ice water.

* DoorstopBaby: A POW gets a letter from his girlfriend [[BlatantLies saying she found one]].

* VerbalTic: Marco the Mailman's "At ease! At ease!" in a high pitched Trans Atlantic accent with Animal echoing it back in a deep bass.

** Cookie has an occasional stutter.

* WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat: A rare case of this being PlayedForDrama: when Von Scherbach takes Dunbar out of the barracks, Hoffy and the others yell at Bagradian and claim he must have let it slip about the "time bomb" Dunbar used to take out the supply train, while Bagradian snaps that he didn't tell anyone until they got to the barracks. On that, everyone starts to look at Sefton.

* SycophanticServant: Cookie to Sefton, although less so when he thinks Sefton might really be TheMole.

The film opens with the narrator, Cookie (Gil Stratton), recalling life in Barracks 4 of Stalag 17 -- a Luftwaffe POW compound "somewhere on the Danube" holding 630 sergeants from various U.S. flight crews -- and in particular the attempted December 1944 escape of two prisoners, Manfredi and Johnson, whose capture and death lead the rest of the [=POW=]s to suspect that there's a traitor in their midst who tipped off the Germans. The primary suspect is Sefton (Holden), a cynical scrounger who employs Cookie as a lackey and whose caustic attitude and self-centered opportunism rankles the rest of the barracks.

* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Animal goes back and forth being referred to as "Animal" and "The Animal".

* WeNeedADistraction: In the climax, Sefton comes up with the idea of using [[spoiler:Price]] as this so he can get to Dunbar safely and they can escape the P.O.W camp.

* RunningGag: Sefton usinh Duke's stubble to light his matches.

The film opens with the narrator, Cookie (Gil Stratton), recalling life in Barracks 4 of Stalag 17 -- a Luftwaffe POW compound "somewhere on the Danube" holding 630 sergeants from various U.S. flight crews -- and in particular the attempted December 1944 escape of two prisoners, Manfredi and Johnson, whose capture and death lead the rest of the [=POW=]s to suspect that there's a traitor in their midst who tipped off the Germans. The primary suspect is Cookie's friend, the cynical and somewhat antisocial J.J. Sefton (Holden).