Stalag 17

(Billy Wilder, US 1953, 120 min., 16mm)

12 Postcards from Prison | Free Member Film. With World War II less than a decade past, Billy Wilder transported Stalag 17 from the Broadway stage to the motion picture screen. Wilder balanced the melodrama and comedy with a strong cast and his usual deft, but daring touch. William Holden’s Academy Award winning performance as Sefton, the outsider in a bunch of US army internees, anchors the film, allowing character actors Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck to carry the comedy, with Richard Erdman, Peter Graves and Neville Brand leading the rest in ratcheting up the drama. And Otto Preminger’s turn as the camp commandant harkens back to Erich von Stroheim’s masterful work in La Grande Illusion.