Movie 27 - "Stalag 17"

Oh Billy Wilder!!  Aren't you just amazing?  Another winner for you today.  I just watched Stalag 17 for the first time and it was awesome!!  William Holden plays Sefton, who is actually fairly unlikeable.  Other key players are Peter Graves as Price, Richard Erdman as Hoffy, Harvey Lembeck as Shapiro, and Robert Strauss as Animal.  There were many others, but we would be here all day.  Just a heads up, Shapiro and Animal are hilarious!  I did not expect to laugh out loud at a POW movie.

In a post Geneva Convention German POW camp, we see the story of a group of American sergeants living in Barrack 4.  Hoffy is Barrack Chief and Price is security.  Even with leaders and systems in place, all Barrack 4's secrets are being leaked somehow.  After two of the men are killed in an escape attempt, suspicion falls on Sefton.  Sefton is a sneaky, schmoozer who is out for himself, trading wares for personal comfort and special treatment from the Germans.  They give Sefton the cold shoulder and even beat him up pretty badly.  A couple lieutenants join the group after they are caught by the Germans.  One of these men, Dunbar, blew up an artillary train and tells his bunkmates about it, thinking he can trust them.  The leak tells the Germans and Dunbar is going to be transferred to Berlin to be tried for sabotage.  The Barrack 4 boys come up with a plan to save Dunbar.  Hoffy is the only one who knows where Dunbar is to be hidden until it is time to escape.  He isn't taking a chance on the leak finding out.  Everyone still thinks it is Sefton, but Sefton has been spending his time figuring out who the real leak is.  Once he does, Sefton sticks to him, blocking his every move.  When the leak offers to help Dunbar escape, Sefton finally speaks up.  He lets everyone know who the leak really is, and that he isn't even an American.  A German spy has been put into their barrack to feed the Germans information.  The boys finally realize Sefton is innocent and Sefton offers to help Dunbar escape.  After the leak becomes a decoy (and gets killed in the process) Sefton and Dunbar make their move and successfully escape Stalag 17. 

This very serious movie is full of funny moments, courtesy of Shapiro and Animal.  These two boys were extremely funny!  From Animal's Betty Grable obessesion to Shapiro's "sharp" ideas, these two playing off each other lighten the mood at the perfect times.  We also see the differences in how the war affected the soldiers.  From Joey, whose law career is stopped when his mind leaves him, to Duke, who is angry and wants to do nothing but fight.  World War II was not just the patriotic, victory for Americans.  Many men were wounded, killed, and traumatized.  Men from every walk of life went off to war, and all came back changed in some way.  Watch this movie.  It is excellent.