this movie was degrading

Whew! As Mr. Hitchcock might have said -- "It's only a movie."

The original play Stalag 17 was written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski; when it came to POW camps they knew exactly what they were writing about, because they were both former prisoners of Stalag 17B in Austria. And if they'd wanted to prepare a documentary about life in a POW camp, they would have done so. But Stalag 17 isn't a documentary; it's a dramatic work. It's heightened reality, and this is something most filmgoers are aware of. Billy Wilder was certainly aware of it, and the changes he (and Edwin Blum) made to the script were in the interest of making it an entertaining and suspenseful film.

And before you start generalizing about Jewish POWs, keep in mind there were countless different cases throughout the war; some ended badly and others didn't. You don't have to do painstaking research to learn about them; a simple visit to Google should suffice.

I found it occasionally funny but yes, occasionally unrealistic. 6/10.


"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.

And while it's never been officially stated, there's no way To see Animal from the muppets and not see some influence from Animal here.

And not only did it inspire mash, but it was an even heavier inspiration for Hogan's Heroes, in which the similarities are far too great to just be a coincidence. HH was still amazing, and I knew of it well before Stalag 17, but that undisclosed settlement says A LOT.

I served 25 years in the Air Force. About five of those years were as an enlisted aircrew member. I went through survival training including a mock POW camp. I also went through "Special Survival" training that was given in a classified course that only a select group of us received. It was classified, but I think I can state that only SR-71, U-2, and RC-135 crews received the training. Since the SR-71 has a crew of two officers, the U-2 holds only 1, and I already said that I was enlisted, you can guess which aircraft I flew aboard.

I've also done a lot of reading of history, including three books on POWs of the German Luftwaffe. Airmen were held in camps operated by the Luftwaffe, not by the Wermacht or the SS. All American and British POWs say that the Luftwaffe followed the Geneva Convention reasonably closely, including their treatment of Jewish POWs. The Jews who went to the death camps were those living in Germany and the occupied territories of Europe.

I think that "Stalag 17" is probably spot on in its portrayal of a typical camp. Note that all the American prisoners are in their own camp and they are all enlisted. The officers have been put in a separate camp because they fall into a separate category in the Geneva Convention. The lieutenant was "passing through," being in the camp temporarily until they could move him to the officer's camp.

You should REALLY be careful what films you view.

Short Cut, Draw Blood

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I agree with you, it was a complete farce. The humor was so bad, especially Strauss, and there was so much of it pretty much ruined the whole film for me, it was more often annoying than funny. The Bridge on The River Kwai was just 4 years later and it's a million times better WWII POW film.