STALAG 17
A film review by Ted Lewis
Copyright 1996 Ted Lewis
There don't seem to be many reviews for non-current movies, so I thought I'd post some. (I don't know why I copyrighted this thing, not like somebody's going to steal it!)
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Stalag 17 is set in a German POW camp during the later stages of the war. Every escape attempt from the camp is crushed, and after two prisoners attemting to escape are killed everyone starts looking for the guy who's selling out his fellow prisiors.
The story focuses in on Sefton (William Holden who won the Oscar for this part) a guy who makes the most of everything and who figures if he's in prison he might as well be as comfortable as possible. He's a scrounger like James Garner's character Hendley in The Great Escape, only unlike Hendley, Sefton is only looking out for Sefton. When he bets a pack of cigarettes that the two prisinors would be killed, he not only seems like a "real bad guy" he also seems to KNOW that they wouldn't make it.
A Lieutenant Dunbar is suspected of sabotage by the Germans. The German's don't have any proof, but the spy gets the evidence and Dunbar is arrested.
When the blame falls on Sefton it comes mainly from Duke, who's never liked Sefton much anyway. Hoffy, who is in charge of the barricks, and Price (Peter Graves) who's security, think it's Sefton too. In the end Sefton's only friend Cookie (Gil Stratton) doesn't belive him.
There are several character's who could be the spy from Hoffy and Duke, to Cookie and Sefton. Then there's Animal and Harry Shapiro who are comic relief, and Joey who's almost comatose. Anyone of them could be the spy, and finding out is what makes the movie great.
One thing about Stalag 17 is that you want to know who the spy is too, and you keep guessing along with Sefton. There are nine or ten possible people it could be and until Dunbar is arrested, you don't know who it is.
In the end all the loose ends are tied together, and the ending is mostly believable without being corny. All in all this is a great old movie to rent, especially when you think there's nothing good out, and you're going to rent Disclosure because at least you've heard of that.
tedlewis@halcyon.com If you have any comments, good or bad please inform me.
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