Thank you for doing this fabulous classic. I've been begging reactors to do it as long as KZfaq reactions have existed.

Thank you for reacting to this film. I love their ingenuity.

So fun seeing the young Gil Stratton ("Cookie"). In later life, he was a television sportscaster I watched often. This film is echoed in THE GREAT ESCAPE and HOGAN'S HEROES.

The German colonel in charge of Stalag 17, von Scherbach, was played by acclaimed director Otto Preminger, who directed the film noir classic, Laura!

I enjoyed your reaction to Stalag 17, one of my favorite old films. You mentioned your were impressed on how all the prisoners stepped forward to save Animal from punishment. You should look up Master Sergeant Roddy Edmonds for one of the most dramatic examples of this unity. Edmonds was the senior non-com in a German POW camp when the camp commandant demanded he identify all Jewish POWs in order to separate them out to be sent to a slave labor camp and an almost certain death. Edmonds refused, stating "We are all Jews here," and continued to refuse even after a gun was put to his head. All the POWs in the camp then stepped forward claiming to be Jewish. The commandant backed down, knowing he couldn't kill all the POWs in the camp. Edmonds never told that story, but after he died in the 1980s, a prominent Jewish businessman who was in the camp mentioned that Edmonds had saved his life and maybe another 200 Jewish POWs. It was only then that Edmonds' heroism, and that of the other POWs, came to light. An amazing story.

One of my favorite movies. We have a magnificent taste on this channel. We are very good.

One notable actor in this film is Edmund Trzcinski, the potato soup sergeant who says "I believe it!" about his wife's foundling. He was a real WWII vet, a member of the air force who was shot down and wound up in the real life Stalag 17B. He wrote the stage play the movie was based on. It's generally agreed on that the later TV series "Hogan's Heroes" is largely inspired by this movie. Hogan's Heroes became a bit controversial because the camp Germans were portrayed more as harmless bumblers than villains.

I think this movie is a classic. It also makes a biting comment on American society when, as you observed, the collection company continued to send Shapiro notices despite knowing he was a POW because he was "defending the American way of life" as as serviceman.

This is a great movie! I love it! The one prisoner who did impressions did James Cagney, which was the one you didn't know who it was.

Great reaction, Henry!!!! This film is one of my favorites. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it. I can watch it again anytime.

Billy Wilder had fun casting fellow Jewish director Otto Preminger as a Nazi. Preminger was notorious for being brutish and dictatorial on his sets.

Yes, I think William Holden lost weight to realistically play a POW. Kirk Douglas was offered the role but turned it down and Billy Wilder offered the part to William Holden because he remembered how much he enjoyed working with Holden on SUNSET BOULEVARD and Holden trusted Wilder even though he thought that Septon was very unsympathetic.

The impression that the new pow does is James Cagney, famous for playing gangsters and the Yankee doodle dandy

The commandant was portrayed by director Otto Preminger, and you may enjoy his ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ (1959) starring Jimmy Stewart. Preminger also directed 3 classic Film Noir- ‘Laura’ ‘Fallen Angel’ and ‘Angel Face.’

So many caricatures, and such excellent portraits that continue to this day. By the way, this film copies the closing scene's marching song in 1949's BATTLEGROUND, my only other Great War Film nominee. (Van Johnson is the handsome 'lead' in BATTLEGROUND and John Hodiak is one of the solders, but this ends up being an ensemble film led by the older James Whitmore as the squad's sergeant.) I prefer STALAG 17 and BATTLEGROUND to all other war films because it's a "small film" - the day-in-life of a few soldiers doing the real fighting, rather than those Hollywood blockbusters.

Peter Graves played Mr. Phelps on the TV series Mission Impossible. Another great POW movie is The Great Escape with Steve McQueen.

Harry and Animal kind of remind me of R2D2 and C-3PO.

Off topic......I would highly suggest the movie "The Sting" (1973 I think) A very fun movie to follow the story enfolds in front of you.

"There are two people in this barracks who know I didn't do it. Me and the guy that did do it." Fun Fact: Features Robert Strauss's only Oscar nominated performance. Lawsuit Fact: The authors of Stalag 17 (1951), Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, sued the creators of the TV series Hogan's Heroes (1965) for plagiarism, as they had submitted a proposal for a TV show based on their play in 1963 to CBS. A Play On Hollywood Fact: The Broadway play "Stalag 17" by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski opened at the 48th Street Theater on May 8, 1951 and ran for 472 performances. Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Robert Shawley, and William Pierson reprise their roles in the movie. Awards And Honors Fact: William Holden did not like the part of Sefton as written, thinking him too selfish. He kept asking Billy Wilder to make Sefton nicer. Wilder refused. Holden actually refused the role but was forced to do it by the studio. William Holden never felt he deserved an Oscar for his performance in this film. His wife felt it was to compensate for him not winning for Sunset Blvd. (1950).

I've never been able to finish this movie. Reminds me too much of Hogan's Heroes. 🤮