Just the right length!

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 1999)

A brilliant Wilder film made not long after the end of World War Two. Holden's best performance was rightly rewarded with an Academy Award.
In my opinion this is one of the best POW films as the script, camera work and the performances all hold their own. The tension builds through the film as the jinxed barrack block attempt to work out which one of them is the stool-pigeon.
Easily better than David Lean's unrealistic "Bridge on the River Kwai", Stalag 17 presents some comic scenes to add more contrast to those more serious and tenser scenes, especially the finale.
One film I shall continue to watch for a very long time.