Father of Hogan's Heroes?

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2007)

As a big fan of The Great Escape (1963) Stalag 17 is the parent and I imagine the first film portrayal of American soldiers at a German POW camp. Stalag is a very good film with excellent performances by Holden, Strauss,Lembeck, Ruman & Preminger. Still, I can't say I prefer the "father" to the son. The Great Escape is a much grander scale movie with many heroes. The Allies are all true to each other, no rats or spies. Maybe the fact that soldiers appearto turn on one of their "own" is upsetting. Frankly it's not believable to me that Sefton would survive his beating. If the boys felt he really was a spy they would have killed him. Wilder's film spends as much time with men dancing with men or dressed in drag, presumably comic relief, as the spy story. You shouldn't really mix Some Like it Hot Redux into this film.
According to TCM, the final scene with Sefton's salute was an add on to soften his prior remarks.