Great Movie even with flawed plot.

Rating: 5/10 (12 October 2000)

Any movie that launches a successful TV series and captures an Oscar for the lead can't be all that bad. But the idea that the Germans would put a "spy" inside an American POW camp (comprised of sergeants) is ludicrous. After watching the film in 2006, I learned that Wilder, who was the Director, Producer and one of the writers, broke off his relationship with Paramount when the film was shown in Germany, and the American spy became a Polish spy. Wilder, who had some relatives die in German concentration camps may have been justified for personal reasons, but I think the character "Security" was a way for Wilder to portray his anti-German feelings. (This movie was made less than a decade after WWII ended).
When an artist crosses the line between telling the truth, and starts to engage in propaganda he becomes a hack. There were many goofs made in this movie that illustrated to me that the truth was stretched to cartoon-like proportions. With Nazi manpower stretched to the limit, that the Nazi's would place a spy in a barracks full of sergeants does not make the main plot line believable. It would have been an odious job, and require a professional whose service would have been more valuable at another pursuit. Perhaps the Germans had used a Polish Prisoner to keep track of other prisoners, and wanted to give the film the plausibility it lacked in the original version.
The film begins "a few weeks before Christmas" in 1944. Hundress of American Bombers had crashed inside Germany. Not only did they know everything about their aircraft, the Nazi's had put together pieces of our planes, and had flown them inside US bomber formations as a battle tactic.
When Lt. Dunbar is assigned temporarily to the barracks, I wondered why the character couldn't have just been another sergeant. But then William Holden's character couldn't have given the audience the impression that Dunbar's mother's money got him through pilot training. I am not a writer, but I was a USAF pilot, and I know that money and influence doesn't help a bit when your flying solo. Also, did anyone notice that Lt. Dunbar had to look at his dog tags when asked what his serial number was? I can still remember my original numbers, and that was 41 years ago. The scene where Dunbar is sleep deprived (a Geneva convention violation) and in walks the Geneva Accord Representative. To quote one line from the movie, "the Krauts may be dumb, but they're not stupid. And everyone seemed to have watches. Are we to believe that watches would not have been stolen by the guards, exchanged for food, blankets and other favors? The writers have Lt. Dunbar being taken away from the camp as a sabateur because he blew up an ammunition train. Is it plausible that a matchbook with a cigarette stuck inside could be thrown inside a train, and three minutes later an fire would consume boxes of ammo with a resulting explosion. How far can one throw book of matches with a cigarette? Do German Ammo cars always travel with their doors open? Did anyone associated with this movie ever handle ammo. It's very hard to ignite, except in the way its intended to be used., i.e, a firing pin, or a very hot fire is necessary for ignition.
Since this movie takes place in a mountainous area in Germany, and the time of year is the beginning of winter, Lt. Dunbar would have died of hypothermia, standing in the water tower. Why the Authors choose to put him in the water tower seems more far fetched that the smoke bomb excape from the SS guards.
Several commentators have mentioned King Rat in comparison with this movie. Holden won and deserved his Academy Award. But George Siegal was even better in King Rat, and the plot was more believable because Rat was a complete and believable movie. Siegal's character becomes just one more enlisted man whose throne is overturned by the liberation of the camp. In Stalag, as several reviewers have mentioned, is flawed because we don't know whether the excape is successful, and the consequences of the others is unknown.