Great film adaptation of a successful stage play

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2006)

This is a great Billy Wilder film, made mid-stream in his career at the height of his movie making. Wilder and Edwin Blum adapted the story for the screen from the 1951-52 Tony Award winning Broadway play by former prisoners of war Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. José Ferrer won the Tony as Best Director in the play from which Harvey Lembeck as Harry Shapiro and Robert Strauss as Stosh Kasava reprise their stage roles in the film. Also appearing in the movie is playwright Edmund Trzcinski as Triz. William Holden leads the cast in this movie for which he won Best Actor for the 1953 Academy Awards. Stalag 17 received two other nominations fro Wilder as Best Director and for Strauss in Supporting Actor. rounding out the cast is Actor/Film Director Otto Prminger, Don Taylor, Peter Graves and Neville Brand. Veteran Cinematographer Ernest Laszlo photographed the film where much of the scenes are outdoors in the camp compound as opposed to the mostly interior set of the play. This is arguably Holden's finest film role in the comedy/drama about prisoners of war in World War II Germany that inspired the television comedy show Hogan's Heroes. I have seen this many times over the years and would give this film a 9.0 on a scale of 10 and recommend it.