{"id":23,"date":"2014-06-16T22:35:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T22:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=23"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:36:21","slug":"review-stalag-17-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=23","title":{"rendered":"Stalag 17-1953"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Stalag 17-1953<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Director Billy Wilder<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Starring William Holden, Don Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott&#8217;s Review #5<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/994592.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-883\" src=\"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/994592-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"994592\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/994592-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/994592.jpg 284w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed June 16, 2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Stalag 17 (1953), a film by famed director Billy Wilder, tackles the theme of POWs during World War II.<\/p>\n<p>This film reminds me of the acclaimed television show M*A*S*H (1972-1983) in that the comedy elements are similar (men in drag, a light subplot of one soldier&#8217;s obsession with Betty Grable).<\/p>\n<p>However, this film is heavy on the drama side and a deep cynicism that network television shows cannot match.<\/p>\n<p>A group of American soldiers is held in a POW camp by Germans. Somehow, the Germans realized an escape plan. A whodunit ensues to find out who the mole is and his motivations. Liberties are taken- I doubt the real German soldiers would be as lovely as the film depicts.<\/p>\n<p>William Holden stars as the cynic of the camp and the likely suspect, but is he the culprit?<\/p>\n<p>This film is a hybrid of other Wilder films- the cross-dressing theme in Some Like it Hot (1959) is depicted, and shades of the darkness of Sunset Boulevard (1950) (also starring Holden) appear.<\/p>\n<p>The black and white are effective in eliciting the confinement of the camp.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a quality film, though a predictable &#8220;seen this all before&#8221; element nagged throughout.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: <strong>1 win<\/strong>-Best Director-Billy Wilder, Best Actor-William Holden <strong>(won)<\/strong>, Best Supporting Actor-Robert Strauss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stalag 17-1953 Director Billy Wilder Starring William Holden, Don Taylor Scott&#8217;s Review #5 Reviewed June 16, 2014 Grade: B Stalag 17 (1953), a film by famed director Billy Wilder, tackles the theme of POWs during World War II. This film reminds me of the acclaimed television show M*A*S*H (1972-1983) in that the comedy elements are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=23\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Stalag 17-1953<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,515,4486,9963,595,4485,4484,206,541],"tags":[52,518,4489,9967,598,4488,4487,260,543],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1953-films","category-billy-wilder","category-don-taylor","category-john-mitchum","category-otto-preminger","category-peter-graves","category-robert-strauss","category-war-films","category-william-holden","tag-1953-movie-reviews","tag-billy-wilder","tag-don-taylor","tag-john-mitchum","tag-otto-preminger","tag-peter-graves","tag-robert-strauss","tag-war-films","tag-william-holden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20926,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/20926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}