Stalag 17

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Yoshi3 M It's like Wilder told everyone to pretend they were clowns in a circus. Only Holden and Preminger give solid performances; the rest confuse acting with making cartoonish faces and voices. It fails as a drama because of all the buffoonery, and it also fails as a comedy because of its lack of real humor. For a man who wrote and directed some of the greatest movies of all time, this one is surprisingly bad. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 04/30/25 Full Review Matthew D A miserably unfunny and slow POW camp film that’s just dull. Director Billy Wilder’s war mystery comedy Stalag 17 (1953) is a rare miss from Wilder. I love his films Sunset Boulevard, Witness for the Prosecution, Five Graves to Cairo, Double Indemnity, A Foreign Affair, Love in the Afternoon, and Sabrina. However, sometimes his films rub me the wrong way and Stalag 17 falls into the Billy Wilder films I did not enjoy like The Apartment and The Seven Year Itch. Wilder’s rather sterile direction just lingers mostly inside this one barracks in a POW camp, but rather than make the American prisoners of war sympathetic soldiers, they all feel like obnoxious idiots. Stalag 17 is like if The Great Escape and The Bridge on the River Kwai were written by idiots. Tonally, It felt like a terrible Three Stooges knock off movie. Even the show MASH is better than this or Cool Hand Luke. Stalag 17 influenced all of these, but it’s so boring and unfunny. Writers Billy Wilder, Edwin Blum, Donald Bevan, and Edmund Trzcinski come up with immature jokes, basic characters, and a bare plot. It’s unengaging as a war film, increasingly obvious as a mystery, and horribly stupid as well as unfunny as a comedy. William Holden has the only serious performance in all 120 minutes of this total lame farce. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 12/27/24 Full Review Doug C One of THE best war movies of all time ……… William Holden plays his role as good as it gets. Do yourself a favor, watch it with the kids 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/24/24 Full Review Ian F The humour and the characters delivering it have not aged well. They probably brought the house down in 1953; today they are just an intrusive irritation in what would otherwise be a very watchable wartime drama. Holden is outstanding. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 12/10/24 Full Review Lars N The gags between the main plot are a diversion at best, and cringe worthy at worst. Otherwise another solid film from Wilder. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/08/24 Full Review Connor S Written for the stage, and performed beautifully as if you were in an audience. God bless our POW's! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/11/24 Full Review Read all reviews

Stalag 17

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