I felt so-so about Stalag 17 - first of all, we didn't know it was a comedy. I thought it was going to be a serious war movie. Apparently Billy Wilder liked to make comedies surrounded by a morose or dark context. So that threw me off a little bit. When the movie started I realized it was going to focus a lot on these two "barracks clowns" who provided a lot of slapsticky type comedy throughout which was fine I suppose, but I didn't expect it. Early on in the movie we are told that there is a "traitor" in the barracks who is feeding information to the Germans - information on escape attempts and equipment the men shouldn't have like radios. I really had no idea who it was until it was shown to me so I appreciated the surprise. Overall, like, I said, it was so-so for me. After the movie we watched the "making of" featurette which helped us to understand the movie more and I feel like when we watch older movies we should always know a bit about the context ahead of time. Chris was offended that they said Stalag 17 was the best POW camp/escape movie because we both liked The Great Escape much better :)
With all of that said, William Holden is HOT and I am MORE than happy to watch more of his movies :)
Have you ever heard of the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes?" It was based on this movie. It had Sgt. Schultz and Colonel Klink and it was enjoyed by many. I personally didn't like it. I don't like the idea that you can take a situation like a WWII German Prison camp and minimize the impact it had on many soldiers by making the Germans in charge look stupid and inept. Bad subject matter if you ask me. I have also seen the movie and it was probably well made, etc, but I didn't care much for it.
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