Laughs and drama in a German POW camp, 1943, based on a play but heavily rewritten by Mr. Wilder as filming progressed. Nasty Kamp Kommandant Otto Preminger (who has an aide help him put on his boots so he can call Berlin) and his comic sidekick Sig Ruman (as Sgt. Schultz!) have an uncanny knack for knowing everything that's going on in the camp vis-a-vis escape attempts. Who is the traitor feeding info to the Krauts? Everyone suspects unfriendly, cynical William Holden 'cause he trades cigarettes and favors for special treatment. It ain't him, of course, and over the two-hour course of the movie we'll find out. While that's going on, there's girl watching (there's a Russian Women's camp next door), dances, rat races (go for Equipoise), imitations of famous movie stars, and the like. Most of the comedy is courtesy of Harvey Lembeck and Robert Strauss, a pair of funny guys and skoit-chasers. Peter Graves is the Security Officer for the bunkhouse, Don Taylor's the new arrival with info the Nazis want, Neville Brand, Richard Erdman, and Gil Stratton are amongst the POWs, and the play's co-author, Edmund Trzcinski, plays the guy who believes his wife's letters. A surprising amount of comedy (and mud), and since this is a POW camp, a surprising amount of guys who look like they're eating very well. That said, this is a highly entertaining motion picture, a crowd-pleaser. Million-dollar Dialog: Hey, Schultz, spachen de Deutsch?' Ja!' Den droppen ze dead.' The Mein Kampf scene is a particular hoot. The film was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and noms for Wilder and Strauss (who didn't win) and Holden (who did). It went on to influence every POW film or TV show I've ever seen. It's on Blu-ray from Paramount, and includes a 22 min. documentary on the making of the film, a short doc on the real Stalag 17, and commentary with two of the surviving actors. What I learned from it was that Marlene Dietrich spent a lot of time on the set, that an actor was brought in to play Lembeck's part but let go after a week and Lembeck, who'd been in the Broadway show, was a hasty replacement, and that Paramount execs saw the film in progress and were horrified, they thought it was terrible. Also, that the cast wasn't told who the informant was until late in the filming, so they'd be 'more suspicious' of each other. That Wilder.