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.

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.

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 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

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.

The gags between the main plot are a diversion at best, and cringe worthy at worst. Otherwise another solid film from Wilder.

Surprisingly poignant in 2024 as the US forsakes what these soldiers gave for their country by betraying democracy and electing a self-proclaimed dictator. It's not a perfect film, but it's valuable.

Written for the stage, and performed beautifully as if you were in an audience. God bless our POW's!

The opening scene is excellent but it is all down hill from there. It is difficult for me to understand how this film stands in such high regard. The humor is insufferable (especially Animal). Schultz says, "Look at them lieutenant; everybody is a clown," and that is exactly how many of the characters came across with their foolish antics and cheesy one-liners. It is painfully obvious that the informant is not who all the evidence is pointing towards for the majority of the film, and there is nothing interesting about how we come to find out who it actually is. It has its moments, and I enjoyed the ending (even though it is completely implausible), but ultimately it is a sluggish bore of a film. It definitely did not live up to its prestige.

I am from the UK so I wasn't sure I'd like a movie about American POWs… But they took a smash hit play and turned it into an awesome movie. It's also a lot of fun, with a South Pacific feel.

There's probably a version of this movie that's an unrelenting pressure cooker but Wilder's trademark wit takes the movie down a more interesting and entertaining path. Holden's performance is perfection.

It's solid but it has some issues that hold it back from being amazing. The acting is very good with witty dialogue and Grave & Holden being the standouts. The problem is there are so many characters in this that it is hard to keep track at times. Animal feels like he was out of place as the comedic relief. The humor also is just alright and feels out of place at times. The editing isn't bad but is the weakest part here. This feels like a comedy and a war thriller merged together with mixed results. Sometimes the humor goes on way too long and isn't that funny and doesn't really add anything to the plot more than being a gag. This starts to drag the pacing down because this starts to lose focus in tone and who the main character is. Holden starts out as the main guy but the gags take over for like 40 minutes between all the supporting cast and feels pointless and waters down the key plot points. Holden just kind of disappears until the last 30 minutes as he pops back. Also because its so busy with gags it doesn't build tension as well as it could because it gives away the villain quite early and the humor disappears by the final 30 minutes which is well done and clever still. The cinematography is good also with excellent camerawork but again quite a few scenes are watered down by the humor. The music also is good but not super memorable and not used that much. This needed about 20-25 minutes shaved off mainly from the gags in the middle and stayed a serious war thriller. The villain is good but I wish he would've had more back and forth with Holden in a battle of wits instead of pointless gags. I have to say this is a bit overrated. Anyone who is a fan of Wilder, any actors in this, or Classic War Movies will like this though.

"If I ever run into any of you bums on the street corner, let's just pretend we've never met before." William Holden stars as cigar-gnashing 'general store' operator J.J. Sefton, whose crude attitude and stiff prices make him persona non grata in his barracks. When everyone in the bunks suspects a rat is hiding among them, leaking information about escaping POWs and clandestine equipment, the eyes naturally turn to Sefton; to stop good men from going to their deaths (or perhaps to prevent more bruises from appearing on his face), Sefton takes it upon himself to find the real spy among them. An early war thriller with elements of black comedy, Stalag 17 is somewhere between The Great Escape and M*A*S*H, and spends even more time building up the camaraderie between its characters than it does developing the main plot, with surprisingly ample opportunity for director Billy Wilder to use the same crossdressing humor that he would refine in Some Like it Hot a few years later. But despite the mixing of war film and comedy, Stalag 17 never feels jagged, as he constantly uses levity to allow his prisoners a brief escape from their dark reality. As a result, it's funny and exciting without being disrespectful to what was still a fresh memory for many veterans. Another great one from one of the best midcentury American directors. Wonder if Robert Strauss ever got his date with Betty Grable. (4/5)

Having watched Hogans heroes for many years this movie always comes to mind, the show uses footage from the show in the first season and owes a lot to the basic set up and character of Stalag 17. William Holden is excellent in role, Peter graves is as well a wonderful counterpoint and best performance prioir to mission impossible. My main criticism is the voice over but I've never been a fan of voice over.

A few awkward moments—minor things that gave a lightness on stage seem just a bit forced in the film—but minor they are. And with solid performances (especially the ones from Holden and a youthful Peter Graves), adept direction and an amusing screenplay, "Stalag 17" is exemplary in its representation of WWII films of the post-war period. It's climactic ending gives satisfies our American desires for optimism and justice.

A classic war film. For a POW camp film the quality lies in the plot and characters rather than the escape. A great script keeps you hooked. Hasn't aged at all.

Stunned by how much I hated this. The slapstick comedy was the total opposite of what I expected, it bashes you over the head with very unsubtle, dire humour, lots of shouting and pretty childish jokes/pranks, usually accompanied by an unbearable shriek or irritating voices. Couldn't bring myself to care about the fate of any of the characters because I legitimately wanted the officers to kill them, especially Animal. Absolutely love Billy Wilder usually but this was unbearable.

A near masterpiece with William Holden bringing some gravitas to Billy Wilder's comedic drama. A great story that spawned hundreds of comedy sketches over the next few decades.

I was surprised at the amount, and level, of comedy I found in a suspenseful film taking place almost entirely within the wires of a German ran POW camp. I have never seen the play so can make no comparisons but Wilder impresses per usual with his ability to craft a script full of engaging suspense woven with dark humor found in the sharp dialogue and scenes of situational comedy. Holden was excellent as the lead but this film featured many colorful performances from both the captured and the captors, that the entire supporting cast deserves credit as this really felt like a "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" situation.

Really good. Great blend of comedy and suspense.

Excelente filme que, com bom humor, retrata o dramas dos campos de prisioneiros na Segunda Guerra Mundial.