Billy Wilder's 'Stalag 17' - Underrated War Masterpieces (2)

Fun story, I once did an adaptation of this film into a play, utilizing both the film script and the original play to fashion together a combination of the two, as a potential prospect for my boarding house's play. Suffice to say it never fell through, but it remains one of my proudest achievements, I can't quite go about publishing it or anything since it's so derivative but if you ever want to take a look at it, email me at calvinlaw1996@gmail.com 

William Holden was certainly a man of many things, but one thing that cannot be denied was that the man was the most masterful cynic in all cinematic history. Which isn't to say that he was in any way one-note, no, from his jaded outlaw Pike Bishop in The Wild Bunch to the defiant Shears in Bridge on the River Kwai, and his best-known role as our narrator and ostensible avatar Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, Mr Holden showed a wide variety of outlets for that unique blend of charm and smarm he had to his onscreen persona, fashioning it in accordance to the bloody viscreal imagery of Sam Peckinpah, or the grandeur of David Lean's direction. He was a great actor, and if he occasionally stumbled when veering too far outside his range (simplistic romantic characters weren't really his thing, and he did phone it in occasionally later in his career with the exceptions of The Wild Bunch and Sidney Lumet's Network), few could come close to him in terms of screen presence and talent. Holden was usually in peak form in Billy Wilder films. He was solid in Sabrina, great in Sunset Boulevard, but his performance as the lead of the 1953 WWII POW camp mystery, Stalag 17, rises head and shoulders above even those great performances.

Holden's performance may not seem particularly complex from the outset, nor the character of J.J. Sefton if I'm to be honest. The character's status in the prison barracks is somewhat like Morgan Freeman's Red in The Shawshank Redemption, only far less approachable, and far more self-centred. He's a cynic, as aforementioned, but a pragmatic one who's quite the enterprising chap, chummying the prison guards including Schulz (Sig Ruman) for various goodies and cigars, and bartering with other prisoners in enterprising, profitable moneymaking schemes. He's very much the odd one out in a barracks where everyone else seems content to just get along fine and antagonize the Nazi guards, and even occasionally attempt to make escapes which backfire horribly. The film's inciting incident is the swift deaths of two prisoners who attempt this; the soldiers begin to suspect there to be a mole for the Germans within their barracks, and suspicion naturally falls upon Sefton.

This thus turns the film, technically, into a 'did-he-dunnit'. Our suspicions are confirmed that there is a mole, but is it Sefton, or is it not? In a lesser director's hands this could've all turned into a standard mystery film set in a military camp that had been done before already, Crossfire being a notable example. Of course the director is Billy Wilder, so it'd never be as simple as that. Wilder sets up the mystery fantastically through a rather taut script, series of red herrings, and a palatable sense of tension in each scene where Sefton is confronted about his presumed complicity. The noir-esque cinematography is not of the usual sort, which makes sense since this isn't your usual film noir, gritty and grimy in its stylized approach to portraying the prison grounds, with some particularly interesting lighting choices in the nighttime scenes.

Wilder makes this all flow fabulously with the whole atmosphere and conception of the barracks. The life of the prison camp feels so lived-in, you get such a vibrant sense of the world and these various characters who inhabit it. While most of the time prison camps are conveyed through more one-sided strokes, necessarily so in also great films like Bridge on the River Kwai and Schindler's List, Wilder here opts to create a not entirely negative atmosphere in the camp. There is a sense of oppressiveness, naturally, stemming from the Nazi officers and the war surrounding the American POWs, as well as their distance from home and women, but Wilder also never forgets that amidst bleakness, there's always opportunity for POW's to find themselves a good time.

Stalag 17 is a comedy through and through, albeit one which varies its tone of comedy at various intervals. There is the broader sort, shown through the comedic double act of Animal (Oscar-nominated Robert Strauss) and Shapiro (Harvey Lembeck), and scenes like the one where the whole baracks congregates in a mock Hitler indoctrination ceremony. These scenes may be some of the less subtle moments in the film, but they're integrated extremely well into the different tones of the film.

Then there's the subtler, and I'd probably argue even more effective bits of humour in the film that's conveyed in a darker fashion. The Nazi guards here are comical to an extent, but not to the point of parody. Some like Schulz are funny because of how hapless and rather nonthreatening they seem, and the Kommandant played by Otto Preminger has a sly edge of wit to each line he has, but the fact remains that they're still very malevolent characters.

This makes the presentation of the villains rather effective, because you never know in which chosen scene they appear in, what tone the film will take. It manages to both keep you on the edge of your seat and sell the laughs when need be.

Playwright of the original source material Edmund Trzcinski (who looks just like Adam Driver) has a character which provides another example of Wilder's genius utilization of a large ensemble. His soldier who tries to convince himself his wife hasn't been unfaithful to him is a brief, hilarious, but also rather sad little part of the film, generating chuckles but also sympathy for these soldiers so far removed from home.

Then there's two of the film's core which make for even more humour, of a very different sort. Gil Stratton's Cookie provides voiceover narration for the film that's lighthearted, breezy, very nice to listen to, and with a sweet innocent little comic edge to it all. And Holden is absolutely brilliant in bringing out all the humour he can from every scene Sefton exploits his fellow POWs. He shows a man living the life, well as good a life as a POW could possibly have, and with such ease and casual humour makes Sefton such a naturally engaging fellow to watch. At the same time as being so charming and entertaining, Holden does not shy away from the more manipulative and selfish aspects of Sefton, as well as conveying an undercurrent of mystery and intrigue to his portrayal. We don't know whether Sefton's the culprit or not, and Holden till the reveal plays this perfectly, and makes the scenes where he's supposedly 'exposed' as the traitor both interesting to watch because of his reactions, and actually quite moving as he reveals the desperation of the character to find out the truth, and not entirely for personal gain. Or is it? Or is it all an act? The beauty of Holden's performance is that he never gives the fame away, but in such an entertaining fashion.

SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD

It's so, so very important you go into this film not knowing the twist. Well if you haven't heeded my warning and am still going to read on even though you haven't watched the film...

You're not screwed. The reveal of who the traitor within the barracks is takes plae a little over halfway through the film, and what happens afterwards is what elevates this film from 'extremely good' to 'masterpiece'.

The reveal takes place in this one scene which is one of my favourite scenes of all-time. It feels so unforced, and yet so cinematic, at the same time. The music is a particularly great factor as is the acting of Peter Graves (that reaction shot at 32 seconds or so, how great is that), and Holden's reaction at the end, this my friends is movie-making at its very best.

Then the scene where Sefton finds out - EVEN BETTER, His delivery of 'ich sehe' sends chills down my spine every time. And what I really love about the film is that even through all this power play between the cat and rat, the humour of the film never relents, nor does the characterization of the other supporting characters. No one, nothing is shortchanged. The film moves along as well as it did before the reveal.

I haven't actually talked at all about the small subplot on the side involving a Lieutenant James Dunbar (Don Taylor with the most thankless role in the film, and I must say he acquits himself well nevertheless) who in most films would be the hero, here he's more of a plot device really, a target for German prosecution and execution by an act of sabotage he is suspected of having commited while being transported to the camp. This subplot and the 'whodunnit' subplot converge at the end of the film, where the Stalag 17 barracks try to find a way to sneak Dunbar out. Holden's Hercule Poirot moment is one of my top 10 best acted scenes in film history. He's brought his character to a somewhat despicable opportunist into a sympathetic hero you completely root for, despite not losing an ounce of his cynical nature. And he unleashes it all in this scene which is simply perfect. Wilder directs this scene in the dark, with such an overwhelming combination of both tension and extreme satisfaction. You feel good not just because the culprit is revealed, but because Sefton is vindicated.

This is a film that must be seen to be believed. You may think after watching films like Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, that Wilder could not possibly top that sort of output. Well in my opinion, Stalag 17 is not only Wilder's masterpiece, but one of my favourite films of all-time (by the way have put a temporary best/favourite 30 films of all-time list beneath this). It is truly underrated as it seems to be remembered mostly as the film that garnered Holden an 'apology' Oscar (which is a ridiculous assumption to make), or just another WWII POW film. As with many films I review on here, watch it, watch it, watch it.

1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. Brief Encounter
3. The Elephant Man
4. High and Low
5. Dog Day Afternoon
6. Yojimbo
7. To Kill a Mockingbird
8. Inside Llewlyn Davis
9. The Thin Red Line
10. Back to the Future
11. Vertigo
12. Cinema Paradiso
13. Blue Velvet
14. Stalag 17
15. L.A. Confidential
16. The Green Mile
17. Lawrence of Arabia
18. The Godfather Part II
19. The Third Man
20. Modern Times
21. The Pianist
22. Alien
23. Ikiru
24. Edward Scissorhands
25. Jaws
26. Dr Strangelove
27. Magnolia
28. Leon the Professional
29. Beasts of the Southern Wild
30. The Princess Bride

Hon. Mentions (I should note I've tried my best to keep my list to one film per director, and thus leaving out some very worthy inclusions based on this critera alone, unfortunately that Kurosawa trio of Kurosawa brilliance and Lynch's duo cannot be denied): Fargo, All the President's Men, The Apartment, Carol, Schindler's List, Odd Man Out, Barton Fink, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, A Clockwork Orange, Ran, Amadeus, In Bruges, The Dark Knight, Se7en, Anatomy of a Murder, The Artist, The Crying Game, Z, The Innocents, 10 Rillington Place, The Purple Rose of Cairo.