Sprechen Sie Deutsch? | STALAG 17 (1953) | Movie Reaction

[@brandonflorida1092]

Thank you for doing this fabulous classic. I've been begging reactors to do it as long as KZbin reactions have existed.

[@bonitaburroughs8673]

Thank you for reacting to this film. I love their ingenuity.

[@Finians_Mancave]

The German colonel in charge of Stalag 17, von Scherbach, was played by acclaimed director Otto Preminger, who directed the film noir classic, Laura!

[@henryellow]

I knew his name was familiar when I saw it in the credits! I just reacted to Laura not long ago 😊

[@rg3388]

So fun seeing the young Gil Stratton ("Cookie"). In later life, he was a television sportscaster I watched often. This film is echoed in THE GREAT ESCAPE and HOGAN'S HEROES.

[@jesusfernandezgarcia9449]

One of my favorite movies. We have a magnificent taste on this channel. We are very good.

[@ink-cow]

One notable actor in this film is Edmund Trzcinski, the potato soup sergeant who says "I believe it!" about his wife's foundling. He was a real WWII vet, a member of the air force who was shot down and wound up in the real life Stalag 17B. He wrote the stage play the movie was based on. It's generally agreed on that the later TV series "Hogan's Heroes" is largely inspired by this movie. Hogan's Heroes became a bit controversial because the camp Germans were portrayed more as harmless bumblers than villains.

[@kevind4850]

Despite the controversy, I think it is interesting that the actor who played Colonel Klink on _Hogan's_ _Heroes_ was Werner Klemperer, a German Jew who fled Nazi Germany and who also served in the U.S. Army during WWII. The film _To_ _Be_ _or_ _Not_ _to_ _Be_ (1942) faced similar criticism earlier.

[@henryellow]

Thanks for sharing these fun facts! I'll add TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) to my movies list. I might watch it in the future 😊

[@geraldmcboingboing7401]

Great reaction, Henry!!!! This film is one of my favorites. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it. I can watch it again anytime.

[@HeidiDenoble]

Definitely in my top 10.

[@laurab68707]

This is a great movie! I love it! The one prisoner who did impressions did James Cagney, which was the one you didn't know who it was.

[@GaryTulacz]

I enjoyed your reaction to Stalag 17, one of my favorite old films. You mentioned your were impressed on how all the prisoners stepped forward to save Animal from punishment. You should look up Master Sergeant Roddy Edmonds for one of the most dramatic examples of this unity. Edmonds was the senior non-com in a German POW camp when the camp commandant demanded he identify all Jewish POWs in order to separate them out to be sent to a slave labor camp and an almost certain death. Edmonds refused, stating "We are all Jews here," and continued to refuse even after a gun was put to his head. All the POWs in the camp then stepped forward claiming to be Jewish. The commandant backed down, knowing he couldn't kill all the POWs in the camp. Edmonds never told that story, but after he died in the 1980s, a prominent Jewish businessman who was in the camp mentioned that Edmonds had saved his life and maybe another 200 Jewish POWs. It was only then that Edmonds' heroism, and that of the other POWs, came to light. An amazing story.

[@vincentsaia6545]

I think this movie is a classic. It also makes a biting comment on American society when, as you observed, the collection company continued to send Shapiro notices despite knowing he was a POW because he was "defending the American way of life" as as serviceman.

[@brianplyter2225]

The impression that the new pow does is James Cagney, famous for playing gangsters and the Yankee doodle dandy

[@kevind4850]

also sounded like Edward G. Robinson, another actor famed for portraying gangsters

[@Cbcw76]

@@kevind4850 I usually think "Bogart" but - either way... the theater audiences recognized these two examples. I was trying to think of the last of these '30s-'40s stars' impressions I could recall... in Brendan Fraser's BLAST FROM THE PAST (1999), he & friends go to a Hollywood night club whose MC is Robert Sacchi "doing Bogart", just like his 1980 comedy THE MAN WITH BGGART'S FACE where a private-eye named Sam Marlowe has plastic surgery to look more like Bogart. Sacchi's "uncanny resemblance" was his claim to fame.

[@Dej24601]

The commandant was portrayed by director Otto Preminger, and you may enjoy his ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ (1959) starring Jimmy Stewart. Preminger also directed 3 classic Film Noir- ‘Laura’ ‘Fallen Angel’ and ‘Angel Face.’

[@henryellow]

Oh yes, I have Anatomy of a Murder in my list. I've already reacted to Laura, so I'll add Fallen Angel and Angel Face to my list 😊

[@Dej24601]

@@henryellow wonderful! Hope you enjoy everything!

[@JohnSipe-jt7bm]

He also directed Advise and Consent, a great political drama. 7:59

[@shasha5627]

Peter Graves played Mr. Phelps on the TV series Mission Impossible. Another great POW movie is The Great Escape with Steve McQueen.

[@JeffGes]

Before he was killed in this film, he did honorable battle against a buncha rubber-ized bat-like creatures in IT CONQUERED THE WORLD. The next year, Peter was leading the effort to battle giant semi-transparent grasshoppers in downtown LA.

[@vincentsaia6545]

Billy Wilder had fun casting fellow Jewish director Otto Preminger as a Nazi. Preminger was notorious for being brutish and dictatorial on his sets.

[@vincentsaia6545]

Yes, I think William Holden lost weight to realistically play a POW. Kirk Douglas was offered the role but turned it down and Billy Wilder offered the part to William Holden because he remembered how much he enjoyed working with Holden on SUNSET BOULEVARD and Holden trusted Wilder even though he thought that Septon was very unsympathetic.

[@henryellow]

Is that so? Thanks for sharing that fun fact 😊

[@vincentsaia6545]

Harry and Animal kind of remind me of R2D2 and C-3PO.

[@Cbcw76]

Entertainment history has a ton of duo-comedy teams and Harry & Animal are seldom mentioned but, wow, they dominate every scene and that terrific "painting the white line" is ingenious. I know cartoons/Stooges/Marx/Chaplin/Laurel & Hardy, etc had all done 'paint yer face' skits but Harry & Animal did theirs soooo perfectly. That toes of the paint-bucket... absolutely great scene. I think I'd nominate THAT scene as my favorite "paint their faces" skit of all time.

[@Cbcw76]

So many caricatures, and such excellent portraits that continue to this day. By the way, this film copies the closing scene's marching song in 1949's BATTLEGROUND, my only other Great War Film nominee. (Van Johnson is the handsome 'lead' in BATTLEGROUND and John Hodiak is one of the solders, but this ends up being an ensemble film led by the older James Whitmore as the squad's sergeant.) I prefer STALAG 17 and BATTLEGROUND to all other war films because it's a "small film" - the day-in-life of a few soldiers doing the real fighting, rather than those Hollywood blockbusters.

[@Cbcw76]

By the way, THANKS for doing this film. I suspect your reviews will have growing Views over time as more and more younger audiences 'naturally progress' into film-students. None of us are born with Old Film Knowledge - so film fans morph into those simply by the unexpected blessings of a few old films.

[@henryellow]

I'll add Battleground (1949) to my list! 😊

[@BigGator5]

"There are two people in this barracks who know I didn't do it. Me and the guy that did do it." Fun Fact: Features Robert Strauss's only Oscar nominated performance. Lawsuit Fact: The authors of Stalag 17 (1951), Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, sued the creators of the TV series Hogan's Heroes (1965) for plagiarism, as they had submitted a proposal for a TV show based on their play in 1963 to CBS. A Play On Hollywood Fact: The Broadway play "Stalag 17" by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski opened at the 48th Street Theater on May 8, 1951 and ran for 472 performances. Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Robert Shawley, and William Pierson reprise their roles in the movie. Awards And Honors Fact: William Holden did not like the part of Sefton as written, thinking him too selfish. He kept asking Billy Wilder to make Sefton nicer. Wilder refused. Holden actually refused the role but was forced to do it by the studio. William Holden never felt he deserved an Oscar for his performance in this film. His wife felt it was to compensate for him not winning for Sunset Blvd. (1950).

[@AceMoonshot]

I think Wilder was right. I think the character works best as a rather amoral opportunist. Makes for a better antihero.

[@henryellow]

I agree with Ace here. This Sefton character is perfect just as he is. Thanks for sharing these fun facts! 😊

[@AceMoonshot]

@@henryellow I'm a lifeline cinephile and know a lot about films. But BigGator5 always gives some facts that I didn't know.

[@henryellow]

Haha yes, the fun facts are always interesting too!

[@Roller-Ball]

Off topic......I would highly suggest the movie "The Sting" (1973 I think) A very fun movie to follow the story enfolds in front of you.

[@henryellow]

It seems that I already have that movie on my list. Haven't watched it yet though. Thanks for your suggestion 😊 you're welcome to suggest more movies anytime.

[@strongdecaf3729]

I've never been able to finish this movie. Reminds me too much of Hogan's Heroes. 🤮