Two Americans, Manfredi and Johnson, try to escape through a The lives of the prisoners are depicted: they receive mail, eat terrible food, wash in the latrine sinks, and collectively do their best to keep sane and defy the camp's commandant, Sefton bribes the guards to let him spend the day in the Russian women's barracks. Stalag 17 is a 1953 comedy-drama war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is an informant.
Shortly thereafter, von Scherbach takes Lieutenant James Schuyler Dunbar, a temporary inmate, away. Dunbar admitted to the other prisoners that he had blown up a passing German ammunition train while he was being transported to the camp. For the punk band, see
Sefton resents Dunbar for coming from a wealthy Boston family and accused Dunbar of using his family's fortune to become an officer while Sefton washed out in Sefton decides to take Dunbar out himself because he likes the odds this time and the expected reward from Dunbar's family.
The men give Sefton enough time to get Dunbar out of the water tower above one of the latrines, then throw Price out into the yard with tin cans tied to his legs.
The other prisoners conclude that this is his reward for having informed the Germans about the radio. The ruse works; Price is killed in a hail of bullets, creating a diversion that allows Sefton and Dunbar to cut through the barbed wire and escape. The film was adapted by Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum from the Broadway play of the same name by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, which was based on their experiences as prisoners in Stalag 17B in Austria. When he returns, he is accused of being a spy.
In a Peter Graves recalled the film was held from release for over a year due to Paramount Pictures not believing anyone would be interested in seeing a film about prisoners of war. A pleased Cookie whistles "The prison camp set was built on the John Show Ranch in The film was shot in chronological order, an unusual practice as that method is usually much more expensive and time-consuming.
The 1953 release of American POWs from the This article is about the film.