Popular reviews

• 

  Review by CinemaCl🎃wn ★★★★ 7

  The more Billy Wilder films I'm watching, the more I'm becoming convinced that he was possibly the most brilliant & versatile filmmaker of the 20th century, for this master storyteller had a remarkable knack for wit which kept almost all his works a lighthearted affair, including those that dealt with serious subject matters, yet effortlessly managed to deliver the message without ever compromising with the entertainment factor.

  Set during The Second World War in a German POW camp that houses only American sergeants, the story of Stalag 17 begins with two prisoners from the barrack who after careful planning with the rest of inmates try to escape the camp but are discovered & shot down. The rest of the inmates suspect that…

• 

  Review by liam f ★★★★ 3

  tag yourself: I'm the guy putting on shoes just to make a phone call and then immediately taking them off afterwards

• 

  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 10

  Action! - Three Auteurs: The Witty and Eclectic Mr. Wilder

  I've been wanting to watch this film for quite some time now, after reading numerous positive reviews of it on the site. And, while I didn't enjoy it as much as many others, I can understand why they do. It's arguably Wilder's best war film up to this point on the marathon.

  Naturally, given that the film is based on a play, the success of the film depends heavily on the acting and writing, and luckily for us, both are excellent. Holden, in his Oscar-winning performance, spends most of it in the background barely providing an opinion or two, but when he is on screen he manages to make himself…

• 

  Review by Jizzmonkey ★★★★★

  Doesn't seem right that they were always trying to escape. The place was run like a holiday camp, in good humor, with lots of fun activities and happiness all around, and they were never so happy as when singing "And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home!".

• 

  Review by Slig001 ★★★★

  A movie set in a prisoner or war camp doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun - but leave it to the endlessly talented Billy Wilder to make an entertaining comedy out of it. Stalag 17 is essentially a prisoner or war hangout movie, as we focus on the various hijinks of one barracks in one POW camp in Germany. The narration eases us into the situation as we are informed that the reason the prisoners' plots are always discovered is due to the presence of a spy in the barracks. The film makes light of the situation by mixing rather silly comedy with serious drama. It does feel a bit disjointed at times, but Stalag 17 never fails…

• 

  Review by brendan o'hare ★★★★

  I have no interest in being in a POW camp but I still enjoyed this

• 

  Review by Adam Friedland 1

  Mainly looked at girls I’ve never met on ig

• 

  Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★★½

  Remember, just because the krauts are dumb doesn't mean that they're stupid.
  -Marko the Mailman

  Was there a more versatile director then Billy Wilder? He blazed his own trail through Hollywood like no one else doing whatever he wanted and it worked because he was also a talent like none other as well. Here he teams up once again with William Holden only three years after Sunset Boulevard, where, if stories are correct, he ended up telling Louis B. Mayer to go fuck himself. So here to keep a low profile he decided his next film should be a comedy in a World War II P.O.W. camp... less then a decade after those camps actually existed.

  To make it an…

• 

  Review by Deckk ★★★★

  100-word review: American POWs in Stalag 17 must find out who the mole amongst them is that keeps passing down their escape plans to the Germans. I learned who the mole was exactly when Billy Wilder wanted me to — not a moment before — and it made perfect sense once revealed. The script definitely peaks whenever the POWs and German officers get embroiled in surprisingly amiable, Denglisch back-and-forths. The large cast of characters forms a diverse ensemble, which, importantly, is still coherent, so that it doesn't feel like an implausible combination of people; the barrack works almost like a single organism.

  [After reading a letter from home.]

  Triz' Trzcinski: "I believe it. My wife says, 'Darling, you won't believe…

• 

  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 7

  “Stalag 17” is a feat of temperance and tension by director Billy Wilder. 

  The film, about the search for a mole among the inhabitants of an American bunkhouse in a Nazi POW camp, has the laudable discipline to hold back the typical parade of Wilder kraut and culture gags. 

  “Stalag” even lacks for the jibes so sharp they bleed, as seen in Wilder’s noirs. Its best companion piece might very well be “The Apartment;” balancing between joyful humanism and the otherwise all encompassing dread of daily life. 

  William Holden, also, gives one of his most subdued internal performances. In a daring and, some would say unwise, early move, Wilder shifts the tension off the mole hunt to instead allay all…

• 

  Review by Chris ★★★★ 2

  Exemplifies Billy Wilder's remarkable skill at finding a harmonious balance between comedy and drama. For all the quick-witted exchanges and farcical antics that flow so effortlessly, there is a palpable tension running throughout that makes the stakes seem genuine and forces you to become emotionally invested in each development. Having the premise revolve around POW's plays into Wilder's more compassionate instincts, allowing him to perceptively emphasise both the frustration that befalls those seeking an escape and the way they use humour as a coping mechanism; conflict and camaraderie emerge in equal measure as you'd expect in such a stressful environment. The characters are crucial in a film like this and nearly all of them are memorable to some degree, from William Holden's cool-headed realist to the light-hearted duo played by Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck, with their outlooks well-rounded and their interactions always engaging. It's probably a tier below Wilder's best efforts, but that's hardly a bad thing.

• 

  Review by Zegan ★★★★

  "At ease! at ease!"