Billy Wilder followed up his brilliant Ace in the Hole with this darkly comic adaptation of Donald Bevan’s and Edmund Trzcinski’s stage play about an assortment of American airmen getting through the days in a German POW camp at the twilight of the Second World War.
William Holden stars as the laconic J.J. Sefton, a prisoner whose cynical and mercenary disposition leads his fellow prisoners to conjecture his role as an informant after two men are shot in an attempt to escape the compound. But who exactly is the real spy shuttling inside knowledge to the ever-watchful Oberst von Scherbach (director Otto Preminger in what would become an iconic screen-role)? Only after the film builds towards an explosive crescendo is the answer finally revealed…
A commercial success upon its release in 1953, Stalag 17 retains its reputation as one of the finest World War II films of all-time. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to continue its association with the work of the eminently versatile Billy Wilder with the release of Stalag 17, appearing here for the first time on Blu-ray.
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Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Full-length audio commentary with actors Richard Erdman & Gil Stratton and co-playwright Donald Bevan
- The Real Heroes of Stalag XVII B, a group of real-world POWs relate their experiences
- Stalag 17: From Reality to Screen, a documentary on the making of the film
- 28-page booklet featuring a new essay on the film by Jessica Felrice and vintage writing about the film illustrated throughout with production stills