STALAG 17 (1953)

The legendary star and director of 1950’s Sunset Boulevard—William Holden and Billy Wilder—re-teamed three years later for the gripping World War II drama, Stalag 17. The result was a 1953 Best Director Oscar nomination for Wilder, and the elusive Best Actor Oscar for Holden. The iconic star of The Bridges at Toko-Ri and The Bridge on the River Kwai portrays the jaded, scheming Sergeant J.J. Sefton, a P.O.W. at the notorious German prison camp, who spends his days dreaming up rackets and trading with the Germans for special privileges. But when two prisoners are killed in an escape attempt, it becomes obvious that there is a spy among them. Is it Sefton? Famed filmmaker Otto Preminger (Rosebud) tackles a rare acting role as the camp’s commandant; Robert Strauss (The Seven Year Itch) earned the film’s third Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actor) for his role as “Animal.” Here’s “the granddaddy of all World War II P.O.W. films” (Leonard Maltin), a powerful antiwar classic from the brilliant creator of Five Graves to Cairo, A Foreign Affair, Sabrina, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment.

One night in 1944 in a German POW camp housing American airmen, two prisoners try to escape the compound and are quickly discovered and shot dead. Among the remaining men, suspicion grows that one of their own is a spy for the Germans. All eyes fall on Sgt. Sefton (William Holden) who everybody knows frequently makes exchanges with German guards for small luxuries. To protect himself from a mob of his enraged fellow inmates, Sgt. Sefton resolves to find the true traitor within their midst.