Stalag 17
film by Wilder [1953]
Stalag 17, American war film, released in 1953, that was directed by Billy Wilder and featured an Academy Award-winning performance by William Holden. The film is set in a German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag 17, during World War II. It tracks the daily boredom and nighttime escape attempts of the resident U.S. airmen. The camp is run by a sadistic commandant, Oberst von Scherbach (played by Otto Preminger), whose orders are carried out by his avuncular but dutiful sergeant, Johann Sebastian Schulz (Sig Ruman). The leader of the POWs is a cynical loner, the wisecracking Sgt. J.J. Sefton (Holden), who callously ...(100 of 362 words)