Stalag 17
Dir: Billy Wilder
1953
*****
A comedy thriller set in a POW camp? Only the mighty Billy Wilder could pull off such an idea. As funny as the film is, and it is very funny, it never once takes away how hard the conditions were in the POW camps during the Second World War. It's a bit of an Agatha Christie 'Who done it', with deadpan satire (provided by the great William Holden) with a splash of humour that I can only compare to Robert Altman's MASH, a film that was very obviously inspired by it. The thriller element of the film is handled perfectly, the espionage and hidden messages within the POW camp were fascinating and I still hadn't guessed who the villain was until it was reveled. The performances are wonderful, William Holden is superb but the supporting cast of comedians is where the real strength lies. The Hitler impersonation scene is one of the funniest moments in cinema ever made, it's hard to imagine that some of the actors would have fought in the war and that the war only ended 9 years before the film was released. One of the most intelligent but funny war films of all time.