Stalag 17 is on TCM tonight.

[AlCzervik]

best pow movie ever.
http://www.tcmdb.com/title/title.jsp?stid=4237

[cloudbase]

1. One of my favorites.

Too bad Peter Graves is whoring for an insurance company now.

[AlCzervik]

2. and that has what exactly to do with the movie?

[LostinVA]

4. Nothing

:eyes:

[LostinVA]

3. LOVE that movie!

William Holden was terrific.

[AlCzervik]

5. i thought the dialog was ahead of it's time, just a great movie.

Holden was awesome, the whole cast had great chemistry.

[LostinVA]

6. Agreed -- the acting and dialogue wasn't as "cheesy" as many movies then

[WolverineDG]

7. Possible SPOILER My uncle was a POW & held by the Nazis

He said that "Stalag 17" came the closest of all the WWII movies to show what life in a POW camp was really like. I don't want to spoil the movie, but my uncle & his buddies hid their radio in a Red Cross kit. The Nazis always found their tunnels, but never their radio, because they never checked the kit of the snitch.

dg

[LostinVA]

8. ............

The snitch didn't tell on them for doing it?

[WolverineDG]

9. .....

Nope, always a fake snitch. My uncle knew German (his parents came over from Germany shortly before WW1), so he could tell when they were getting antsy about the radio. Someone would "fess up" & say he knew where the radio was & who had it. So, they'd all be made to line up in formation with their kits & the snitch would point to one of them & say "the radio is in his kit." Kit would be searched, they'd come up with nothing. So, the snitch would point to the next person in line, & so on until everyone's kit had been searched, except for the kit held by the snitch! True story. For whatever reason, they never caught on.

dg

[LostinVA]

10. Very interesting!

Thanks -- I'm a WWII buff, so I like stories like that.

My dad's father fought in Europe during the Battle of the bulge, my other GF in the Pacific with the Navy. My GGF actually landed at Normandy as a 54-year-old Army cook.

[Joe Fields]

11. I loved the part where he struck a match on Neville Brand's face...

and Neville Brand liked it!

[pokerfan]

12. I'm partial to the Great Escape myself

but I will usually watch Stalag 17 if it's on. Holden certainly deserved his Oscar.

Interesting piece of trivia regarding The Great Escape: Donald Pleasence had actually been a World War II prisoner of war. When he kindly offered advice to the film's director John Sturges, he was politely asked to keep his "opinions" to himself. Later, when another star from the film informed John Sturges that Pleasence had actually been a RAF Officer in a World War II German POW Stalag camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.

The real Great Escape:
http://www.historyinfilm.com/escape/real1.htm