Stalag 17

by Billy Wilder

Stalag 17 (1953), the riveting drama of a German prisoner-of-war camp, was adapted from the Broadway play directed by Jos Ferrer in 1951. Billy Wilder developed the play and made the film version more interesting in every way. Edwin Blum, a veteran screenwriter and friend of Wilder's, collaborated on the screenplay but found working with Wilder an agonizing experience. Wilder's mordant humor and misanthropy percolate throughout this bitter story of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520218574
• ISBN13: 9780520218574
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Cinematic Magic.

Billy Wilder adapted the stage play of STALAG 17 and improved it every way he could. This is a copy of the original screenplay for the movie so all of the scenes are here, including a few snippets that were deleted in the final version of the film. The story is brilliantly put together and it only takes about an hour to ninety minutes to read the whole thing, including the informative introduction. This is a wonderful example to explore for anyone who wants to write or is writing screenplays and it is also great for any movie buff or fan of Wilder.

Quite Simply- Brilliant

If you enjoyed just one episode of Hogans Heroes then you will love Stalag 17, which was the inspiration of that show. Although I must admit that I am not a big fan of the Animal character the script itself is darn close to perfection. Stalag 17 is one of the funniest films of all time. The plot is simple and is basically just several episodes in a german prisoner of war camp in world war II as the prisoners suspect that they have an informer in their midst. The scene where they find out who the informer actually is, is one the best scenes that you can watch or read. William Holden won the best actor oscar for his performance in this film and with material like this too work from it is not hard to understand why.