Stalag 17 - Plot

Plot

Stalag 17 begins on "the longest night of the year" in 1944 in a Luftwaffe prisoner-of-war camp located somewhere along the Danube River. The story of a Nazi spy in Barracks Four is narrated by Clarence Harvey "Cookie" Cook (Gil Stratton). The camp holds Poles, Czechs, Russian females and in the American compound 640 sergeants, enlisted men from bomber crews, gunners, radiomen and flight engineers.

Prisoners of War Manfredi and Johnson try to escape through a tunnel the inmates have dug under the barbed wire. They are immediately shot by waiting prison guards when they emerge outside the fence. The other prisoners conclude that one of their own must have informed the Germans of the escape attempt, and suspicion falls on Sefton (William Holden), a cynical and somewhat antisocial prisoner who barters openly with the German guards for eggs, silk stockings, blankets and other luxuries. He also organizes mouse races and various other profitable enterprises that net him his hoard of "luxuries." The other prisoners are suspicious of his fraternization with the enemy, though envious of his dealmaking success — for instance, he wins a large number of cigarettes (he only smokes cigars) from the other prisoners by betting against Manfredi's and Johnson's successful escape, then trades the cigarettes to the Germans for an egg the next morning.

Sefton's tells the men it is foolish to try to escape. He is not seeking "fruit salad" (a common World War Two term for the colorful ribbons.) He continues, "what if you escape, make it back to the United States, they ship you to the Pacific, you're shot down again, this time you're in a Japanese Prison camp."

The lives of the prisoners are depicted: they receive mail, eat terrible food, wash in the latrine sinks, and collectively do their best to keep sane and defy the camp's cruel and ruthless commandant, Oberst von Scherbach (Otto Preminger). They use a clandestine radio, smuggled from barracks to barracks throughout the entire camp, to pick up the BBC and the war news. (The antenna is their volleyball net.) Their German guard, Feldwebel Schulz (Sig Ruman), confiscates the radio—another success for the "stoolie".

Humor is seen in "Animal" Kasava's infatuation with movie actress, Betty Grable. He suffers from depression when he learns Betty has married bandleader Harry James. Harry "Sugar Lips" Shapiro gets six letters at mail call, and makes Animal think they are from women. When Kasava sees a finance company letterhead, Harry admits they repossessed his Plymouth.

Sefton bribes the guards to let him spend the day in the women's barracks in the Russian section of the camp. The other prisoners spot him through Sefton's own telescope (he had earlier charged each of them a fee in cigarettes for a brief glimpse of the women's shower area), and conclude that this is his reward for having informed the Germans about the radio. When he returns he is accused of being a spy. At that moment von Scherbach pays a visit to the barracks to apprehend new prisoner, Lieutenant James Schuyler Dunbar (Don Taylor), who had previously told the other prisoners that he had blown up a German ammunition train while he was being transported to the camp. Sefton knows Dunbar comes from a wealthy Boston family. Sefton washed out of pilot training in the class from which Dunbar graduated. Sefton feels Dunbar was commissioned because of his family's money. The men are convinced that Sefton divulged Dunbar's act of sabotage to the Germans, and they viciously beat Sefton, after which he is ostracized. Sefton then decides to investigate and uncover the identity of the spy in order to clear his name. Eventually he remains in the barracks during a fake air raid and successfully discovers the identity of the spy, the barracks security chief, Price (Peter Graves), whom Sefton overhears conversing with Schulz in German and divulging the means by which Dunbar destroyed the ammunition train.

Sefton divulges the theory to his only friend in the camp, Cookie. He points out that the stoolie may not be an American traitor at all but a German spy posing as an American to ferret out information. If he exposes Price, and proves he is the real stoolie, the Germans would simply remove him and put him in another camp.

On Christmas Day the men find out that SS men are coming to take Dunbar to Berlin for interrogation. The entire camp creates a distraction and Dunbar is freed and hidden. Nobody but the compound chief Hoffy (Richard Erdman) knows of Dunbar's whereabouts, and he refuses to divulge the information to anybody, even the supposedly trustworthy Price. Dunbar is thus successfully kept from the Germans despite extensive search efforts. After von Scherbach threatens to raze the camp to find Dunbar, the men decide one of them must help Dunbar escape. Price volunteers for the job, and when he appears to have convinced the other prisoners to let him do it, Sefton reveals him as the spy. After accusing Price, Sefton asks him "When was Pearl Harbor?" Price knows the date, but Sefton traps him by quickly asking what time he heard the news. Without thinking, Price betrays himself by answering 6 p.m. — the correct time of the attack in Berlin, Germany, and not Cleveland, Ohio where he claims to have come from. After that, Sefton reaches into Price's jacket pocket and extracts the "mailbox" used to exchange messages with the Germans, a hollowed-out black chess queen.

With his fellow POWs convinced of Price's guilt, Sefton decides to take Dunbar out of the camp himself. First, because he likes the odds of escape, and second, for the reward he can expect from Dunbar's wealthy family. The men give Sefton enough time to get Dunbar out of his hiding place (the water tower above one of the camp latrines) then throw Price out into the yard with tin cans tied to his legs. The ruse works: Price is killed in a hail of bullets (to the later consternation of von Scherbach and Schulz) by camp guards who believe him to be Dunbar or one of the other prisoners, creating a distraction that allows Sefton and Dunbar to cut through the barbed wire and make their escape. Everyone begins to wonder if Sefton or Dunbar will ever make it out of Germany alive. Animal says, "Maybe he just wanted to steal our wire cutters. You ever think of that? " The film ends with Cookie whistling "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again."