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Neville Brand, Harvey Lembeck, Peter Graves, and Otto Preminger, the film tells
the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner
of war (POW) camp who come to suspect that there is an in for mant among them.
Background
Sgts. Donald Bevan (1920–2013) and Edmund Trzcinski (1921–1996) were two
of the thousands of American airmen shot down over Germany during World
War II. Both men ended up as “Kriegies” (short for Kriegsgefangener, i.e., Ger-
man for POW) at Stalag 17, a POW camp at Krems- Gneixendorf in Austria.
During their imprisonment Bevan and Trzcinski wrote St a lag 17, a three- act play
based on their Kriegie experiences that they actually presented at the camp.
Actor- director José Ferrer put the play on Broadway for a highly successful
year- long run at the 48th Street Theatre (8 May 1951–21 June 1952; 472 per for-
mances), produced by Richard Condon and starring John Ericson as Sgt. J. J.
Sefton. Film director Billy Wilder saw the play on Broadway, deci ded to purchase
the rights for $50,000 of his own money, and hired screenwriter Edwin Blum to
help him adapt it into a film script. In the transition from stage to screen Wilder
and Blum altered the work considerably, making it funnier, adding Oberst von
Scherbach, a cheerfully sadistic camp commandant, and transforming Sefton
from a troubled loner into a selfish, cynical hustler disliked and distrusted by the
other prisoners. The role was originally meant for Charlton Heston but as Sefton
became more dislikeable, Heston bowed out. Kirk Douglas was offered the part
but turned it down, to his lasting regret. Wilder’s third choice, William Holden,
reluctantly took on the role. Four actors from the Broadway play— Robert Straus,
Harvey Lembeck, Robert Shawley, and William Pierson— were hired to reprise
their roles in the movie version, and director Otto Preminger signed on to play
von Scherbach. Extras allegedly included 14 former POWs, 7 of whom had been
interned at Stalag 17, among them co- playwright Edmund Trzcinski, who was
given a small speaking part.
Production
After a week of rehearsals, exterior scenes were shot during the first two weeks of
February 1952 at a realistic seven- acre replica of the camp built at the John H. Show
Ranch in present- day Woodland Hills, 20 miles northwest of Hollywood, an elab-
orate set complete with rows of prisoners’ huts, guard towers, high fences topped
with barbed wire, and an administration building. Thereafter, all the interior shots
were filmed in a simulated barrack room on a Paramount sound stage. Wilder shot
the film in sequence and kept the identity of the undercover German in for mant
secret from most of the cast until the end, in order to elicit more au then tic per for-
mances. He also chose not to open up the scenario beyond the confines of the
camp. As he told an interviewer, “I wanted the audience to experience the con-
finement of the prisoners and therefore shot no scenes outside of the prison com-
pound” (Horton, 2001, p. 106). The 47- day shoot wrapped on 29 March 1952 and
ended up costing $1.66 million— about 21 percent over the projected bud get,
money later recouped through brisk ticket sales.