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Stalag 17 is a 1953 American war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen confined with 40,000 prisoners in a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp "somewhere on the Danube". Their compound holds 630 sergeants representing many different aircrew positions, but the film focuses on one particular barracks, where the men come to suspect that one of their number is an informant. The film was directed and produced by Billy Wilder, who with Edwin Blum adapted the screenplay from the Broadway play of the same name. The play was written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, based on their experiences as prisoners in Stalag 17B in Austria.
The film stars William Holden in an Oscar-winning performance, along with Don Taylor, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Peter Graves, Neville Brand, Richard Erdman, Michael Moore, Sig Ruman, and Otto Preminger. Strauss and Lembeck appeared in the original Broadway production.
Plot
In a German prisoner-of-war camp named Stalag 17, one of its compounds holds 630 American airmen (all of whom are sergeants) and is overseen by camp warden Oberst von Scherbach.
In December 1944, the men of Barracks 4—led by appointed barracks chief "Hoffy" Hoffman and security officer Frank Price—arrange for the escape of fellow airmen Manfredi and Johnson. The two are shot dead in the attempt, and the men believe they were betrayed by an informant. Suspicion falls on J.J. Sefton, an enterprising cynic who barters openly with the German guards for various luxuries. He also creates profitable ventures that distract from the mundanity of camp life, from organizing mouse races for gambling, to an improvised distillery for brewing alcohol, to a makeshift telescope to spy on the Russian women from a neighboring compound. Clarence "Cookie" Cook, who narrates the story, serves as Sefton's underling.
The men of Barracks 4 do their best to keep sane, which includes enduring the antics of barracks clowns "Animal" Kuzawa and Harry Shapiro and smuggling in a radio to listen in on war news. Their jovial supervisor, Feldwebel Schulz, secretly retrieves hidden messages from a hollow black queen on the chessboard, and straightens the looped cord of a dangling light bulb, which serves as a signal between himself and the informant. Just before Christmas, recently captured Lieutenant Dunbar is assigned to Barracks 4 until he can be sent to an officers' camp. Sgt. Bagradian, who accompanies Dunbar, reveals that Dunbar rigged a time bomb in transit and blew up a munitions train. Sefton recognizes Dunbar from officers' school and believes that he passed only because of his rich family, creating tension between them.
Schulz announces that an inspector from the Geneva Convention will arrive, and Sefton bribes the guards to let him spend the day with the Russian women. The radio is later confiscated by Schulz. Concluding that Sefton was rewarded for revealing the radio, the men confront him when he returns, but Sefton denies he was responsible. Von Scherbach interrupts to arrest Dunbar as a saboteur; the men blame Sefton again and brutally beat him.
The next day, the inspector from Geneva arrives with Red Cross parcels—including 2,000 ping-pong balls, which the prisoners use to create smoke bombs. The inspector is then told about Dunbar, and he warns von Scherbach that Dunbar cannot be convicted without proof, lest there be war crime trials. Von Scherbach hands Schulz a black queen to be delivered to the informant. During the Christmas Eve celebrations, Price stealthily switches out the black queen, reads the hidden message, and then resets the signal. Sefton, recovering from his beating, notices the signal afterwards and becomes suspicious. Price gets Bagradian to reveal the recipe of Dunbar's time bomb - a lit cigarette tucked into a matchbook. That night, an air-raid siren forces the men to evacuate. Sefton hides and witnesses Price speaking German to Schulz and demonstrating the time bomb as evidence against Dunbar.
On Christmas Day, the SS arrive to take Dunbar to Berlin. While Hoffy has Price guard Sefton (who is still believed to be the informant), he gathers the men to rescue Dunbar. A riot and an ignited smoke bomb distract the guards, and Dunbar is taken to hide in a latrine's water tower until nightfall. After von Scherbach threatens to raze the camp, the men of Barracks 4 decide that one of them must help Dunbar escape. Price volunteers, and Sefton finally accuses him of being a German spy. Sefton interrogates Price and reveals the messaging system he used; the men are convinced and Price tries to flee, but he is quickly restrained.
Anticipating a generous reward, Sefton decides to rescue Dunbar. He retrieves the lieutenant, and the prisoners throw Price out of the barracks with cans tied to his leg. Price attracts the spotlights of every guard tower and is gunned down; Sefton and Dunbar escape amidst the chaos. The prisoners return to their bunks, and Cookie whistles "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".
Cast
William Holden as J.J. Sefton
Don Taylor as Lieutenant James Dunbar
Otto Preminger as Colonel von Scherbach
Robert Strauss as Stanislas "Animal" Kuzawa
Harvey Lembeck as Harry Shapiro
Richard Erdman as "Hoffy" Hoffman
Peter Graves as Frank Price
Neville Brand as Duke
Michael Moore as Manfredi
Sig Ruman as Sergeant Johann Sebastian Schulz
Peter Baldwin as Johnson
Robinson Stone as Joey
Robert Shawley as "Blondie" Peterson
William Pierson as Marko the Mailman
Gil Stratton as Clarence Harvey "Cookie" Cook (narrator)
Jay Lawrence as Bagradian
Erwin Kalser as Geneva Man
Edmund Trzcinski as "Triz" Trzcinski
Ross Bagdasarian as Singing Prisoner of War (uncredited)
Paul Salata as Prisoner with Beard (uncredited)
Joe Ploski as German Guard (uncredited)[1]
Production
Original Broadway production
The film was adapted by Wilder and Edwin Blum from the Broadway play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, which was based on their experiences as prisoners in Stalag 17B in Austria. Trzcinski appears in the film as a prisoner.
The play was directed by José Ferrer and was the Broadway debut of John Ericson, as Sefton. It was presented first at the Edwin Burke Memorial Theater of The Lambs, a theatrical club, on March 11, 1951 (staged by the authors). It began its Broadway run in May 1951 and continued for 472 performances. The Sefton character was loosely based on Joe Palazzo, a flier in Trzcinski's prisoner-of-war barracks. The script was rewritten extensively by Wilder and Blum.
Casting
Both Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas were considered for the role of Sefton.[2]
Location
The prison camp set was built on the John Show Ranch in Woodland Hills, on the southwestern edge of the San Fernando Valley.[3] The shoot began in February 1952, during the rainy season in California, providing plenty of mud for the camp compound.[4] It is now the location of a meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Filming and release
The film was shot in chronological order, an unusual practice because that method is usually much more expensive and time-consuming. In a featurette released later, members of the cast said that they themselves did not know the identity of the informant until the last three days of shooting.
Peter Graves recalled that the film was held back from release for over a year because Paramount Pictures did not believe that anyone would be interested in seeing a film about prisoners of war. The 1953 release of American POWs from the Korean War led Paramount to release it on an exploitation angle.[5]
Reception
Box office
By January 1954, Stalag 17 had earned $3.3 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada.[6]
Critical reaction
Bosley Crowther praised the film, calling it "cracker-jack movie entertainment". He praised Wilder and Edwin Blum for having improved the play, and applauded William Holden's performance.[7] Harrison's Reports wrote, "Thanks to the brilliant handling of the subject matter by producer-director Billy Wilder, and to the fine acting of the entire cast, the picture has been fashioned into a first-rate entertainment".[8] William Brogdon of Variety felt "The raucous flavor will set well with male viewers and even the distaffers should find it acceptable entertainment most of the time. William Holden's name heads the good cast...although the lengthy two-hour running time makes for a booking awkwardness when it reaches the regular dual-bill situations in the general runs."[9] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote Wilder "preserved [the] essential humor and tragedy with no dulling of its corrosive edges, though he has cleaned it up in both language and situations. Lustiness has pretty much replaced bawdiness, and while the fun may not yet be all in the "good clean" class, it is at least expressed in the accepted and more palatable Hollywood medium of hard-boiled comedy."[10]
In 2006, film critic James Berardinelli stated, "among the 20th-century directors, few were more versatile than Billy Wilder".[11] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 91% rating based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The website's consensus states: "Stalag 17 survives the jump from stage to screen with flying colors, thanks to Billy Wilder's typically sterling direction and a darkly funny script."[12] On Metacritic it has a score of 84% based on reviews from 15 critics.[13]
Accolades
William Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. His acceptance speech is one of the shortest on record ("thank you, thank you"); the TV broadcast had a strict cutoff time, which forced Holden's quick remarks. The frustrated Holden personally paid for advertisements in the Hollywood trade publications to thank everyone he wanted to on Oscar night. He also remarked that he felt that either Burt Lancaster or Montgomery Clift should have won the Best Actor Oscar for From Here to Eternity instead of him. He is said to have felt he was given the award as consolation for not having previously won it for Sunset Boulevard.[citation needed]
Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Director Billy Wilder Nominated [14]
[15]
Best Actor William Holden Won
Best Supporting Actor Robert Strauss Nominated
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Billy Wilder Nominated [16]
National Board of Review Awards Top Ten Films 7th Place [17]
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor William Holden Nominated [18]
Writers Guild of America Awards Best Written American Comedy Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum Nominated [19]
In popular culture
The television series Hogan's Heroes (CBS, 1965–71) is based on a similar Stalag. Richard Erdman, who played Hoffy in Stalag 17, guest-starred on Hogan's Heroes as Walter Hobson, a reporter, who with Hogan's crew, is freed in the episode "No Names Please". Erdman is the only star of the movie to have guest-starred on Hogan's Heroes.
"Stalag 17" is a 1973 reggae riddim, composed by Ansell Collins and named after the film.
The film is parodied in the Ripping Yarns episode "Escape from Stalag Luft 112B" (1977).
An uncredited William Holden reprised the character of a cigar-chewing POW in the 1979 war movie Escape to Athena. Since he is seen only briefly, "Sefton" presumably made another successful escape while no one was looking.
The episode "Did You See The Sunrise?" (1982), of the television series Magnum, P.I., opens with Stalag 17 playing on the TV, as the main character, Thomas Magnum, is watching and remembering his childhood, and the enjoyment he had with the movie, only to grow up and experience his own wartime imprisonment.
In a 1995, season-three NYPD Blue episode entitled "Torah! Torah! Torah!", Stalag 17 was mentioned.
In the 2008–2015 television series The Penguins of Madagascar, two penguins named Manfredi and Johnson are referenced throughout the show, typically for the nature of their demise or a mistake they made. They actually appear alive in "The Penguin who Loved Me".[20] ******* Billy Wilder (/ˈwaɪldər/; German: [ˈvɪldɐ]; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-born filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards (among 21 nominations), a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards.
Wilder became a screenwriter while living in Berlin. The rise of the Nazi Party and antisemitism in Germany saw him move to Paris. He then moved to Hollywood in 1934, and had a major hit when he, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-nominated film Ninotchka (1939). Wilder established his directorial reputation and received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director with the film noir Double Indemnity (1944), based on the novel by James M Cain with a screenplay by Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Wilder won the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for The Lost Weekend (1945), which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.[1]
In the 1950s, Wilder directed and co-wrote a string of critically acclaimed films, including the Hollywood drama Sunset Boulevard (1950), for which he won his second screenplay Academy Award; Ace in the Hole (1951), Stalag 17 (1953) and Sabrina (1954).[2] Wilder directed and co-wrote three films in 1957: The Spirit of St. Louis, Love in the Afternoon and Witness for the Prosecution. During this period, Wilder also directed Marilyn Monroe in two films, The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959).[3] In 1960, Wilder co-wrote, directed and produced the critically acclaimed film The Apartment. It won Wilder Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.[4] Other notable films Wilder directed include One, Two, Three (1961), Irma la Douce (1963), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), The Fortune Cookie (1966) and Avanti! (1972).
Wilder received various honors for his distinguished career including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1986, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990, the National Medal of Arts in 1993 and the BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1995. He also received the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement and the Producers Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award.[5] Seven of his films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". ***** William Franklin Holden (born Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the television miniseries The Blue Knight (1973). Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954), Picnic (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969) and Network (1976). He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (1954–1958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema. **** Stalag 17
film by Wilder [1953]
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William Holden in Stalag 17 (1953), directed by Billy Wilder.
William Holden in Stalag 17 (1953), directed by Billy Wilder.
Stalag 17, American war film, released in 1953, that was directed by Billy Wilder and featured an Academy Award-winning performance by William Holden.
The film is set in a German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag 17, during World War II. It tracks the daily boredom and nighttime escape attempts of the resident U.S. airmen. The camp is run by a sadistic commandant, Oberst von Scherbach (played by Otto Preminger), whose orders are carried out by his avuncular but dutiful sergeant, Johann Sebastian Schulz (Sig Ruman). The leader of the POWs is a cynical loner, the wisecracking Sgt. J.J. Sefton (Holden), who callously bets on the chances of escaping POWs and barters with the German guards for various “luxuries,” such as soap and eggs. When two inmates are shot and killed by German guards who seemingly had an advance notice of their escape, the prisoners become convinced that Sefton is a Nazi informant, and they beat him. Sefton soon learns the identity of the real traitor: the barrack’s German-born, blond-haired, blue-eyed security chief, Sergeant Price (Peter Graves), whose English is impeccable and who appears to be the “all-American boy.” Price denies it, but, when he fails to answer a question correctly about the timing of the attack on Pearl Harbor, his cover is blown. The inmates throw Price into the courtyard with tin cans tied to his legs, and camp guards immediately shoot and kill him, thinking he is an inmate attempting to escape. During the commotion, Sefton and Lieut. James Dunbar (Don Taylor) make their own escape. Their successful breakout and the killing of Price lift the morale of the remaining POWs.
Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, with her dog, Toto, from the motion picture film The Wizard of Oz (1939); directed by Mervyn LeRay. (cinema, movies)
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Classic Closing Lines
Stalag 17 featured notable performances, especially by Preminger and Holden. The film was based on a Broadway play of the same name, written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, who drew on their personal experiences as prisoners of a stalag in Austria during the war. Comedic asides are plentiful in the script, which was cowritten by Wilder, and many laughs are provided by Robert Strauss (Sgt. “Animal” Stosh) and Harvey Lembeck (Sgt. Harry Shapiro), actors who had also appeared in the stage version. Stalag 17 inspired the TV series Hogan’s Heroes (1965–71).
Production notes and credits
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director and producer: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum
Music: Franz Waxman
Running time: 120 minutes
Cast
William Holden (Sgt. J.J. Sefton)
Don Taylor (Lieut. James Dunbar)
Otto Preminger (Oberst von Scherbach)
Robert Strauss (Sgt. “Animal” Stosh)
Peter Graves (Sergeant Price)
Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)
Lead actor* (William Holden)
Supporting actor (Robert Strauss)
Director
Lee Pfeiffer
William Holden
Table of Contents
Introduction
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William Holden in Stalag 17 (1953), directed by Billy Wilder.Sunset BoulevardBorn YesterdayThe Wild BunchBeatrice Straight and William Holden in Network (1976).scene from The Wild Bunch
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William Holden
American actor
Also known as: William Franklin Beedle, Jr.
Written and fact-checked by
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William Holden in Stalag 17 (1953), directed by Billy Wilder.
William Holden
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Category: Arts & Culture
Original Name: William Franklin Beedle, Jr.
Born: April 17, 1918, O’Fallon, Illinois, U.S.
Found Dead: November 16, 1981, Santa Monica, California
Awards And Honors: Academy Award (1954) Academy Award (1954): Actor in a Leading Role Emmy Award (1974): Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series
William Holden, original name William Franklin Beedle, Jr., (born April 17, 1918, O’Fallon, Illinois, U.S.—found dead November 16, 1981, Santa Monica, California), American film star who perfected the role of the cynic who acts heroically in spite of his scorn or pessimism.
Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. While attending Pasadena Junior College, he acted in local radio plays and became involved with the Pasadena Playhouse. He was discovered by a Paramount Pictures talent scout and given the more glamorous surname “Holden.” Drawing on his muscular build and good looks, the studio assigned him the lead in the boxing melodrama Golden Boy (1939). The role was a challenge for the inexperienced young actor, who was tutored by costar Barbara Stanwyck in the basics of performing before a camera.
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Columbia Pictures picked up half of his contract, and Holden alternated between the two studios, appearing in several forgettable movies before serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. His service included acting in training films. After the war, he continued to perform in what he referred to as “smiling Jim” parts. In later years, Holden bitterly resented the studios’ exploitation of his physical appearance at the expense of his development as an actor.
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday
Director Billy Wilder rescued Holden’s career by hiring him for the lead in Sunset Boulevard (1950). As Joe Gillis, the jaded screenwriter so desperate for a job that he becomes the gigolo of a faded silent-film star, Holden found his niche and turned in an Academy Award-nominated performance as the cynical leading man. He went on to produce his strongest body of work during the 1950s. He costarred with Judy Holliday in George Cukor’s comedy Born Yesterday (1950). His performance as the cynical Sergeant J.J. Sefton in a German prisoner-of-war camp in Stalag 17 (1953) earned him the best actor Oscar. Holden costarred with Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954) and with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in The Country Girl (1954), based on a play by Clifford Odets. He portrayed a heroic fighter-pilot in the Korean War drama The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) and a washed-up football player in Picnic (1955). Holden memorably played the escaped POW Shears in the classic The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
Beatrice Straight and William Holden in Network (1976).
Beatrice Straight and William Holden in Network (1976).
In later years Holden appeared in few films of quality. Disillusioned with Hollywood, he spent much of his time and money supporting conservation efforts in Africa. The roles that do stand out from his later career—those of Pike Bishop in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969), TV executive Max Schumacher in Network (1976; his last Oscar nomination), and hard-drinking film producer Tim Culley in Blake Edwards’s S.O.B. (1981; Holden’s final film)—captured a bit of Holden’s real-life bitterness and depression and added a tinge of melancholy to his screen image.
Holden’s death was especially unfortunate and probably quite unnecessary. Evidence suggests that after an evening of drinking, Holden slipped and fell, suffering a severe laceration to his forehead. He remained conscious for at least half an hour after the accident but did not realize the severity of his injury and did not make the phone call that would surely have saved his life. He subsequently passed out and bled to death; his body was discovered some four days later.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Pat Bauer.
Billy Wilder
Table of Contents
Introduction
Early life and work
Films of the 1940s
Films of the 1950s
Films of the 1960s
Last films
Legacy
References & Edit History
Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images
Billy WilderDouble Indemnity (1944)Sunset BoulevardSunset BoulevardStalag 17The Seven Year ItchThe Seven Year ItchWitness for the ProsecutionSome Like It HotSome Like It Hot
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Billy Wilder
American director and producer
Also known as: Samuel Wilder
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Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
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Category: Arts & Culture
Original Name: Samuel Wilder
Born: June 22, 1906, Sucha, Austria [now in Poland]
Died: March 27, 2002, Beverly Hills, California, U.S. (aged 95)
Awards And Honors: Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1988) Academy Award (1961) Academy Award (1951) Academy Award (1946)
Notable Works: “Double Indemnity” “Irma La Douce” “One, Two, Three” “Some Like It Hot” “Stalag 17” “Sunset Boulevard” “The Apartment” “The Fortune Cookie” “The Lost Weekend” “The Seven Year Itch” “Witness for the Prosecution”
Billy Wilder, original name Samuel Wilder, (born June 22, 1906, Sucha, Austria [now in Poland]—died March 27, 2002, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.), Austrian-born American motion-picture scenarist, director, and producer known for films that humorously treat subjects of controversy and offer biting indictments of hypocrisy in American life. His work often focused on subjects that had previously been considered unacceptable screen material, including alcoholism (The Lost Weekend, 1945), prisoner-of-war camps (Stalag 17, 1953), and prostitution (Irma La Douce, 1963). A number of his films, such as Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Apartment (1960), weighed the emptiness of modern life.
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Early life and work
Wilder (who was named Samuel but called Billy because of his mother’s affinity for William [“Buffalo Bill”] Cody) was raised in Vienna and attended the University of Vienna as a prelaw student. After a year he dropped out to work as a sports reporter for a Vienna newspaper. A major paper in Berlin hired him away in 1926 to cover the crime beat, experience that would serve him well in his subsequent career. Wilder earned his first screenwriting credit working on Edgar Ulmer and Robert Siodmak’s Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday; 1930).
More scripts for a variety of German and French films followed over the next four years, but when the Nazis took power in 1933, Wilder, like so many other Jews in the arts, fled. In Paris he codirected Mauvaise Graine (1934) with Alexander Esway before continuing on to the United States, after a brief period in Mexico.
Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).
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During Wilder’s first years in Hollywood, when he spoke little English, he roomed with expatriate German actor Peter Lorre and accumulated credits on modest scripts such as Music in the Air (1934) and The Lottery Lover (1935) by collaborating with writers who could translate his contributions. In 1937 Paramount assigned him to work with former New Yorker theatre critic Charles Brackett. After first collaborating on Ernst Lubitsch’s Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938), they wrote such romantic-comedy gems as Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight (1939), Lubitsch’s Ninotchka (1939), and Howard Hawks’s Ball of Fire (1941). Arguably Wilder’s most personal work during this period was Leisen’s Hold Back the Dawn (1941), a compelling drama about a suave European refugee (played by Charles Boyer) stranded in Mexico who uses his wiles to entice an American schoolteacher (Olivia de Havilland) into marriage so that he can gain entry into the United States.
Films of the 1940s
In 1942 Wilder and Brackett entered a new arrangement: Wilder directed, Brackett produced, and both wrote their subsequent projects, beginning with The Major and the Minor (1942), a clever farce in which a woman (Ginger Rogers) who masquerades as a 12-year-old to avoid paying full fare on a train becomes involved with an army officer (Ray Milland) who cannot quite figure why he is so attracted to a young girl.
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Double Indemnity (1944)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Wilder and Brackett’s next project, Five Graves to Cairo (1943), was a suspenseful tale of wartime espionage. It was followed by Double Indemnity (1944), one of the most searing of the early films noir and, in the eyes of many historians, the apotheosis of the genre. James M. Cain’s 1936 novella, on which the film is based, had been deemed too controversial for Hollywood’s Production Code at the time of its publication, but by 1944 standards had relaxed enough to allow depictions of the decidedly adult scenario it offered, and the adaptation by Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler was masterful. The genial Fred MacMurray, cast against type, played a jaded insurance salesman who conspires with the sexy wife of a prospective client (Barbara Stanwyck) to insure her husband, kill him, collect the money, and spend it together. The film—told in flashback with a voiceover—was nominated for an Academy Award, and Stanwyck received a nomination for best actress for her portrayal of the film’s icy, calculating femme fatale. Moreover, Wilder garnered the first of his seven Academy Award nominations for best director and another nomination for his and Chandler’s screenplay.
Wilder had arrived. He managed to equal the success of Double Indemnity with The Lost Weekend (1945), a stark, harrowing portrait of one man’s battle with alcoholism. Milland gave a career-defining performance as an aspiring writer whose weekend drinking binge nearly costs him his life. Both critics and audiences embraced this powerful cautionary tale, which won the Academy Award as best picture, while Milland won for best actor, Wilder won as best director, and Wilder and Brackett won for their screenplay.
Although Wilder was arguably the hottest director in Hollywood, he put his film career on hiatus for three years to join the army, serving as a colonel in the Psychological Warfare Division in occupied Berlin. His first movie after his military service was The Emperor Waltz (1948), a slight musical set in Austria that starred Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine. Much more substantial was A Foreign Affair (1948), a cynical romantic comedy set in occupied Berlin that illuminated the workings of the post-World War II U.S. armed services with a candour that was unique for its day. Jean Arthur starred as a prim congresswoman on a fact-finding mission, and John Lund was the calculating army captain who tries to protect his well-paid mistress (Marlene Dietrich, in one of her last significant screen roles).
Films of the 1950s of Billy Wilder
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Before splitting, apparently without rancour, Brackett and Wilder collaborated on one more film, which may have been their best. Sunset Boulevard (1950) was the caustic tale of an out-of-work screenwriter (William Holden) who agrees to move in with former silent-film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), an eccentric recluse who wants him to write her comeback vehicle. The story is narrated by the writer’s corpse, which is seen floating facedown in a swimming pool in the film’s indelible opening scene. Wilder and Brackett’s storytelling prowess is on full display in what many critics consider to be the ultimate Hollywood story. Holden gave the first important performance of his career as the kept writer who despises himself for his willingness to sell out even as he pities his self-deluded benefactress. Also notable is director Erich von Stroheim’s portrayal of Norma’s butler, ex-husband, and former director. (Von Stroheim actually directed Swanson in the uncompleted silent Queen Kelly, a segment of which is shown in Sunset Boulevard.) Swanson’s deliberately over-the-top performance as the tragic Norma earned her an Academy Award nomination as best actress. Wilder and the film were also nominated for Academy Awards; the screenplay by Wilder, Brackett, and D.M. Marshman, Jr., won.
Ace in the Hole (originally titled The Big Carnival; 1951) was Wilder’s first endeavour as both producer and director, and it would prove to be his first box-office failure. This acerbic drama, a corrosive account of a tabloid reporter (Kirk Douglas) who amorally manipulates a mining tragedy in New Mexico to artificially extend its run on the front pages, was viewed by some critics as heavy-handed. Nevertheless, its screenplay (by Wilder, Lesser Samuels, and Walter Newman) was nominated for an Academy Award.
Stalag 17
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 (1953) was far more successful on every front. It was based on a Broadway play about the dynamics of a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that had been written by two former internees and starred Holden as a clever but reviled bunkhouse entrepreneur who is accused of having leaked information to the camp commandant (Otto Preminger). The black humour and suspense are adroitly handled by Wilder, who again was nominated for an Academy Award, but the focus is firmly on Holden, who delivered an Academy Award-winning performance (best actor).
Samuel Taylor’s play Sabrina Fair provided the source material for the May-December romantic comedy Sabrina (1954), a box-office hit that left some critics disappointed by its lack of Wilder’s characteristic acerbic bite. Holden and Humphrey Bogart portrayed a pair of wealthy brothers with inimical lifestyles who both fall for their chauffeur’s daughter (Audrey Hepburn) when she returns from a Continental makeover. Wilder, Hepburn, and the screenplay were all nominated for Academy Awards.
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The screenplay for The Seven Year Itch (1955) was a collaboration between Wilder and George Axelrod, the author of the play on which the film was based. Tom Ewell, reprising the role he had played onstage, starred as a middle-aged Manhattan book-publishing executive whose wife and son are away for the summer, leaving him free to fantasize about his seductive new upstairs neighbour (Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her popularity as a sex symbol). Wilder’s next project, The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), would be the only biographical film that he would ever make. James Stewart played famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, whose 1927 New York-to-Paris solo flight is the centrepiece around which Wilder constructed a first-rate story.
With Love in the Afternoon (1957), Wilder began working with a new writing partner, I.A.L. Diamond, though this first collaboration between them is generally held to be one of their lesser efforts. This homage to Lubitsch’s sophisticated comedies, based on the novel Ariane by Claude Anet, featured an aging Gary Cooper as an American playboy living in Paris who becomes infatuated with a young cellist (Hepburn) and unwittingly hires her private-eye father (Maurice Chevalier) to investigate her.
Witness for the Prosecution
Witness for the Prosecution
Wilder’s third film of the year, Witness for the Prosecution (1957), was a brilliantly structured courtroom drama based on a long-running play by Agatha Christie. Tyrone Power played a murder suspect who persuades an ailing but able barrister (Charles Laughton) to defend him. The defendant’s loyal but inscrutable wife (Dietrich, in a film-stealing performance) is his only alibi, and the plot turns on her flip-flopping testimony. Laughton (best actor), Elsa Lanchester (best supporting actress), Wilder (best director), and the film itself were all nominated for Academy Awards.
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Wilder’s next film, Some Like It Hot (1959), not only was one of the decade’s most accomplished comedies but came to be regarded as among the best comedies in the history of American film. This riotous sex farce (written with Diamond) starred Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as Chicago musicians on the run from Prohibition-era gangsters after accidentally witnessing the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Joe (Curtis) and Jerry (Lemmon) don women’s clothes to join an all-woman band bound for a performance in Florida. The rest of the film alternates between Joe’s efforts to woo the band’s luscious but vulnerable singer (Monroe) while disguised as a yachtsman and Jerry’s gradual surrender to his feminine side. Some Like It Hot was a box-office smash, the biggest hit of Monroe’s career, and earned Lemmon an Academy Award nomination for best actor, Wilder yet another nomination for best director, and Wilder and Diamond a nomination for best screenplay.
Films of the 1960s of Billy Wilder
The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment
Just as daring in its way was The Apartment (1960), in which Lemmon played a milquetoast business executive who, hoping for a promotion, lets his tyrannical boss (MacMurray, cast against type, again with splendid results) use his apartment to conduct an extramarital affair with neurotic elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) and then comes to her rescue (falling in love with her in the process) when she tries to commit suicide. Bold for its time, this moralistic tale won the Academy Award for best picture. Wilder also won the awards for best director and best screenplay (with Diamond).
Irma La Douce
Irma La Douce
One, Two, Three (1961) was a frenetic Cold War farce that was shot on location in Germany (as the Berlin Wall was being constructed) and starred James Cagney as a Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin whose job is on the line when his boss’s visiting daughter (Pamela Tiffin) falls for and marries a bohemian East German communist (Horst Buchholz). One, Two, Three was not a hit with contemporary audiences (though appreciation of it grew as the Cold War faded into history), but Wilder’s next film, Irma La Douce (1963), was. The nonmusical adaptation of a French (and later Broadway) musical by Alexandre Breffort and Marguerite Monnot starred MacLaine and Lemmon as, respectively, a philosophical Parisian prostitute and the self-righteous constable who tries to shut down her operation. MacLaine received an Academy Award nomination as best actress for her performance.
The provocative Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) was reviled by contemporary critics, condemned by the Legion of Decency, and failed at the box-office. Although film historians have had a more mixed response, Kiss Me, Stupid is generally thought to represent the nadir of Wilder’s career. Ray Walston played a small-town songwriter whose attempt to sell his songs to an egotistical pop singer (Dean Martin) includes offering up the favours of a prostitute (Kim Novak) whom he presents as his wife.
The Fortune Cookie
The Fortune Cookie
Wilder and Diamond bounced back with one of their tartest comedies, The Fortune Cookie (1966). Lemmon played a television cameraman who is accidentally trampled by a running back while covering a gridiron football game. Although the cameraman’s injuries are minor, he allows his brother-in-law (Walter Matthau), an ambulance-chasing lawyer referred to by his peers as Whiplash Willie, to talk him into suing the Cleveland Browns for a million dollars. Matthau won a best supporting actor Academy Award, and the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award.
Empty movie theater and blank screen (theatre, motion pictures, cinema).
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Last films
After being absent from the screen for the next four years, Wilder returned in 1970 with The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (coscripted with Diamond), a generally underrated revisionist take on the fictional detective. Avanti! (1972) followed and starred Lemmon as a millionaire who travels to Italy to bury his father only to fall in love with the daughter (Juliet Mills) of his father’s mistress. Like The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, it did not fare well commercially, though, arguably, this was a function not of any deficiency in the work itself but rather of Wilder’s being out of step with the times. Contemporary critics were inclined to find fault with the gentle patiently paced romantic comedy, but later critics hailed it as an underappreciated gem.
Audiences did turn out to see Lemmon and Matthau paired in The Front Page (1974), but few critics thought Wilder’s remake of the Ben Hecht–Charles MacArthur play was the equal of Lewis Milestone’s 1931 original or Howard Hawks’s version, His Girl Friday (1940). More interesting but little seen was the German-financed Fedora (1978), in which Holden played a producer who tries to coax a Greta Garbo-like actress (Martha Keller) out of retirement. Matthau and Lemmon were teamed by Wilder one last time in his final film, Buddy Buddy (1981), adapted by Wilder and Diamond from the French farce L’Emmerdeur (A Pain in the A—; 1973).
Legacy
Wilder has often been characterized as the cynical purveyor of savage humour, but it is probably more accurate to see his cinematic art as a mixture of cynicism and romanticism. Richard Griffith, the curator of the Museum of Modern Art’s Film Library, wrote of Wilder, “Whether his scene is the fleshpots of Long Island, the deceptive blandness of corporate life, or a desolate cave in a Western desert, there is visible behind his story-lines what has to be called a theme: the bewilderment of us all who, living in the midst of plenty and under the shadow of doomsday, must still make choices, and make them without guidance, flying blind.”
During his career, Wilder was nominated for 20 Academy Awards and won six. At the 1988 Academy Awards, he was given the Irving G. Thalberg Award for a consistently high quality of motion-picture production, having already received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute (AFI) in 1986. Four of his films—Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, Double Indemnity, and The Apartment—appeared on the AFI’s list of Top 100 films, in both the list’s original (1998) and 10th-anniversary (2007) incarnations.. ebay6176/214