STALAG 17 (1953)

Set in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany STALAG 17 tells the story of a group of American soldiers who are constantly working on a way to escape.  The film opens with two soldiers making their way through a tunnel a bunch of the guys have been working on.  They get all the way to the other side of the fence only to find guards waiting on them...guns blazing.  How did the guards find out about the tunnel?  It was top secret.  There's gotta be a rat in the barracks.  But who could it be?  It's probably Sefton (William Holden).  That piece of shit is always making deals with the guards to look the other way on all of his schemes.  Motherfucker has more cigarettes than Philip Morris himself!  And so it begins.  The men turn on Holden, thinking he's to stooge, but he's not.  Now, under constant surveillance and ass-kickings, Holden has to figure out who the rat is himself.

STALAG 17 is nearly a great film.  The thing that holds it back from being a great film is the unneeded comedic elements.  I understand that Billy Wilder always enjoyed mixing genres, but watching this film now the comedic parts are so horribly dated(?) and unfunny that they're almost painful to watch. The tension's going along good when suddenly you got two morons singing, dancing and slapping a guard in the face with a wet paint brush.  I guess audiences liked it though since Robert Struss actually got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his ridiculous performance!  Holden ended up winning the Oscar for Best Actor, but I think it should have gone to Montgomery Clift for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY instead.

Minus the "funny" parts STALAG 17 is an excellent film.  Strong cast, great looking sets, compelling story with lots of tension.  Definitely worth a watch.

THE APARTMENT (1960)

Office worker Jack Lemmon has an apartment that he allows his superiors at work to use as a fuck shack, remember this still is in the day of hotel detectives. He hopes all of this trouble will get him a promotion. It does, but it also plays hell with his personal life, especially when he finds out that his slimy boss (Fred MacMurray) has been droppin' absent-minded Flubber loads all over the girl he has a crush on in his own bed!  What a horrible life. Lemmon has practically sold his soul to Greed, but despite all this he's still secretly in love with the girl.  Jesus Christ!

The script by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is brilliant and the performances by everybody, especially Lemmon and MacMurray, are outstanding, but yet I don't think this film should have beaten out PSYCHO for the Best Picture Academy Award, not that PSYCHO was even nominated! THE APARTMENT is an excellent film and even after numerous watches I still love it, but PSYCHO is just legendary.

Touching performance by Lemmon, strong script with some excellent dialogue, beautiful b&w photography, Fred MacMurray in a darker role and notable for it's openness about suicide and adultery.  Highly recommended.

Ray Walston!