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 TOWERING INFERNO (1974)

THE TOWERING INFERNO never got quite as epic as the posters promised, but it is a fun ride and the 165-minute run time flies by.

Paul Newman is the architect for a new 138 floor skyscraper in San Francisco.  The building is his baby, he knows it inside and out, but then right before the big grand opening with a party in the Promenade Room on the top floor, he discovers that some of the electrical wiring he demanded was replaced with shoddy second-rate stuff that can't withstand the awesome load of such an awesome building!  Oh shit.  Naturally, a fire breaks out on the 81st floor.  This traps the partiers on the 135 floor, so now at the 43-minute mark enters badass fire chief Steve McQueen to do what bad ass fire chiefs do: fight fires, talk sternly, save lives left and right, tie himself to a pole, stare down an elevator shaft, ride on a wire underneath a helicopter, talk to O.J. Simpson without suffering a 14 cm-long (5.5 inches) gash across their throat, set off massive explosions with C4, get drenched in water, pat people on the shoulder and repeatedly bitch at Paul Newman for building skyscrapers too damn tall!  When will you ever learn?!!

Out of all the 1970's disaster movies I've seen, THE TOWERING INFERNO is probably the most exciting.  And the one I revisit the most.  Quick pace, good special effects, above average acting, the term "breeches buoy" used a lot, McQueen barking orders all over the place, control panels full of lights, McQueen and Newman with the exact same amount of lines, C4, awesome supporting cast.

Required viewing for fans of vintage disaster movies. I'd absolutely love to see a serious reboot of this story. Even an animated version that tries to match that badass poster artwork would be awesome!