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.

DIRTY DANCING (1987)

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

For as old as it is DIRTY DANCING has held up remarkably well.  I guess it has to do with the 1963 setting.  During the summer of 1963, the Houseman family (mom, dad, two late-20's teenage daughters) go a for a summer vacation up at a Catskill Mountains resort.  The resort is geared more towards the older crowd, so younger daughter "Baby" is bored.  That is until she discovers some of the staff secretly "dirty dancing" over in their private quarters.  The initial display of dirty dancing is pretty much just vertical, clothed dry-humping, but later when Baby is convinced to substitute for a sick dancer at a dance performance at another resort, the dancing is pretty subdued.  Even in their private time we never get to see Baby truly dirty dancing like we saw at the beginning.  Although I guess the "dirty" in dirty dancing simply refers to Rock N' Roll.

Lack of dirty dancing aside, DIRTY DANCING is still a fun film.  The quality of the filmmaking is better than I expected and I really got into the relationship of Baby and the resorts number one dancing stud, Johnny Castle.  It's easy to see why this film was so popular upon its initial release.  Great music (I loved the Mickey & Sylvia - "Love Is Strange" scene), good pace, nice photography, Patrick Swayze looking dreamy as fuck, an illegal abortion, Jennifer Grey looking properly nerdy, but then blossoming and becoming more confident in her own sexuality, strong acting (especially by Jerry Orbach), jean shorts, classic cars, beautiful scenery. Now I want to know if Baby and Johnny stayed together?  As much as I would like for them to, I think that after that summer they drifted apart, mainly for the reasons Johnny stated earlier: they come from different walks of life.  Or maybe he joined her in the Peace Corps and they taught dancing.  Johnny and Baby dancing to "I Can't Help Myself" by The Four Tops, smiling while looking into each other eyes, on the an African savanna with the sun going down behind them, surrounded by dozens of smiling little faces. Yeah, I think I'll go with that.

Prequel - Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)