Thursday, November 13, 2008

You Otto See It: Stalag 17 (1953)

Gutten Morgen, Sergeants. Nasty weather we're having, eh? And I so much hoped we could give you a white Christmas... just like the ones you used to know...


This is my last entry before the lecture, which is today. This project was a lot of fun and I'm a little sad it's almost over. My next post will be what I learned from Kevin's lecture, in the same style from the one I did last year for Elia Kazan. I still have a few more Otto Preminger films on my Netflix queue, and I can post about them in the future, but for now this series is complete.

I have one big, gigantic, enormous reason why you Otto see Stalag 17 (1953). Because Otto Preminger is in it! He plays Oberst von Sherbach, the Kommondant of a German prisoner of war camp. Preminger did so well with his Nazi type roles that it became part of his image, even though he was Jewish and very anti-Nazi. He also played Nazis in The Pied Piper (1942), Margin for Error (1943), They Got Me Covered (1943) and Where Do We Go From Here (1945) (I'm not 100% sure on the last one). Mind you, Stalag 17 is not directed or produced by Otto Preminger. This is Billy Wilder's film. But after watching so many Preminger-directed films, it was a nice change to see him acting in one.


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