A crackerjack movie entertainment has been made from "Stalag 17"…. [It is] a humorous, suspenseful, disturbing and rousing pastime….

[This] film shows much more than the rompings of playful fellows that the ads might let you believe…. And the intensity of these rompings, which represent the normal spirits and grim despairs of healthy young men without incentives and without feminine companions, gives vitality to the film.

But the taut fascination of the offering is not in the comedy and the japes; it is in the unending conflicts among a campful of volatile men. (p. 2707)

[There] emerges something in this film that considerably underscores the drama. It is a cynical sort of display of effectiveness in a group dilemma of a selfish philosophy and approach. It isn't pretty, but it is realistic—another comment on the shabbiness of war….

["Stalag 17"] is certainly one of this year's most smashing films. (p...