Editing Stalag 17 (section)

==Production==
===Original Broadway production===
The film was adapted by Wilder and Edwin Blum from the Broadway play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, which was based on their experiences as prisoners in Stalag 17B in Austria. Trzcinski appears in the film as a prisoner. The Sefton character was loosely based on Joe Palazzo, a flyer in Trzcinski's prisoner-of-war barracks.

The play was produced and directed by [[José Ferrer]]. It was first presented at the [[Edwin Burke Memorial Theater]] of [[The Lambs]], a theatrical club, on March 11, 1951 (staged by the authors). It began its Broadway run on May 8, 1951, at the [[48th Street Theatre]] and continued for 472 performances, closing on June 21, 1952. Among the notable actors in the cast, [[John Ericson]] made his Broadway debut as Sefton, as did [[Mark Roberts (actor)|Mark Roberts]] as Dunbar and [[Allan Melvin]] as Reed. Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, and William Pierson performed the same roles in the play that they later portrayed in the film.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://playbill.com/productions/stalag-17-broadway-48th-street-theatre-1951 |title=Stalag 17 (Broadway, 48th Street Theatre, 1951 |year=2012 |publication-date=1951 |work=[[Playbill]] |access-date=October 14, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/stalag-17-1944 |title=Stalag 17 — Broadway Play — Original |website=[[Internet Broadway Database|IBDB]] |publisher=[[The Broadway League]] |access-date=October 14, 2024}}</ref>

===Casting===
Both [[Charlton Heston]] and [[Kirk Douglas]] were considered for the role of Sefton.<ref name="Capua2009">{{Cite book |last=Capua |first=Michelangelo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uMp6ACb74UkC&pg=PA65 |title=William Holden: A Biography |date=October 9, 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5550-8 |page=65}}</ref>

===Location===
The prison camp set was built on the John Show Ranch in [[Woodland Hills, California|Woodland Hills]], on the southwestern edge of the [[San Fernando Valley]].<ref name="Rowan">{{Cite book |last=Rowan |first=Terry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdvGBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA443 |title=World War II Goes to the Movies & Television Guide |publisher=Lulu.com |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-105-58602-6 |page=443}}</ref> The shoot began in February 1952, during the rainy season in California, providing plenty of mud for the camp compound.<ref name="Phillips2010">{{Cite book |last=Phillips |first=Gene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5uohNoRFkwIC&pg=PT163 |title=Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder |date=February 5, 2010 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-7367-2 |page=163}}</ref> It is now the location of a [[meetinghouse]] of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].

===Filming and release===
The film was shot in chronological order, an unusual practice because that method is usually much more expensive and time-consuming. In a [[featurette]] released later, members of the cast said that they themselves did not know the identity of the informant until the last three days of shooting.

Peter Graves recalled that the film was held back from release for over a year because Paramount Pictures did not believe that anyone would be interested in seeing a film about prisoners of war. The 1953 release of American POWs from the [[Korean War]] led Paramount to release it on an [[exploitation film|exploitation]] angle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Tom |title=Earth Vs. the Sci-fi Filmmakers: 20 Interviews |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-786-42210-4 |page=146 |chapter=Peter Graves Interview}}</ref>