Can we talk?

Stalag 17

    I'm a sucker for old black and white movies. My ex-husband couldn't stand to watch anything not in color. I think they're more artistic, more contrast and shading.

  Anyway, today I stumbled on an old movie from 1953, starring William Holden. I really didn't mean to watch it. I was having coffee and wanted to sit and rest before leaving the house on errands. I got hooked immediately, because it reminded me of Hogan's Heroes, with obvious differences. I ended up watching the whole thing and skipping some of the errands. I was spellbound and couldn't leave it.

    First, the prisoners were all Air-Force. There was a good-natured Sargent Schultz, who found Americans amusing. However, he was slim and conniving, unlike the comedy from the late 60's, now on TV Land occasionally. There was a commandant, played by Otto Preminger, with the perfect record, who would not stand for any escape from his prison camp. He looked foolish, but always held a more evil role than the TV counterpart. The movie had comedic lines and characters, but a very serious story. It's comedy was not slapstick or laughable. as in Hogan's Heroes.The movie had a more realistic look at the ways prisoners of war were treated. We can accept that a film of that era would sanitize the conditions somewhat. (The viewer should be careful not to confuse POW camps with concentration camps. The Geneva Convention did not apply to the latter.)

    Hogan's Heroes took roles from the movie and adapted them, even combined a few. For example, the cook became a little French guy, a lady's man. Schultz became more inept and innocent. The camp commandant was also dummied down to become Colonel Klink, although the speech and personal appearance remained similar.

    There was no Hogan in the movie, but two men were combined, I believe, to become Hogan. In the movie, a skinny William Holden played a scrounger, an entrepreneur, capable of wheeling and dealing with prisoners and guards alike for his own personal gain. Holden played the smart one who figured out their big mystery and saved the day. There was also a barrack's chief, all business, legit and fair. These two were combined to create Captain Hogan. He was made more dashing for the ladies by casting him as Bob Crane, far better looking than anyone in the movie. Crane got to play the wise guy who could manipulate everyone.

      I was amazed at this movie, depicting the mud, the cold, the deplorable conditions, the fear, could be transformed into a top-rated TV comedy, like Hogan's Heroes. The TV show endeared us to the characters, but muted the horrors of their situation. It picked up where the movie left off in making the Nazis look like idiots. But it also made these prisoners work together as a well-oiled machine to help their own war efforts from inside the camp, spying and sabotage, etc., which never happened anywhere.   

      So I did the research. The movie was based on a play that had been successful on Broadway with the same name. The two authors had actually been prisoners of war. Hogan's Heroes was not done with any collaboration from any of the stage or movie people. They occurred only about 12 years apart. Bing Crosby Productions, owner of the TV show, was sued by the two playwrights. It was judged to be an infringement of the original authors' rights. The TV producers had to pay up.

      William Holden, who had not wanted to do the role, was forced to do so by the movie studio. He won an Oscar for best lead actor. There were two other nominations from the movie. It was a box office success. The movie is worth watching. Peter Graves (of Mission Impossible fame) also had a role as a young Nazi posing as an American in the camp, a role unique to the movie. He died only six days ago, which may have prompted the network to air some of his old movies.

      The TV show, while very popular in its time, is highly criticized today for supposedly glamorizing POW camps. I don't see anything glamorous about the lack of freedom and privacy, homesickness, ans inadequate rations, and medical services.  The viewer should easily deduce that these prisoners were obviously fantasy characters by the way they went to and from the camp, almost at will, wining and dining the commandant and pretty girls. The show is not about history, or about war. It's more about looking back, after a good pass of time, and laughing at the enemy, at the oppressor.

    If we're honest, none of us want to think about being in the fearful position of prisoner of war. We'd like to think that if we were, we would be cunning, and clever, and would use our situation to strike back for our own cause. I find myself doing that when I'm reading; I think about ways that I would do it differently if I were that character. After all we're not in the midst of the scary scenario. We have the comfort of our rockers or bean bag chairs to analyze the situation. Hogan's Heroes was never intended to be an educational program. I think it succeeded in what it set out to do; it spoofed the enemy in a fantasy story. 

    While the movie, the play, and the TV show have much in common, they do have different viewpoints, tone, and goals. They look the same, but they're not the same.