The success of Stalag 17 likely made it possible for other popular prisoner of war pictures, notably The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), which also starred William Holden, The Great Escape (1963), and King Rat (1965), which featured George Segal in a role similar, but more extreme in its cynical opportunism, to the one Holden played in this picture.

The popular TV sitcom of the 1960s, Hogan's Heroes has striking similarities to Stalag 17: a smart-aleck lead character who finagles favors and goods; an oily, outfoxed commandant; and a bumbling barracks guard named Schulz. But the show's producers insisted their series was not based on the movie and won the lawsuit that accused them of plagiarism.

The character of the fastidious, imperious commandant played so memorably here by Otto Preminger and to comic effect by Werner Klemperer in Hogan's Heroes is probably inspired by Erich von Stroheim's performance in Jean Renoir's great prisoner of war classic La Grande Illusion (1937).

A key running gag in Stalag 17 is Animal's obsession with Betty Grable, reflecting her tremendous popularity with real GIs during World War II.

by Rob Nixon