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Stalag 17 poster

Movies that feel likeStalag 17 (1953)

After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.

If you loved Stalag 17, the closest films we have are Duck Soup (1933), Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966) and Lifeboat (1944). All three share Stalag 17's bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Shame (1968).

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Billy Wilderwittyplayfulcontemplativebleak
11 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Stalag 17 hit the spot, these will too

Duck Soup poster
Duck Soup
1933 · dir. Leo McCarey
🍅 91%★ 7.7comedy · war

Common ground in both: spy and black and white

The difference: Trades the stillness of Stalag 17 for an angle of its own

Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! poster
★ 7.8comedy · war

The same preoccupation in both: world war ii

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

Lifeboat poster
Lifeboat
1944 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 90%★ 7.6war · drama

One thread runs through both: world war ii

During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.

Paisan poster
Paisan
1946 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 100%★ 7.6drama · warMax

Contemplative where it counts, bleak underneath

Six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley as American military personnel interact with a variety of Italian locals over eighteen months in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces retreat.

To Be or Not to Be poster
To Be or Not to Be
1942 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 96%★ 8.1comedy · war · romanceMax

Witty and playful in the same breath

The difference: Leans harder into romance than Stalag 17 does

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

Rome, Open City poster
Rome, Open City
1945 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 100%★ 8drama · warMax

Contemplative drama in both cases

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

Shame poster
Shame
1968 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 67%★ 8war · drama

War built on bleakness, twice over

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

The General poster
The General
1926 · dir. Clyde Bruckman
🍅 92%★ 8.1comedy · war · romancePrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: spy

The difference: Made in the 1920s, in a different era of the craft

During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
1930 · dir. Lewis Milestone
🍅 98%★ 8.1drama · war

Common ground: black and white

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

Ivan's Childhood poster
Ivan's Childhood
1962 · dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
🍅 100%★ 8drama · war

Both lean on stillness more than on comedy

In WW2, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers.

Paths of Glory poster
Paths of Glory
1957 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 96%★ 8.4war · drama

Bleak drama, and it commits to that

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Mediterraneo poster
Mediterraneo
1991 · dir. Gabriele Salvatores
🍅 80%★ 7.4comedy · romance · war

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

Greek Sea, World War II. An Italian ship leaves a handful of soldiers in a little island; their mission is to spot enemy ships and to hold the island in case of attack. The village of the island seems abandoned and there isn't a single enemy in sight, so the soldiers begin to relax a little. Things change when their ship is hit and destroyed by the enemy, and the soldiers find themselves abandoned there.

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The best-reviewed films that share Stalag 17’s defining feeling.