[Quick Summary: When two American soldiers are killed in an escape from a German POW camp, the soldiers suspect a mole in their barracks.]
Though plays are often set in a single location, it can seem stagey on film, i.e., artificial, claustrophobic, or simply boring for lack of movement.So how did writer-director Billy Wilder avoid staginess in this famous film?
1) THE STORY LENDS ITSELF TO CLOSE QUARTERS. He chose this story which IS all about the claustrophobia and boredom of barracks.
2) CLOSE QUARTERS = PRESSURE. The soldiers need each other to survive.
This becomes even more apparent when they wrongly identifies one of their own as the traitor/mole. Suddenly, the barracks become a pressure cooker.
3) EXPANDING WHEN NECESSARY. Wilder wisely added several outdoor scenes to give the audience room to breathe from the cramped indoor shots.
4) FRAMING. I was very impressed by Wilder's use of the screen and space. Nearly every inch of the frame is stuffed with faces or some action.*
So why didn't it feel stale or too busy? He made sure there was constant movement: friction and action, people coming and going in and out of doors.
A good example is the scene below. Note:
- This is an early scene which introduces all the characters.
- Examine how there's constant movement between and among the characters. It feels less like the limits of a stage, and more like good use of a cramped space.
THE FAR END OF THE BARRACK
This is the strategic spot of the story. In the five tiers of bunks live our major characters.
In the upper bunk lies HOFFY. Little fellow. Plenty of authority. The Barrack Chief. His eyes are wide open. He is studying his wristwatch, the phosphorescent numerals shining in the dark.
In the other bunks lie the others, wide awake, tense:
DUKE, big bellyacher.
TRIZ, six-foot-three, ninety-eight pounds.
PRICE, the barrack Security Chief. Quiet, touch of class.
MANFREDI, no cover, fully dressed.
HARRY, bug-eyed, cocky.
BLONDIE, fair-skinned, boyish.
JOHNSON, fully dressed like Manfredi. Scared.
SEFTON, casual. In his mouth a cold cigar butt.
Hoffy again. Still staring at the wristwatch. This is the moment. He lifts the metal dogtags off his chest and jiggles them. This is the signal.
Duke instantly slides out of the bunk, grabs up his blanket and moves toward the window. A searchlight beam sweeps across. Duke goes flush on the ground. The light passes on. Duke gets up again and starts hanging the blanket over the window.
Now the others go into action, silently, efficiently. Except for Manfredi and Johnson they are all in long winter underwear, some in slacks and socks.
As for Sefton, he is lying in his bunk just watching them.
Blondie hangs a blanket over the window. Triz swings one over the clothesline to shield off their end of the barrack.
Hoffy and Price light a couple of handmade lamps: margarine in tin cans with the wick stuck inside.
Manfredi and Johnson are putting on their leather jackets.
Harry tries to awaken STOSH in the bunk above him. The wooden boards around Stosh's bunk are plastered with Betty Grable cheesecake. Harry pokes him. Stosh does not respond. Harry interlocks his fingers, puts them close to Stosh's ears and cracks them in a SHARP SALVO. Stosh opens his eyes, dazed. Harry pats Stosh's cheek.
HARRY (in a whisper): Get up, Animal! Betty Grable's on the phone!
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: If the play-to-be-adapted is in a single location, why? Pressure? Can it benefit a film? Or is expansion necessary to get that same effect?
Stalag 17 (1953)(shooting draft)
by Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum
Based on a play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski
*My favorite scene is where there are guys planning at a table in the foreground, and "guilty" Sefton in the background. There are bunks to the left and right, so the men's faces are essentially lined up in a column, filling the screen from top to bottom.
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