QA Note Regarding Spoilers
AThe following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
QWhere is the reference to adultery in "Stalag 17"?
AThere is an IMPLIED reference to adultery, but the word "adultery" is not used. It occurs in the scene where a soldier receives a letter from his wife telling him that she found a baby on the doorstep and that the baby looks just like her. "Now honey, you won't believe it," she writes. His reply is "I believe it. I believe it." This scene has been interpreted several different ways by viewers. One is that she was unfaithful to him, hence the veiled reference to "adultery." Another is that he got her pregnant before he left and that this was her light-hearted way of telling him about the child. (However, it was said in the movie that he'd been in the stalag for over a year making this an unlikely situation.) A third explanation is based on the fact that camp authorities would sometimes withhold prisoners' mail, except for bills, bad news, and "Dear John" letters, in an attempt to make prisoners feel abandoned by their country and kin and perhaps more inclined to collaborate with their captors. The supposition is that his wife sent the news about the baby simply so that her letter would get through.
QIs "Stalag 17" based on a novel?
ANo. Stalag 17 began life in 1951 as a Broadway play written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, both of whom were WWII POWs in Stalag 17B in Austria. American movie director Billy Wilder [1906-2002] and screenwriter Edwin Blum [1906-1995] adapted the play for the screen.
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