I would not have known except by googling just now and looking at imdb. It was Edmund Trzcinski as "Triz' Trzcinski."
In looking at the cast, I also notice a bit part for Ross Bagdasarian--yes, the "Dave Seville" behind Alvin and the Chipmunks! My daughter and I were just singing "The Chipmunk Song" ("Christmas, Don't Be Late") the other day!
Back to "Stalag 17." It had two great things going for it: 1) It was a William Holden WWII movie, and this one is up there with "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Counterfeit Traitor." 2) It was directed by Billy Wilder, and he made so many good flicks, it's amazing.
Correct. He was the skinny guy whose wife in the movie wrote him and told him about a "miracle." Someone left a baby at her doorstep and "you won't believe this" but the baby :looks just like me."
The Triz character throughout the rest of the movie kept proclaiming, "I believe! I BEEEEEELEEEEEVE!!!"
BTW, Stalag 17 was perhaps the best written movie script ever. I read both the movie script and the original play script. The "officer" in the play (originally a sergeant) hid in the outhouse latrine deep in the hole where everybody dumped their bodily functions.
In looking at the cast, I also notice a bit part for Ross Bagdasarian--yes, the "Dave Seville" behind Alvin and the Chipmunks!
He played the sidekick to the officer who kept doing all kinds of impressions such as Clark Gable.
Another favorite is "A Foreign Affair." A FUnnie look at corruption in the military occupying forces in Berlin just after WWII. I talked to a few old timers and much of what that movie presented was true including Russians who went happily berserk gazing upon wristwatches going all the way up the arms of the GIs selling them. A candy bar would get you a pleasant evening in the sack with a pretty fraulein while violating the widely violated no fraternizing rule.