Stalag 17 (1953)
William Holden: Sgt. J.J. Sefton
Photos
Quotes
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Sefton : There are two people in this barracks who know I didn't do it. Me and the guy that did do it.
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[after Sefton cuts through the barbed wire to let them escape]
Sefton : Let's blow, Chauncey.
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Let's.
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Price : Are you questioning me?
Sefton : Getting acquainted. I'd like to make one friend in this barracks.
Price : Well, don't bother, Sefton. I don't like you, I never did, and I never will.
Sefton : A lot of people say that, and the first thing you know it, they get married, and live happily ever after.
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Sefton : I told you boys I'm no escape artist. For the first time, I like the odds, because now I got me a decoy.
Hoffy : What's the decoy?
Sefton : Price. When I go, I want you to give me five minutes - exactly five minutes - to get Dunbar out of that water tank. And then you throw Price out onto the compound, nice and loud. He'll draw every light from every goon tower. It's our only chance to cut through. Well, what do you say, barracks chief?
Bagradian : He's right, Hoffy. It's either Price or Dunbar.
Animal : He killed Johnson and Manfredi, didn't he?
Hoffy : It's all yours.
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Sefton : If I ever run into any of you bums on a street corner, just let's pretend we've never met before.
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[Duke wants to know who the German spy is]
Sefton : It's no use, Schulz, you might as well come clean. Why don't you just tell them it's me, because I'm really the illegitimate son of Hitler, and after the Germans win the war, you're going to make me the Gauleiter of Zinzinnati!
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Sefton : [questioning Price] When was Pearl Harbor, Price, or don't you know that?
Price : December 7th, '41.
Sefton : What time?
Price : [smugly] 6:00. I was having dinner.
Sefton : [smirks] 6:00 in Berlin.
[to the other barrack members]
Sefton : They were having lunch in Cleveland. Am I boring you boys?
Hoffy : Go on.
Sefton : He's a Nazi, Price is. For all I know his name is Preissinger or Preishoffer. Oh, sure, he lived in Cleveland. But when the war broke out, he came back to the Fatherland like a good little Bundist. He spoke our lingo, so they sent him to spy school and fixed him up with phony dog tags.
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Sefton : What is this anyway, a kangaroo court? Why don't you get a rope and do it right?
Duke : You make my mouth water.
Sefton : You're all wire-happy, boys. You've been in this camp too long. You put two and two together and it comes out four - only it ain't four.
Hoffy : What's it add up to you, Sefton?
Sefton : It adds up that you got yourselves the wrong guy. Because, I'm telling you, the krauts wouldn't plant two stoolies in one barracks. And whatever you do to me, you're gonna have to do all over again when you find the right guy.
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[after an angry inmate throws something at him]
Sefton : Give that man a Kewpie doll.
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Hoffy : They ought to be under the barbed wire soon.
Shapiro : Looks good outside.
Animal : I hope they hit the Danube before dawn.
Price : They've got a good chance. The longest night of the year.
Duke : I'll bet they make it to Friedrichshaven.
Animal : I bet they make it all the way to Switzerland.
Sefton : And I bet they don't get out of the forest.
Duke : Now what kind of crack is that?
Sefton : No crack. Two packs of cigarettes say they don't get out of the forest.
Hoffy : That's enough, Sefton. Crawl back in your sack.
Shapiro : He'd make book on his own mother getting hit by a truck.
Sefton : Anybody call?
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Animal : [watching Sefton cook an egg] Are you gonna eat it all by yourself?
Sefton : Mm-hmm. The yellow and the white.
Animal : Is it all right if we smell it?
Sefton : Just don't drool on it.
Shapiro : You're not gonna eat the shells?
Sefton : Help yourself.
Animal : [Harry gives him half the shell] Hey, thanks. What are we gonna do with it?
Shapiro : We're gonna plant it, Animal. We're gonna grow us a chicken for Christmas.
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Duke : Come on, Trader Horn, let's hear it. What'd you give the krauts for that egg?
Sefton : 45 cigarettes. Price has gone up.
Duke : They wouldn't be the cigarettes you took us for last night?
Sefton : What was I gonna do with them? I only smoke cigars.
Duke : Niiice guy. The krauts shoot Manfredi and Johnson last night, and today he's out trading with them.
Sefton : Look. This may be my last hot breakfast on account of they're going to take that stove out of here, so would you let me eat it in peace?
Animal : Now ain't that too bad? Tomorrow you'll have to suck a raw egg.
Shapiro : Oh, he don't have to worry. He can always trade the krauts for a six-burner gas range. Maybe a deep freeze, too.
Sefton : What's the beef, boys? So I'm trading. Everybody here is trading. So maybe I trade a little sharper. That make me a collaborator?
Duke : A lot sharper, Sefton. I'd like to have some of that loot you got in those footlockers.
Sefton : Oh you would, would you? Listen, stupe. The first week I was in this joint, somebody stole my Red Cross package, my blanket, and my left shoe. Well, since then I've wised up. This ain't no Salvation Army - this is everybody for himself, dog eat dog.
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Sefton : Okay, Herr Preisshoffer, let's have the mailbox.
Price : The what?
Sefton : The one you took out of the corner of your bunk and put in this pocket!
[pulls a black queen out of Price's jacket]
Sefton : Let me show you how they did it. They did it by mail.
Harry Shapiro : Mail?
Sefton : That's right. Little love notes between our Security officer and Von Scherbach, with Schulz the mailman.
[gestures to a lightbulb hanging above a table]
Sefton : Here's the flag. They used to put a loop in the cord.
[does so]
Sefton : Did you ever notice? And here's the mailbox. Hollow black queens.
[pops the two queens open]
Sefton : Cute, huh? They delivered the mail or picked it up whenever we were out of the barracks, like for appell. And when there was a special delivery, they'd pull a phony air raid to get us out of here, like last night for instance. There wasn't a plane in the sky. Or was there, Price?
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Geneva man : [a Red Cross official is inspecting the camp just after Sefton was beaten on suspicion being an enemy informant. The official sees his injuries] What happened to you? Were you beaten?
[Sefton doesn't answer]
Geneva man : Why don't you answer?
[to the German officer escorting him]
Geneva man : What did you do to this man?
Sefton : They didn't do nothing.
Geneva man : Who beat you?
Sefton : Nobody beat me. We were playing pinochle. It's a rough game.
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Price : Anybody asks for your papers, you're French laborers. And here's your map, Kraut money, Swiss francs.
Sgt. Manfredi : Roger.
Price : All right, now let's hear it one more time, boys.
Sgt. Johnson : We've been over it a hundred times.
Hoffy : Let's hear it again.
Sgt. Manfredi : We stick to the forest going west until we hit the Danube.
Price : Check.
Sgt. Johnson : Then we follow the Danube up to Linz.
Price : Check.
Sgt. Johnson : In Linz, we hop a barge and go all the way to Ulm.
Price : Check.
Duke : [Joey begins playing his ocarina] Stop it, Joey. Joey!
[he stops]
Duke : Go back to sleep.
Price : Go on. You're in Ulm.
Sgt. Johnson : Once in Ulm, we lie low until night. Then we take a train to Friedrichshafen.
Sgt. Manfredi : Once in Friedrichshafen, we steal a rowboat, get some fishing tackle, and start drifting across the lake, always south, 'til we hit the other side. Switzerland.
Sefton : Once in Switzerland, just give out with a big yodel, boys, so we'll know you're there. It's a breeze.
Hoffy : Stay out of this, Sefton.
Sefton : Just one question. Did you calculate the risk?
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Hoffy : I called a meeting of the barracks chiefs this morning, Sefton. I thought maybe I could get you transferred to another barracks. But it turns out that nobody likes you any more than we do.
Sefton : So you're stuck with me, huh?
Animal : Maybe the Russian broads would take him.
Shapiro : Not with that kisser. Not anymore.
Duke : You got off lucky last night, Sefton. One more move, and you'll wake up with your throat cut!
Price : You listening, Sefton?
Sefton : Yeah, I still got one good ear.
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Harry Shapiro : [after a shot of schnapps Sefton brewed] Mr. Management, what are you tryin' to do? Embalm us while we're still alive?
Sefton : What'd you expect for two cigarettes? Eight-year-old bottle-in-bond? All the house guarantees is you don't go blind.
Animal : Blind? Harry! Harry! Harry, I'm blind, Harry. Harry, where are you? I can't see you. I'm blind, Harry. Harry. Harry, I'm blind.
Harry Shapiro : Blind? How stupid can you get, Animal?
[he raises takes Animal's hat, which has been covering his eyes]
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Sefton : Lieutenant Dunbar?
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Yeah.
Sefton : It wouldn't be James Skylar Dunbar from Boston?
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Yes, it sure would. Do we know each other?
Animal : Oh, he's from Boston, too, but you wouldn't know him. Not unless you had your house robbed.
Sefton : Maybe he would. We were gonna be officers together, remember? Only they washed me out. Glad to see you made it. Of course, it couldn't be that all of that dough behind you had something to do with it. His mother's got $20 million.
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : 25.
Sefton : They've got a summer home in Nantucket with an upstairs polo field. Better put a canopy over his bunk.
Hoffy : Lay off, Sefton.
Sefton : Say, with all your mother's pull, how come you're not a chicken colonel by now?
Hoffy : Lay off, I said, unless you want your head handed to you.
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Sefton : Shut off the moaning or you'll have the machine guns on us. Shut it off, Lieutenant.
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : My legs are frozen.
Sefton : You'd better get that blue blood circulating, 'cause we're busting out of this stink hole in exactly one minute and 20 seconds.
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Sefton.
Sefton : What'd you expect, a St. Bernard dog?
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Not you.
Sefton : Want some brandy?
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Yeah.
Sefton : Who doesn't? Suppose we wait until we hit the Waldorf-Astoria?
Lt. James Skylar Dunbar : Okay. It's on me.
Sefton : You won't get off that cheap.
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Animal : Did you have a good time over there?
Sefton : Oh. Somebody was peeking. Yeah, had a dreamy time. Those dames, they really know how to throw a party. I've known some women in my time, but between you and me, there's just nothing like the hot breath of the Cossacks. There are a couple of blonde snipers over there. Real man-killers. They...
[seeing his foot locker open]
Sefton : What's this? What happened, Cookie? Who did it?
Hoffy : We did it.
Sefton : There better not be anything missing. This is private property.
Price : So was the radio private property. So were Manfredi and Johnson.
Sefton : What about the radio?
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Bagradian : How did he ever find out about that ammunition train?
Price : You two must have shot your mouths off all the way from Frankfurt to here.
Bagradian : No, we didn't.
Hoffy : Maybe just a hint or so? Think hard.
Bagradian : I don't have to think. We didn't say anything to anybody. Not a word. Not until we hit this barracks.
Sefton : [everyone turns to look at him] What are you looking at me for?
[the guards outside call for lights out]
Sefton : I suppose some jerk's gonna say I did it.
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Duke : How come the Krauts knew about that stove, Security? And the tunnel? How come you can't lay down a belch around here without them knowin' it?
Price : Look, if you don't like the way I'm handling this job, go get yourself...
Hoffy : Kill it, Duke. It's got us all spinnin'.
Duke : I just wanna know what makes them Krauts so smart.
Animal : Maybe they do it with radar. Maybe they got a mic hidden somewhere.
Shapiro : Yeah. Right up Joey's ocarina.
Duke : Or maybe it's not that they're so smart. Maybe it's that we're sto stupid. Maybe there's somebody in our barracks tipping 'em off, like one of us!
Sefton : You don't say.
Duke : Yes, I do say! One of us is a stoolie. A dirty, stinking stoolie!
Sefton : Is that Einstein's theory or did you figure it out for yourself?
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Price : How come you were so sure Manfredi and Johnson wouldn't get out of the forest?
Sefton : I wasn't so sure. I just liked the odds. What's that crack supposed to mean?
Price : They're lying dead out there in the mud and I'm trying to find out how come.
Sefton : I'll tell you how come. Because you, our security officer, said it'd be safe.
[to Hoffy]
Sefton : And you, the barracks chief, gave them the green light. That's how come. What are you guys trying to prove, anyway? Cuttin' trap doors, digging tunnels.
Duke : Listen, Sefton...
Sefton : You listen to me! What do you think the chances are of gettin' out of here? And let's say you make it to Switzerland. Let's say to the States. So what? They ship you out to the Pacific, slap you in another plane, and you get shot down again. Only this time you wind up in a Japanese prison camp. That is if you're lucky. Well, I'm no escape artist. Cigar, Cookie. You can be the heroes, the guys with fruit salad on your chest. Me, I'm stayin' put. And I'm gonna make myself as comfortable as I can. And if it takes a little trading with the enemy to get me some food or a better mattress, that's okay by Sefton.
Duke : [Sefton lights a match on his jacket sleeve] Why, you crud. This war's gonna be over someday. Then what you do you think we'll do to Kraut-kissers like you?
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Hoffy : Hey, Sefton. What's the big idea? Take that telescope out of here.
Sefton : Says who?
Hoffy : Says me.
Sefton : You take it out. Only you're gonna have a riot on your hands.
Hoffy : Every time the men get Red Cross packages, you have to think up some angle to rob 'em.
Price : When the Krauts find that gadget, they'll throw us all in the boob.
Sefton : They know about that gadget. I'd worry more about that radio.
Duke : Maybe they also know about your distillery and the horse races.
Sefton : That's right.
Duke : Just what makes you and them Krauts so buddy-buddy?
Sefton : Ask Security. Go on, tell him, Price. You've got me shadowed every minute of the day. Or haven't you figured it out yet?
Price : Not yet.
Hoffy : Answer the question. How do you rate all these privileges?
Sefton : I grease the Kraut guards. I give 'em ten percent of the take.
