Stalag 17 Quotes
When two escaping American World War II prisoners are killed, the German POW camp barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
Triz' Trzcinski: [after reading letter from home] I believe it. My wife says, "Darling, you won't believe it, but I found the most adorable baby on our doorstep and I've decided to keep it for our very own. Now you won't believe it, but it's got exactly my eyes and nose." Why does she keep saying I won't believe it? I believe it! I believe it.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
Marko the Mailman: Are the doors covered?
[the men cover the doors]
Hoffy: Yeah, they're covered.
Marko the Mailman: Okay, Steve, give them the radio.
[Blondie pulls a radio and earphones from under Steve's pant leg]
Marko the Mailman: You can keep it for two days.
Hoffy: Two days? We're supposed to have it for a week.
Marko the Mailman: You're lucky to get it at all! The boys are afraid the Jerries will find it in here. This barracks is jinxed!
[the men cover the doors]
Hoffy: Yeah, they're covered.
Marko the Mailman: Okay, Steve, give them the radio.
[Blondie pulls a radio and earphones from under Steve's pant leg]
Marko the Mailman: You can keep it for two days.
Hoffy: Two days? We're supposed to have it for a week.
Marko the Mailman: You're lucky to get it at all! The boys are afraid the Jerries will find it in here. This barracks is jinxed!
[Opening narration]
Cookie: I don't know about you, but it always makes me sore when I see those war pictures... all about flying leathernecks and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerillas in the Philippines. What gets me is that there never w-was a movie about POWs - about prisoners of war. Now, my name is Clarence Harvey Cook: they call me Cookie. I was shot down over Magdeburg, Germany, back in '43; that's why I stammer a little once in a while, 'specially when I get excited. I spent two and a half years in Stalag 17. "Stalag" is the German word for prison camp, and number 17 was somewhere on the Danube. There were about 40,000 POWs there, if you bothered to count the Russians, and the Poles, and the Czechs. In our compound there were about 630 of us, all American airmen: radio operators, gunners, and engineers. All sergeants. Now you put 630 sergeants together and, oh mother, you've got yourself a situation. There was more fireworks shooting off around that joint... take for instance the story about the spy we had in our barracks...
Cookie: I don't know about you, but it always makes me sore when I see those war pictures... all about flying leathernecks and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerillas in the Philippines. What gets me is that there never w-was a movie about POWs - about prisoners of war. Now, my name is Clarence Harvey Cook: they call me Cookie. I was shot down over Magdeburg, Germany, back in '43; that's why I stammer a little once in a while, 'specially when I get excited. I spent two and a half years in Stalag 17. "Stalag" is the German word for prison camp, and number 17 was somewhere on the Danube. There were about 40,000 POWs there, if you bothered to count the Russians, and the Poles, and the Czechs. In our compound there were about 630 of us, all American airmen: radio operators, gunners, and engineers. All sergeants. Now you put 630 sergeants together and, oh mother, you've got yourself a situation. There was more fireworks shooting off around that joint... take for instance the story about the spy we had in our barracks...
Shapiro: Tea is being served on the veranda. Animal, where are the napkins?
[Animal puts down some napkins as Dunbar and Bagradian approach the table]
Bagradian: [Imitating Ronald Colman talking to his real-life wife, Benita Hume] Do be seated, Benita. Hwah, hwah, what a perfectly charming table arrangement. They must have copied the pattern from "House Beautiful."
[Animal puts down some napkins as Dunbar and Bagradian approach the table]
Bagradian: [Imitating Ronald Colman talking to his real-life wife, Benita Hume] Do be seated, Benita. Hwah, hwah, what a perfectly charming table arrangement. They must have copied the pattern from "House Beautiful."
[Shapiro received 7 letters at mail call]
Animal: What do all those broads say?
Shapiro: What do they always say?
Animal: Lemme read one.
Shapiro: It's not good for you, Animal.
Animal: Hey, this is with a typewriter... it's from a finance company.
Shapiro: So it's from the finance company. So, it's better than no letter at all. So they want the third payment on the Plymouth.
[dropping each letter on the floor in turn]
Shapiro: So they want the fourth... the fifth... the sixth... the seventh... So they want the Plymouth.
Animal: Sugar Lips Shapiro. Amazing, ain't it?
Animal: What do all those broads say?
Shapiro: What do they always say?
Animal: Lemme read one.
Shapiro: It's not good for you, Animal.
Animal: Hey, this is with a typewriter... it's from a finance company.
Shapiro: So it's from the finance company. So, it's better than no letter at all. So they want the third payment on the Plymouth.
[dropping each letter on the floor in turn]
Shapiro: So they want the fourth... the fifth... the sixth... the seventh... So they want the Plymouth.
Animal: Sugar Lips Shapiro. Amazing, ain't it?
