William Holden won the best actor Oscar for his unsympathetic portrayal here of an imprisoned opportunist in a German PoW camp - an emotive subject just eight years after the end of the Second World War. Director Billy Wilder superbly balances elements of drama, satire and comedy, and captures the claustrophobia of camp life. There are also fine performances from inmates Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck, both of whom were veterans of the tale's original Broadway run. The surprise casting coup is director Otto Preminger, who's mesmerising as a nasty Nazi.

After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.