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It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17. For the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem - there seems to be a security leak. The Germans always seem to be forewarned about escapes and in the most recent attempt the two men, Manfredi and Johnson, walked straight into a trap and were killed. For some in Barracks 4, especially the loud-mouthed Duke, the leaker is obvious: J.J. Sefton, a wheeler-dealer who doesn't hesitate to trade with the guards and who has acquired goods and privileges that no other prisoner seems to have. Sefton denies giving the Germans any information and makes it quite clear that he has no intention of ever trying to escape. He plans to ride out the war in what little comfort he can arrange, but it doesn't extend to spying for the Germans. As tensions mount and mob mentality takes root, it becomes obvious Sefton will have to find the real German agent in their midst, which he finally does.
U.S. Army Sgt. Clarence Cook, nicknamed Cookie, remembers back to late 1944, when he was a POW in Stalag 17, in barrack number 4 along with several other US army sergeants, and the one major problem at that time of what everyone in the barrack believed was a traitor among their ranks. Everyone in the barrack partook in most of the communal activities, such as trying to cause grief for their German captors - for example, in hatching escape plans - and trying to catch glimpses of the Russian female POWs at the adjoining camp, everyone that is except for Sgt. J.J. Sefton. The very cynical Sefton, with Cookie as his paid help, only looked out for himself. He ran a gambling ring and sold homemade alcohol made from potato scraps among other schemes, and got rich on what passed for currency on the inside, namely goods within Red Cross packages, primarily cigarettes, which he would in turn trade with the Germans for other luxuries. Seemingly no means of "earning cigarettes" was too low for him. But several incidents occurred during this period which made it seem like the camp officials, namely the smug Commandant Oberst von Scherbach, and the barrack staff sergeant, J.S. Schultz, seemed to know their every move, especially those which may have involved escape plans - none of which were ever successful - or Allied efforts within the bigger picture of the war, leading to the notion there must be a traitor inside. Sefton didn't really seem to care until HE was implicated as that traitor in a situation involving actions by US Army Lt. James Dunbar, who was housed temporarily at the stalag. Sefton then took it upon himself to identify the traitor, if for no other reason than to save himself from his increasingly enraged fellow inmates.
William Holden
Sgt. J.J. Sefton
Don Taylor
Lt. James Dunbar
Otto Preminger
Oberst von Scherbach
Robert Strauss
Sgt. Stanislaus 'Animal' Kuzawa
Harvey Lembeck
Sgt. Harry Shapiro
Richard Erdman
Sgt. 'Hoffy' Hoffman
Peter Graves
Sgt. Frank Price
Neville Brand
Duke
Sig Ruman
Sgt. Johann Sebastian Schulz
Michael Moore
Sgt. Manfredi
Peter Baldwin
Sgt. Johnson
Robinson Stone
Joey
Robert Shawley
Sgt. 'Blondie' Peterson
William Pierson
Marko the Mailman
Gil Stratton
Sgt. Clarence Harvey 'Cookie' Cook
Jay Lawrence
Sgt. Bagradian
Erwin Kalser
Geneva Man
Edmund Trzcinski
'Triz' Trzcinski
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