William Holden won an Oscar for his performance as a World War Two PoW camp scrounger, whose rackets include a peep-show by telescope into the women's barracks, horse races with mouse competitors and distilling home-brewed gin.

Naturally, he's number one on his fellow-prisoners' list of suspects when deaths of would-be escapers make it plain that an informer is at work.

Billy Wilder's film strikes several different notes: it's comic, dramatic, suspenseful and touching in turn.

But most notable is the comedy vein, in which character actor Robert Strauss had his biggest film success as Animal, a neolithic type who shuffles around in underwear that no washday mum could be proud of.

If Holden's gritty, forceful portrait is the film's lynchpin, then Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Otto Preminger, Neville Brand and Peter Graves all contribute materially to its success.

QUOTE: 'If I ever run into any of you bums after the war, let's pretend we never met.'

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