Stalag 17 Page #17

SEFTON:

Says who?

HOFFY:

Says me.

SEFTON:

You take it out. Only you're going

to have a riot on your hands.

HOFFY:

Every time the men get Red Cross

packages you have to think up an

angle to rob them.

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 the radio.

DUKE:

I suppose they also know about your

distillery and the horseraces?

SEFTON:

That's right.

DUKE:

Just what makes you and them Krauts

so buddy-buddy?

SEFTON:

Ask Security.

(to Price)

You tell him, Price. You've got me

shadowed every minute of the day. Or

haven't you found out yet?

PRICE:

Not yet.

HOFFY:

Answer the question. How do you rate

all those privileges?

SEFTON:

I grease the Kraut guards. With ten

percent of the take.

DUKE:

And maybe a little something else?

SEFTON:

A little something what?

He strikes a match on Duke's dogtag and lights his cigar.

DUKE:

(lunging at him)

Maybe a little information!

Hoffy and Price hold back Duke.

HOFFY:

Break it off!

DUKE:

How much more do we have to take

from him?

HOFFY:

There'll be no vigilante stuff. Not

while I'm Barrack Chief.

From the window come excited shouts.

G.I. VOICES

Hey, look at them!

It's Harry and the Animal!

Look what they're doing!

Everybody in the barrack is dashing toward the window giving

out on the Russian Compound. Hoffy, Price, Duke, and Sefton

follow after.

The window is packed by G.I.s staring out. More crowding in.

G.I.S

Those crazy jerks!

They won't get away with it!

The Krauts will shoot them!

EXT. COMPOUND - (DAY)

This is Harry's little gimmick: He and Stosh are painting a

white line down the middle of the road leading towards the

Russian Compound. Stosh carries the bucket and Harry, moving

backwards, wields the brush. They are very close now to the

barbed wire fence dividing the compounds. A bespectacled

German guard is standing in front of his sentinel house.

They crouch as low as they can as they paint themselves

through the gate past the guard and up the road toward the

Russian delousing shack. The guard gives them a glance. It

looks okay to him. He starts stamping about at the open gate.

INT. BARRACK

G.I.s at the window, watching in great excitement.

G.I.S

They're past the fifty yard line!

Quarterback sneak!

Look at them go!

SIX G.I.S

(in chorus)

We want a touchdown! We want a

touchdown! We want a touchdown!

HOFFY:

Those idiots! They'll paint themselves

into their graves!

EXT. RUSSIAN COMPOUND

Harry and Stosh are doing dandy as they paint up the highway.

Harry gets his bearings: the delousing shack is some twenty-

five feet off the road. He paints a very elegant turn off

the highway.

THE GATE BETWEEN THE COMPOUNDS

The German guard is stamping up and down. Suddenly he does a

double take as he sees:

EXT. RUSSIAN COMPOUND

The white line leading down the middle of the highway veers

off idiotically over the terrain towards the shack.

THE GERMAN GUARD

He stands there perplexed, then takes off after them.

EXT. DELOUSING SHACK

Harry and Stosh have now painted up to the window of the

shack. Without even stopping, they paint right up the wall

and around the window. As they paint, they peer in through

the thick steam (through which we cannot distinguish

anything). Now, they paint down the building on the other

side of the window and toward the doorway. Into their pathway

come the boots of the German guard. They paint right over

the boots. Then they see the butt of the guard's rifle. They

look at each other. They are in trouble. They stop painting

and straighten up slowly.

GERMAN GUARD:

Was ist denn hier los? Sie sind

verhaftet!

Harry gives the guard's eye-glasses a couple of quick strokes

of paint. Dropping paint and brush, Stosh and he run like

mad back toward the gate.

The guard stands there struggling with his glasses.

The Russian women, huddled in blankets, giggle their heads

off.

FADE OUT:

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