Customer Reviews

The McKenzie Break

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of my favorite war movies, although it certainly never got the acclaim that many bigger-budget films have received. "The McKenzie Break" is the story of a remote British-run POW camp for German Kriegsmariners and Luftwaffe officers in Scotland. The Germans are of course planning an escape, led by the ruthless Captain Schlutter, (a U-Boat Captain determined to get his trained men "back into the war") competently played by Helmut Griem. Brian Keith plays the British intelligence officer given a special assignment to deal with the situation at Camp McKenzie.

Of course, the notion of German POWs plotting to escape an Allied POW camp puts a unique twist on the usual POW theme, and in my opinion it works well in this film. The storyline moves along briskly and holds the viewer's interest. Bravo performances by Brian Keith and Helmut Griem carry the movie, and I felt that the cinematography and the on-location filming gave the film an excellent aura of authenticity. All in all there is a great deal about this film to like.

Don't compare this one to "The Great Escape" or any other POW film, because it isn't like any of them. "The McKenzie Break" stands on its own, and in my opinion does so very well.

Personally, I thought that this gritty film was a lot better than the splashy, silly and more expensive "The Great Escape". It is definitely more suspenseful and a lot more realistic. Worth watching.

A film in the tradition of The Great Escape, although this one is much better in my opinion. It's the flip side of the coin. The German's are the POW's. A must see.

THE MCKENZIE BREAK had potential in focusing on German POWs held in the United Kingdom. The production team did a great job uniforming a multitude of extras in assorted German military uniforms thus representing prisoners of war captured from various Wehrmacht services on different fronts. This could have been the DAS BOOT of Geramn POW movies except that it strayed from the straight formula. Much like HART'S WAR, THE MCKENZIE BREAK begins as a realistic and straight-forward film about life in a prison camp. The plot then makes an about-face and becomes a chase 'em and shoot 'em up movie.

The story: Captain Jack Connor (Brian Keith) is a British officer with little future in the army. His combative personality, heavy drinking, and general rule-breaking attitude have all but led to his being ushered out of the service. Fortunately for Connor his superiors have decided that his rough personality is just the cure for a troublesome POW camp in Scotland. The captive Germans, led by U-Boat Kapitan-Leutnant Schleutter, have thwarted almost every attempt to bring discipline into the compound.

In dealing with Connor, Schleutter has met his match. However, Schleutter has more on his mind than activities within the compound. The U-Boat commander is a fanatic who assembles a mass escape for members of the Kriegsmarine. Fearful that his plot will be betrayed by his Luftwaffe comrades, Schleutter murders a Luftwaffe officer and sabotages a Luftwaffe prison barracks to cover his escape.

Schleutter and the escapees are aided by sympathetic locals and escorted to the coast where they paddle out to meet a U-Boat. En route the escapees, armed with Sterling submachine guns, shoot it out against an unarmed spotter aircraft.

The U-Boat men escape is based on an actual plan devised by the German high commmand to encourage mass escapes by German POWs in France, Britain, Canada, and the USA just prior to the 1944 Battle of the Bulge. Unfortunately MCKENZIE BREAK becomes a sensational VON RYAN'S EXPRESS wanna-be. Once the Germans are out of the camp the remainder of the screenplay relies on hopes that audiences will not ponder too many questions. The support by the sympathetic locals is never explained. Not only did this group provide trucks for the escape, they also armed the Germans with submachine guns. We also find poor Captain Connor limited to chasing after the Germans in a solitary unarmed spotter plane. Where was the RAF while all this was happening? Apparently all the coast watchers went home on this particular day. Eventually one Royal Navy subchaser forces the rescuing U-Boat to dive and leave Kapital-Leutnant Schleutter behind. All in all a poor showing that late in the war.

Yes this is a good movie, but would be even better if the phony armed escape plot was removed from the film.

There's a riot going on in Scotland during the waning years of World War II. The German prisoners in an Allied POW camp are laying siege to the compound and the War Office is getting a little frustrated and more than a little worried. To investigate and quell the situation they decide to send the hard-living, hard-loving, rule-breaking Irish Captain Jack Connor to the scene.
Brian Keith plays Connor in this odd POW drama that more or less turns the genre on its head. The inmates, led by U-boat commander Kapitänleutnant Willi Schlüter (Helmut Griem), are clearly in charge of the situation (darn those Geneva Convention rules!) and the Brits are a whisker away from having a Major Situation on their hands.
Enter Jack Connor, a man not only with a plan but enough insight to perhaps do more for the war effort than bring order and discipline to an isolated prison camp. You see, this is a POW movie, so there are tunnels being dug and breaks being plotted. And there's a big, iron fish to land at the end of that break. If only....
I'm a big fan of Brian Keith and, having watched and loved the first season dvd-set of `Have Gun, Will Travel,' most episodes of which were directed by Lamont Johnson, I was pretty excited about THE MCKENZIE BREAK. Keith is fine in this - as is Griem as his major nemesis, I hasten to add - and Johnson ably handles the action. I wanted to love a movie that turns a genre inside-out, but I ended up only liking it. I thought it something a little more than improbable that the Allies would be so delicate about Geneva Convention rules that they would so lose control of a prison camp. That was the big improbability hurdle I had to overcome, although this movie is studded with them. Add to that a rather ambiguous and inconclusive ending and I can't help feeling disappointed. Considering the talent involved, this one should have soared. As it is, THE MCKENZIE BREAK is a solid, albeit unspectacular, movie.

Most POW movies set during World War 2 take place in German or Japanese run camps in which the prisoners are Allied troops.This one rings a deft variation by being set in a camp for German POW's in Scotland .The inmates are from all branches of the German military including a crack U-Boat unit .When a young Luftwaffe pilot (Horst Janson)is murdered the camp commander Major Perry(the ever excellent Ian Hendry) appoints a former crime reporter Captain Jack Connor (Brian Keith)to investigate the murder .He finds that the killing is linked to an elaborate and ingenious escape plan masterminded by U-Boat leader Kapitan Schlietter(Helmut Griem)a dyed in the wool Nazi who runs the camp as a microcosm of Nazi society .There is singing of party and military songs ,miltary drill and anti-Semtic and anti-gay sentiments abound .

The movie is blessed with an intelligent and literate script from William Nolan and the direction by the under-rated Lamont Johnson is right on the money.The acting is universally fine with strong turns from Keith and Griem in particular

It is worth noting the a key point made in the movie -namely that in any situation of confinement the guards can only run a prison with the tacit consemt or complicity of the inmates .When that is lost the potential for escape and violence is greatly increased
The movie is taut and exciting building to a nail biting climax and it should be a lot better known than it is

Right from the start you know that THE McKENZIE BREAK will not be like any other POW movie. We see British troops guarding the camp for German POW's. And in the opening minutes the tension is firmly established with the British attempting to shackle 25 officers of the Reich in retaliation for a similar action by Germany - an effort the Germans refuse to cooperate with. It's a clever device and sets the tone perfectly for what director Lamont Johnson sought to do in not glamorizing war "as a game."
Variety described the movie as "a taut, classically crafted World War II POW escape drama," but in fact the movie, which is based on a book by Sidney Shelley, is unlike every other POW movie I can think of in one key respect. From earlier films such as THE COLDITZ STORY through to THE GREAT ESCAPE right up to HART'S WAR, POW drama's have centered on a likeable group of Allied prisoners attempting to escape.
Here the audience sympathies are reversed. The German prisoners are not particularly likeable, even going out of their way to kill one of their own, and in the closing minutes as the net closes around the fleeing escapees the audience hopes that the Allies will catch them in time. It has shades of the drama THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, except in that movie the German is a likeable character and the audience sympathies do swing back and forward between him and his pursuers.
This movie is more focused on the battle of wits between Capt. Jack Connor (the always likeable Brian Keith in a role far removed from perhaps his most famous role in the original THE PARENT TRAP) and Kapitan Schleutter (Helmut Griem.)
After the camp commander (Ian Hendry) has been unable to contain the prisoners, the no-nonsense and brash Connor is brought in and becomes a race against time to prevent the mass escape of prisoners, who have a date with a U-boat off the Scottish coast.
Indeed this movie is as much about the battle between these two men as it is about the drama of escaping POW's. The climax may feature a torpedo boat and Allied plane facing off against a U-boat. But, it is the dramatic climax between Connor and Schleutter that brings the movie to a close.
So, perhaps it's not surprising that Variety also praised the movie as "intelligent" with "strong three dimensiona; portrayals." Nor should it be surprising that I find this as riveting and as exciting as any of the other POW movies that are featured in my DVD collection.
The DVD release includes a "collectible booklet" which is more akin to a flyer, being as it is just a page and a half of text. The full-frame trailer that accompanies the DVD is also of appalling quality with niches and scratches all over the dirty print that has washed out colors and an audio track that does not seem to fit with the visuals.
I recommend this movie for the discerning World War II movie fan.

'The Mckenzie Break' [1970] DVD is dynamic and well paced, and has been digitally transferred in remarkably good condition. Another alternative film in the in the genre of 'The Mckenzie Break,' 'Stalag 17,' 'The Great Escape,' Hart's War,' `Andersonville,' `Empire of the Sun,' `Prisoners of the Sun,' `The Bridge on the River Kwai,' `King Rat,' etc., is 'The Good War' [2004] DVD. Although 'The Good War,' starring Robert Farrior, Roy Scheider & Luca Zingaretti, among others, and written and directed by Giorgio Serafini, pales in comparison, it offers another view of an Axis POW camp in the US [Texas]. Shot in Bulgaria and Utah, 'The Good War' likely will not win the hearts/minds of lovers of the genre; however, based on a true story, it provides an alternatively engaging, if not interesting, perspective that has been somewhat overlooked. Recommended for only the diehard fans of the POW genre and the curious WWII genre viewer.

Set in a remote Scottish internment camp for captured German officers, The McKenzie Break is an interesting spin on the WW2 prisoner of war genre. Personally, I've always felt this to be one of the most under-rated WW2 films of its era, with stirling performances by Brian Keith as the shrewd, ballsy Irish Captain sent up to investigate a series of riots in the camp, and the suitably Aryan-looking Helmut Griem as the fanatical Nazi U-Boat captain fomenting the unrest as a cover for an impending escape attempt. Good solid entertainment which contrasts the arrogance and fanaticism of the German soldiers with the bewildered ineffectuality of the British camp guards (who mostly look like they should be drawing their old age pension).

Thank god we don't have to endure Steve McQueen showing off his prowess on a motorbike in this movie!

One of THE big P.O.W. movies in the U.S. was, of course, "The Great Escape" which was released in 1963. "Hogan's Heroes" started airing two years after that and Americans got a loopy idea of what life must have been like in one of those camps. "The McKenzie Break" was released in 1970 when Hogan was winding down and this gives a very different view of the way things were.

Here's the scoop. The British P.O.W. camp is somewhere in wilds of Scotland. The captive Germans are giving the British a hard time while they plan an escape that will allow them to hook up with a U-Boat off the Scottish coast. The Brits send in Brian Keith who plays a quite non-conventional officer, who happens to be Irish, to snoop around to see if he can figure out what the Germans are up to. Now it's a game of smarts and wills to see if he can foil the German officer, Willi Schlueter's, scheme.

This is a cool flick. The Allies adhere to the codes of the Geneva Convention in their dealings with the Germans and it costs them. They do not have free reign over the camp, as one might imagine, and many Brits get hurt in trying to maintain order. Schlueter is foxy and does all manner of things to keep the Brits at bay in their own camp. He manages time and again to keep his plans well hidden. Brian Keith is no dummy either though. He goes toe to toe with Schlueter and it will come down to the last minute to see who wins the game.

The production values are decent enough. Most of the action takes place in the camp which couldn't have cost that much to assemble. It has a look that was typical of it's time. It's shot and edited well enough. The sound is OK. I don't remember much of the music score so it must not have been appallingly bad. The acting is decent. They kept Keith's dialogue to a minimum as he did seem to struggle a bit with his Irish brogue.

This is just a good cat and mouse kind of flick which moves along at a steady clip and has enough going on in the script to keep your attention. If you're at all prone to WW II kinds of flicks this should keep you happy.