At the McKenzie prisoner of War (POW) camp in the north of Scotland, Kapitän zur See Willi Schlüter – a KriegsmarineU-boat commander – challenges the authority of the camp’s rigidly by-the-book commanding officer, Major Perry. Captain Jack Connor, seconded from the Royal Ulster Rifles to British Army Intelligence, a crime reporter during peacetime, is in hot water (again) for various off-duty indiscretions. His patron, General Kerr, bails him out – in return sending him to Camp McKenzie to find out what, aside from Perry's authoritarianism, might be behind the escalating tensions.
Connor takes over effective control of the camp. Factions between the U-boaters and members of the Luftwaffe emerge, with the maniacal Schlüter accusing the airmen of disloyalty to their Fatherland; the fliers in turn are wary of Schlüter's motives and question both his tactics and the point of escape. When Connor congenially taunts Schlüter over the escape tunnel he is sure is nearing completion, Schlüter orders to accelerate the work.
During a mass brawl Connor notices a group of POWs savagely attacking one of their own, Lieutenant Neuchl, who barely escapes alive; in the ensuing chaos two Germans dressed as British soldiers escape to prepare a mass escape. The delirious Neuchl keeps repeating the phrase "twenty-eight submariners", but before he can be questioned a phony riot is staged as cover for strangling him, faked as suicide.
Connor uses this snippet of information from Neuchl to bamboozle Schlüter into believing he disclosed much more. Schlüter suspects Connor's ruse, but he can't take any chances, and puts the escape plan into motion.
Unknown to Schlüter, Connor had a cryptographer break the code used in POWs' letters to Germany and is aware of the basics of the plan.
Taking advantage of heavy rain saturating an attic full of soil from the tunnel excavation, Schlüter triggers a cave-in atop a barrack full of Luftwaffe prisoners in order to divert attention during the escape. Unaware of his murderous diversion, the U-boaters breach the camp and successfully rendezvous with their transport to the beach where they are to be rescued by submarine.
In spite of having ordered special patrols to track the POWs, the German party eludes Connor's men and he is forced to alert local police and the Royal Navy for help in tracking Schlüter's dash to the sea. Aerial reconnaissance is only briefly successful, and the Germans reach their destination undetected.
Connor commandeers an aircraft and pilot. Having spotted their party and rescue sub, he alerts a nearby motor torpedo boat (MTB).
Schlüter's men paddle rubber rafts as fast as they can toward the surfaced sub, while Connor buzzes at wave-top height to slow them. Three of the rafts reach the sub, just as the MTB heaves into sight. The sub immediately dives, leaving Schlüter and his raft-mates behind. The MTB fires a pattern of depth charges, which the sub appears to elude. Schlüter glares at Connor overhead, who observes aloud that both are "in the shithouse now".
The plot of the film loosely reflects real-life events at POW camp in Ontario, Canada; in particular, the interception of German attempts to communicate in code with the captured U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer, and the "trial" of Captain Hans-Joachim Rahmlow and his second-in-command, Bernhard Berndt from U-570, which was surrendered in September 1941, and recommissioned as HMS Graph. Kretschmer was also the subject of Operation Kiebitz, an attempt to liberate several U-boat commanders from Bowmanville by submarine, which was foiled by the Royal Canadian Navy.
Production
The film was based on the novel The Bowmanville Break by Sidney Shelley. Film rights were bought in January 1968, prior to the novel's publication, by the producing team of Jules Gardner, Arthur Levy and Arnold Laven, who ran LGL Productions and had a deal with United Artists.[2] William Norton, who had done several scripts for LGL, was assigned to write the screenplay. The location of the story was shifted from Canada to Scotland.[3]
In October 1968 Brian Keith signed to play the lead role.[4] That month the novel was published. The New York Times called it "a crackling tale".[5] "In the best tradition of escape literature," said the Chicago Tribune.[6]
In February 1969 Andre De Toth was signed to direct.[7] By April he had left the project and been replaced by Lamont Johnson. The film had been retitled The MacKenzie Break.[8]
The film was shot in Ireland, at Ardmore studios Co. Wicklow, and in Bonmahon Co. Waterford, in October 1969.[9]
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A modest but surprisingly effective little film, which starts with the advantage of an ingenious and well-scripted story, but really scores in its unobtrusive concern for authenticity. Not only does McKenzie camp look like a prisoner-of-war camp, but the soldiers behave like soldiers, the Germans speak German, and the equipment on hand – from riot shields and guns to escape lorry, torpedo boat and reconnaissance plane – testifies to a budget well spent (not too much of it, not too little, but just right). Above all, the various character clashes in the film (Perry-Connor, Connor-Schluetter, Schluetter-Neuchl) are quietly, credibly and observantly built up to sidestep their melodramatic possibilities, with excellent performances all round. Perhaps the script might have dug more incisively into the U-Boat/Luftwaffe split, with its hints of anti-Semitism and homosexual-baiting; and perhaps tighter editing might have avoided some of the sagging moments; but on the whole this is what might once have been described as an unusually intelligent B-feature, in which even the Irish locations manage to stand in for a credible Scotland."[10]
References
^"The McKenzie Break". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
^MOVIE CALL SHEET: 'Love Bug' Set for Michele Lee
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 12 Jan 1968: c10.
^MOVIE CALL SHEET: John Gavin Set for Role
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 9 Feb 1968: c15.
^Break' Role for Keith
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 18 Oct 1968: f18.
^Criminals at Large
By ALLEN J. HUBIN. New York Times 10 Nov 1968: BR65.
^THRILLERS
Rosenzweig, A L. Chicago Tribune 29 Dec 1968: n12.
^MOVIE CALL SHEET: Israeli Actor Topol Signed for 'Fiddler'
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 22 Feb 1969: a7.
^MOVIE CALL SHEET: Katherine Crwford to Debut
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 26 Apr 1969: b7.
^The busiest film set in Europe
Lennon, Peter. The Guardian 18 Oct 1969: 9.
