Escape Artist

By Stefan Kanfer

Escape! Few words exert such melodramatic appeal, possibly because every man feels himself some kind of prisoner. As a result, some of the world's best escapist literature has been literature about breakouts.

The McKenzie Break carries on in the unblemished tradition of such predecessors as The Wooden Horse and The Great Escape. This time the P.O.W.s are Germans, and their guards are tommies. When the camp suffers a series of riots, British Intelligence decides to send an investigator, boozy, erratic Captain Connor (Brian Keith). Between drinks, the captain interprets the unrest as a diversionary tactic. There must be something deeper underfoot, he decides --something like a tunnel. From that moment, The McKenzie Break becomes a lethal contest of Irish hound and German hares led by the glittering Uebermensch, Kapitan Schluetter (Helmut Griem).

The film employs a fashionable conceit: behind their separate training and tradition, it claims, both captains are existential twins. Balderdash. The very casting works against the theme. Griem conveys a zeal that has crystallized into fanaticism. As for Keith, he can never adopt any posture for long without questioning it. His ironic underplay is, in fact, the strength of the drama. Even with lesser actors, Director Lament Johnson could have provided a crisp, driving movie. With this cast, The McKenzie Break deserves far better than its current saturation booking.

Stefan Kanfer

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