How Long Is “The McKenzie Break”?

Kapitan Schieutter (Helmut Griem) is the Nazi commandant confined to a British prisoner of war camp in Scotland in this suspenseful escape drama. He is the prototypical Hitler youth who has risen to U boat commander. He keeps the prisoners loose and his captors off guard by staging plays, singing songs and doing group exercises with all the enthusiasm of a summer camp counselor. Schieutter waits for the right moment to plan his escape and rendezvous with Nazi submarines off the coast of Scotland. Captain Jack Connor (Brian Keith) is the former Irish crime reporter now working for British intelligence. Jack tries to warn the camp commander Major Perry (Ian Hendry) that things at the camp are not what they seem to be and a revolt is possible. Perry is reluctant to clamp down on the Nazis fearing reprisals for British officers in Nazi prison camps. Schieutter orchestrates the destruction of a barracks in which a dozen of his own men die in order to create a diversion. Connor and Schieutter play a cerebral game of cat and mouse as the Irishman tries to stop the escape.