Break to Freedom (1953) Poster

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8/10
Excellent, under-appreciated prisoner of war film
Leofwine_draca17 June 2016
ALBERT, R.N. is a very good British WW2 prisoner of war movie which has a story so incredible it must be true. It features an naval officer and his men who are determined to escape from their camp in Germany at any cost, and devise one of the most audacious plans in history to facilitate their freedom. This suspense-packed narrative subsequently follows their adventures with many highs and lows along the way.

I've always loved a good prison film and this one offers something a little different; the prisoners are actually well taken care of and have plenty of camaraderie in their living quarters. Nonetheless the escape attempts are enthralling and often jaw-dropping in the way the simplicity of the thing works so well - you can't believe what you're seeing.

I also like the way that the writers take the time to develop the individual characters to more than just walking stereotypes. Anthony Steel is particularly good as the conflicted newcomer, but he's given fine support by Jack Warner as the friendly captain. Anton Diffring has one of his best early roles as a ruthless and mercenary German officer. In support, the viewer is treated to the likes of Eddie Byrne, Michael Balfour, William Sylvester, and Paul Carpenter, all of whom are very fine in their parts. ALBERT, R.N. is something of a forgotten classic of its type and a film that more than holds its own against the bigger budget Hollywood tales.
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8/10
Solid P.O.W. thriller!
gordonl564 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
One of the better of the rash of pow camp films that came out of the UK in the late 1950's. The film is set in a Nazi pow camp where a group of Royal Navy prisoners come up with a novel means of escape. They produce a life-like dummy that breaks down into small pieces. Several of the men hide the pieces under their coats when they are marched outside the wire for the weekly shower. Once inside the shower room they put the dummy back together. While one man stays behind the rest march back to camp carrying the dummy between them. The guards take a head count which of course matches the number of prisoners who left earlier. The gag works and the Germans are fooled. Only problem is the escapee is caught and shot. They plan to keep pulling the same trick again till one of them makes good his escape. Director Gilbert keeps this one moving right along while getting the best out of the cast and crew. The prisoners include Anthony Steel, Jack Warner, Robert Beatty and Paul Carpenter. The best role in the film goes to Anton Diffring who does his best Nazi SS officer bit. Diffring made a career out of playing nasty German officers. Well done!

(b/w)
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8/10
True events from a POW camp for naval officers
SimonJack30 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"Albert, R.N.," aka, "Break to Freedom," is a very good British POW film set during World War II. The film opens with a prologue, "The events concerning Albert are based on fact, and took place in the prison camp, Marlag "O," for Naval Officers in North West Germany, during the spring of 1944." Indeed, two former POWs wrote a play about this POW camp and events, and the movie screenplay was based on that.

The term, marlag, is an abbreviation of Marinelager (navy camp), and these were prison camps for sailors and naval officers. The "O" designation was for officers. The prisoners at this camp were mostly British naval officers, with some American and other U.K. naval officers. Marlag "O" was located near Hamburg, Germany, and in a couple of scenes of night Allied bombing, the POWs refer to Hamburg getting hit again.

The Milag (internment) camps held the many Merchant Navy and Merchant Marine seamen. They were divided also between officers and men. Most of the 5,000 Allied merchant seamen rescued and captured by the Germans were held in Milag North. American shipment of war materials, supplies, and combat forces was all done by the Merchant Marine. The Marlag and Milag camps were about 1,000 feet apart, and between them was a large block of showers that was used by both camps.

The characters in this story and film are fictitious, though they resemble some of the men who were at Marlag O. Anthony Steel plays Geoff Ainsworth, the artist who designed the mannequin face of Albert. He is patterned after John Worsley a war artist. Two British officers helped with Albert. One made the body and the other made it so Albert's eyes would blink and move.

The real story came out different than this film shows. The first escapee (Lt. William Mewes) wasn't killed. He was recaptured and returned to Marlag. The second escapee was captured in the shower building, as shown in this film. There was no third attempt because the Germans discovered Albert and destroyed the mannequin.

After the war, artist Worsley made another Albert for use in making this film. He also made another for an exhibition of his work, and it later went to the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth. In the movie, Lt. Fred Erickson (played by Paul Carpenter) says, "Nice work Geoff. After the war, you come to Hollywood. We've got just the job for you – making stars look like people."

The film itself comes off a little stagy at times, but the compelling story keeps that from detracting from the film. This is a good historical movie because it shows a POW camp specifically for naval officers. The sea-going prisoners were treated quite differently than were the Army prisoners in the many regular POW camps.
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7/10
The real star is the dummy
trimmerb123429 November 2015
There were quite a few British POW films in the '50's, some better than others. For some reason, the real ingenuity of escape attempts were glossed over, what so occupied the POWs attentions and on which depended their happiness and their lives: how uniforms, documents, stamps, photographs, tools etc could be made by with apparently none of what was necessary to make them. The films were thus human stories which though lacked much of what had been so crucial to the men involved. Here though the heart of the film is Albert RN - the life-like full size dummy used to take the place of a prisoner - and the virtuoso performances of its summoning out of the air in seconds, and its disassembly and disappearance again in seconds. Also along with the dummy itself, the way it was deployed, the plans for avoiding discovery and the on the spot quick thinking needed if the unexpected happened (when perhaps a dozen POW had to wordlessly devise and implement a plan in the presence of the German guards). And Albert R.N. was not just brought out to deceive the guards on the day of the escape but every day for a week to delay discovery of the escaped prisoner.

The other parts of the film are not quite up to par. Jack Warner did not convince physically as a serving naval officer, Anton Differing did his nasty Nazi once again (though who did it better?) but the marvel of Albert RN the dummy raised the bar and shone a light on the ingenuity, daring and skill of those who devised, built and operated him.
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7/10
"what is the matter with that man...?" -a better than average period PoW film
Brucey_D26 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
In order to pass a head count or roll-call, even though one of their number is engaged elsewhere in an escape attempt, ingenious PoWs create a like-like dummy they name 'Albert'.

The events in the film are based on real events in 'Marlag O', a PoW camp for naval personnel in Northern Germany. John Worsley -the only war artist to be captured during WWII- together with others including Lt JW Goble, created the first 'Albert' who was used in the course of two escape attempts. This 'Albert' was surprisingly sophisticated, even having eyes that were made from ping-pong balls, connected to a pendulum device so that they would blink.

Worsley made a second 'Albert' for this film, and Goble worked on the film as a technical assistant.

'Marlag O' was not the only PoW camp where such dummies were used; amongst others, dummies (named 'Moritz' and 'Max') were made and used in Colditz (Oflag IV-C). If you visit Colditz Castle today, you can see one of these dummies in the PoW museum there; less convincing by far than the one in the film, the one in the museum in reality worked well enough to pass 'Appel' on several occasions.

Some aspects of the film are perhaps not so realistic; for example it was common for prisoner's huts to be bugged with listening devices, so in many camps any escape attempt discussions would only be carried out whilst 'exercising' outside. However the film makers did work to give the characters more than two dimensions; in one scene we see into the minds of the prisoners as they rest in a quiet moment; their hopes, dreams and prayers are each voiced in turn. Overall the film holds up well despite a relatively modest budget.

This film might ultimately lack the 'hook' of 'The Wooden Horse' or 'The Colditz Story' but it is a pretty sound effort, and is worth seeing.
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6/10
Yes, But You Don't Go!
boblipton7 June 2021
It's another P. O. W./escape film, with the usual cohort of Germans: the bumbling sergeant, the professional soldier in charge, and, of course the nazty Nazi type who winds up in charge. This time it's a Naval P. O. W. Camp, hence the original name. "Albert" is a dummy made up to let a prisoner escape occasionally from the wash house, which is outside the grounds. Eight POWs march up to the facilities, with the pieces secreted among them. One of them, chosen by lot, hides while the dummy is assembled, and then after eight prisoners seem to have marched back, takes off. The Germans notice the short count only the next morning.

It's the reactions to Albert among the bunkhouse with Jack Warner in charge that make up the interesting bits to this movie. Some are explained. Others, aren't. Why does the fellow who came up with the idea seem uninterested in escaping? I still haven't figured that out. With Anthony Steel, Robert Beatty, and William Sylvester as "Texas".
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7/10
Albert R.N,
CinemaSerf14 November 2022
Lewis Gilbert has put together quite a good cast for this light-hearted wartime tale of POWs who find quite an innovative way of escaping and goon-baiting at the same time. Jack Warner ("Maddox") heads up the Allied side while Frederick Valk the Nazi one - and battle commences. The allies have a secret weapon - well, two actually. One is "Ainsworth" (Anthony Steel) who invents the other - "Albert" - a head made of papier-mâché that fits onto a collapsible torso built to fool the guards during their routine inspections. After a few mishaps, a bit of bribery, betrayal and some impatience, it finally falls to "Ainsworth" to try and escape... This has a strong cast - including Anton Diffring and Robert Beatty, and is written with serious intent but enough dark humour to flow well for 90 minutes, and I really quite enjoyed it.
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One more POW film, and rare too.
searchanddestroy-12 February 2014
Warning: Spoilers
British film movie industry had a speciality, during the fifties and also a bit in the sixties, that was war films, especially POW features. Films about escapes from POW camps. Americans made the two GREAT ESCAPE and STALAG 17. But the British made more than that. I saw many POW movies from UK. I don't remember them all, except A TOWN LIKE ALICE and KING RAT. But, I repeat, there were many many more. Do not forget that the British soldiers, during WW2, were, for most of them, prisoners by the Nazis. So...

I won't add much to the previous comment, except that the terrific Anton Diffring character is named Schlutz. That sounds familiar to me. Maybe I am wrong, but I think of the famous TV show STALAG 13 - aka PAPA SHULTZ in french title - that spoke about POW guys, in a comedy TV series. The warden of the POW camp also named Schultz. But this character had nothing to do with the evil one played here by the magnificent villain Diffring.
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6/10
Best Performance By A Dummy In A Motion Picture
blogward14 February 2023
Considering the number of times 'Albert R. N.' is rolled out on UK terrestrial channels, it receives very little attention on IMDB. The movie is based on a play that is based on an event that actually occurred in WWII, when official war artist John Worsley was a POW and created just such a dummy to fool German POW headcounts.

It worked for four days, apparently, while in the movie Albert serves for months.

This movie is best watched as an example of UK war propaganda (8 years) after the event. Any resemblance of characters or plot to reality is nonexistent. Anton Diffring is as usual a convincing SS officer, except his uniform appears to be home-made - and they forgot the death's head on his cap. Most of the rest of the cast appear to have discovered a secret cache of doughnuts, as if in 1953 people didn't appear to understand the link between POW rations and weight loss. They did, but the news hadn't reached Nettlewood Studios.

'Break To Freedom' ('Albert R. N' in the UK, a much better title) is worth watching as a window into old-fashioned war drama; it's well structured and not that boring. It's just unrealistic to the point of surrealism. Jack Warner doesn't so much phone it in, he texts it.

The dummy, though. Eerily like Dickie Attenborough, who appeared in many a film of this genre.
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9/10
Anthony Steel as artist in a war prison helping others to escape
clanciai7 September 2018
Lewis Gilbert was a very reliable director, not one of the top ones and not one of the most active, but the films he made are always well made, like for instance maybe the best James Bond, "You Only Live Twice". This is another of his very best, although in black and white and behind barbed fences in a dreary muddy war prison camp. The story is a true one, and it is marvellously developed, gradually mounting in suspense and intrigue, as one of the Germans gets acceleratedly vicious in his frustration, taunted by his insolent but honest prisoners. His villainy is actually more outrageous than usual for bullying Germans in the war, which must lead to some sort of settlement. No one will be disappointed.

There are many films like this, true stories of incidents and escape ordeals in war prison camps towards the end of the war, and this is clearly one of the best, almost on par with "The Password is Courage" (1962) with Dirk Bogarde, an equally true and fantastic war prison story of epic esacapes.
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7/10
Let's put on a show, prisoner of war style.
mark.waltz20 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
There's a bit of an amusing comical mood in this World War II film set in a German prisoner of war camp, coming out the same year as the Oscar winning American film "Stalag 17", and possibly like that film influencing the oddball wartime sitcom "Hogan's Heroes". The officers, both British and American, entertain each other by putting on shoes, and at one point are counterpointing each other's band with different songs. A German guard opens the film noticing the sudden emergence of a hole in the sand like dirt outside the camp, and it's very funny in how it's played off.

But this is not a comedy, with leading character Anthony Steel reporting to Jack Warner and using a mannequin (which they name Albert) to stand in for roll call while someone escapes. The head of the camp is ironically named Schultz, but he's hardly the hear nothing/see nothing like numskul of John Banner's character. Robert Beatty and William Sylvester (the only American) co-star in this fast moving wartime thriller that has lots to keep the audience interested as things aren't always what they seem to be.
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