Rewrite not working as expected

Any ideas what is wrong with this?

rewrite ^(.*)/page/([0-9]*)$ $1?page=$2 break;

Tried quoting, but still no success:
rewrite ^(.*)/page/([0-9]*)$ "$1?page=$2" break;
rewrite "^(.*)/page/([0-9]*)$" $1?page=$2 break;
rewrite "^(.*)/page/([0-9]*)$" "$1?page=$2" break;

Should rewrite:
http://mydomain.uk/work1/word2/17503/a-long-titles/page/2

To:
http://mydomain.uk/work1/word2/17503/a-long-titles?page=2