Morituri (1965)

Too much of everything

An unexpected masterpiece

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Marlon Brando was in the middle of his lean period when he made this World War Two thriller. "Morituri" did little to revive him as the film flopped when it came out in 1965. I am hardly surprised by this! The story on the written page looked quite interesting, no doubt. The final results are a right shambles. The main problem with this movie, is the lack of a coherent narrative. After about the opening 15 minutes, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with what is meant to be happening. Marlon Brando is cast as another German character who is ordered by British Intelligence to capture a particular vessel which is set to be dynamited. Brando needs to prevent this. Trevor Howard - in a couple of brief scenes - is the one who liasons with Brando at the beginning. The British actor should have been given more screen time. Yul Brynner is his usual robotic self as the ship's captain. I found myself having to guess what was occurring from one scene to the next and most of the film is restricted to being set and filmed on the ship. Long before the end (and it seemed interminable), I gave up on this rambling mess.

As the reviewers who used to get paid for writing this stuff would have said: "The real star of this picture is the ship!" Truly. The freighter has a life and personality all its own and all its gritty secret parts and workings are breathtakingly rendered in Conrad Hall's (Outer Limits) moody black-and-white, fabulous sound, and an amazing Jerry Goldsmith score.The 2 human stars are spot on--and we even get a cameo by the great Martin Kosleck!Two beefs: 1) the shameful misogynist treatment of the luminous Janet Margolin. 2) What has been an absorbing thriller, 7/8 of the way through suddenly turns philosophical/moral/political as Yul the Good German gets it on with his Bad German first mate and meanwhile the American POWS are even more swinish than the Nazis.But the ending is cool.And Like I said, the ship rocks this house.

Two German citizens on different sides of the war effort find themselves at the center of a clandestine cargo-grab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Marlon Brando plays the first, a pacifist expat who's arm-twisted into aiding British intelligence as a counter agent, while Yul Brynner takes charge as a disillusioned sea captain in charge of a precious Nazi payload. Though they're constantly at-odds, for reasons both above the surface and beneath, the two men have much more in common than either would like to admit. This makes for an interesting conflict, as both attempt to conceal a secret that would otherwise serve to potentially unite them. Commendable for the constant churn of its plot, which changes shape by the minute and drives its players to scramble in response, it deserves special marks for exploring the deep humanity of the cast. With but one exception, a first mate who's as dedicated to the Reich as Hitler himself, this vessel is awash in shades of grey, and that's a refreshing change of pace. Level-headed and even-handed, it keeps us guessing and even serves to shock on one jagged, violent occasion.

The highlight of this movie set on a German cargo ship during the Second World War are the superb performances offered by Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner. Brando plays a German expatriate (disguised as a Swiss national) who's living in British ruled India in 1942. He ends up being drafted (very much against his will) by the British to go undercover as SS agent Keil to divert the cargo ship (which is carrying a very valuable - to both sides - cargo of rubber) into American hands. Brynner plays Mueller - the ship's captain - a man with a drinking problem trying to regain his reputation after having a ship torpedoed out from under him while he was drunk, but a man who's also no fanatical Nazi.Both are very believable in their roles. There's also a strong performance from Martin Benrath as First Officer Kruse - who is a fanatical Nazi, who doesn't trust his captain, and who's as happy to have an SS officer on board as the captain is unhappy about it.The movie is always interesting. It's not an action movie in the modern sense of the word, but it's increasingly tense as suspicion grows about Keil, and as the ship awaits a report from Berlin about him. As good as Brando and Brynner and even Benrath are, though - and as tense as the movie becomes about whether Keil's real identity will be uncovered - the most powerful part of the movie might have come in a scene featuring Janet Margolin. She played a Jewish medical worker who was taken prisoner along with a number of American sailors when their ship is sunk by a U- boat. Speaking with Keil as he tries to convince her that he's on her side, his SS identity notwithstanding, she recounts - in surprisingly and uncomfortably (even for today, and so shockingly so in 1965) graphic detail - her abuse at the hands of the Gestapo. Without going into detail, the words "hour after hour after hour" are haunting. It was a truly sobering scene. You can't watch it and not find yourself in sympathy with a character who otherwise really isn't that central to the overall story.This is, overall, a very good movie with a very strong cast. (8/10)