Morituri
Directed by Bernhard Wicki
Written by Daniel Taradash from a novel by Werner Jorge Luddecke
1965/USA
Arcola Pictures/Colony Productions
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Robert Crain: I was blackmailed to the strains of Mozart.[/box]
With this title it could be an African safari movie. Instead, it’s a WWII thriller with excellent performances by a stellar cast and plenty of action.
“Robert Crain” (Marlon Brando) is a German ship’s engineer who is hiding out in India under a false British passport. Thoroughly apolitical, he just wants to sit out the war in peace. A British colonel (Trevor Howard) is on to his ruse and blackmails him to accomplish what looks like mission impossible. He is to board a German ship taking a precious cargo of rubber from Tokyo to France (!) and sabotage the ship so that it cannot be scuttled when it is captured by the American Navy.
Fate works in Crain’s favor. The ship’s commander Captain Muller (Yul Brynner) is in disgrace for losing his previous ship to a torpedo while drunk and this is used against him to force him to take a number of prisoners on board as crew. So when Crain boards the ship, Muller immediately assumes he is an SS agent. This gives Crain an unexpected entree to work his will on various members of the crew. There is also a remarkable number of Nazi-haters aboard. With Wally Cox in a nice supporting role as a morphine-addicted doctor.
The plot bears very little scrutiny. The confluence of events here really makes no sense at all. On the other hand, it gives Wicki a chance to do some effective action sequences and highlights a couple of excellent performances by Brando and Brynner. I thought it was 20-30 minutes too long.
Morituri was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnNj-mAbQ6I
