A whole lot of Marlon Brando's films have been unjustly neglected from the sixties and Morituri is one of them. It's a nice espionage yarn set on the high seas in a voyage from Japan to occupied Bordeaux in France.
There's no other way to put it, Marlon Brando's character is a draft dodger who if he had done so in The Young Lions he'd have been much better off. But he's got certain engineering skills that British Intelligence learns about and they essentially blackmail him into a mission for them. The British Intelligence officer is Trevor Howard and quite frankly I'm surprised the two of them are sharing the screen again. They had pointedly not gotten along during the making of Mutiny on the Bounty. Maybe the dislike put some bite into the scenes where Howard persuades Brando to enlist in the Allied cause.
The mission is to disable a German freighter leaving from Japan loaded with several tons of rubber ore. The allies don't want the ship sunk, they in fact want Brando to disable the various charges put around the ship that would enable Captain Yul Brynner to scuttle if need be.
What I like about Morituri is that there are no heroics here. Brando's cover is that of an S.S. man traveling as a passenger on the ship. He's got no back up at all and he's got no James Bond like spy devices. His character has to survive on his wits alone and Brando proves very clever at out thinking foes that are not stupid. He's helped in this by a very good script.
Brynner also has his problems. He's a patriotic German, not particularly in love with the Nazis. He has a son in the German Navy though. Brynner was drunk on his last voyage and may have been indiscreet due to alcoholic influence, a fact that Brando cleverly exploits in letting them think his real mission as a 'passenger' is to keep an eye on Brynner.
Both stars get their moments to shine in the film. Brando was able to use his star power to get a role for his best friend Wally Cox as the ship's morphine addicted doctor. Cox was trying in the sixties to branch out into serious parts and doing it successfully.
Morituri is a good espionage tale with a very tight and literate script, brought to the screen by a pair of the best actors around.
There's no other way to put it, Marlon Brando's character is a draft dodger who if he had done so in The Young Lions he'd have been much better off. But he's got certain engineering skills that British Intelligence learns about and they essentially blackmail him into a mission for them. The British Intelligence officer is Trevor Howard and quite frankly I'm surprised the two of them are sharing the screen again. They had pointedly not gotten along during the making of Mutiny on the Bounty. Maybe the dislike put some bite into the scenes where Howard persuades Brando to enlist in the Allied cause.
The mission is to disable a German freighter leaving from Japan loaded with several tons of rubber ore. The allies don't want the ship sunk, they in fact want Brando to disable the various charges put around the ship that would enable Captain Yul Brynner to scuttle if need be.
What I like about Morituri is that there are no heroics here. Brando's cover is that of an S.S. man traveling as a passenger on the ship. He's got no back up at all and he's got no James Bond like spy devices. His character has to survive on his wits alone and Brando proves very clever at out thinking foes that are not stupid. He's helped in this by a very good script.
Brynner also has his problems. He's a patriotic German, not particularly in love with the Nazis. He has a son in the German Navy though. Brynner was drunk on his last voyage and may have been indiscreet due to alcoholic influence, a fact that Brando cleverly exploits in letting them think his real mission as a 'passenger' is to keep an eye on Brynner.
Both stars get their moments to shine in the film. Brando was able to use his star power to get a role for his best friend Wally Cox as the ship's morphine addicted doctor. Cox was trying in the sixties to branch out into serious parts and doing it successfully.
Morituri is a good espionage tale with a very tight and literate script, brought to the screen by a pair of the best actors around.