Morituri (1965)

Morituri: Directed by Bernhard Wicki. With Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Janet Margolin, Trevor Howard. A war pacifist is blackmailed to pose as an SS officer and to disable the scuttling explosives on freighter carrying rubber cargo to be captured by the Allies.

“If the plot is a little hard to follow at times, Morituri at least looks great. Fantastic black and white cinematography, which provides some great noirish moments, especially below-deck, and Marlon Brando, make this a very beautiful movie to look at. The 60u0026#39;s are generally thought of as Brandou0026#39;s u0026quot;down period,u0026quot; between his giving up the part of Lawrence of Arabia and ending up being falsely blamed for the project he chose instead of it going over budget, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and his massive u0026quot;comebacku0026quot; with The Godfather in 1972 (by the way, Marlonu0026#39;s simple reason for his choice between the two projects, was heu0026#39;d much prefer to be swimming in beautiful Tahiti for three months than stuck in a hot desert for three months!). Because of this myth, Brando afficionadoes seek out movies from this period and test how accurate a reflection of talent and ability public opinion and money-making is. I havenu0026#39;t yet seen all of them, but the example of Morituri suggests that there was no reason to suspect Brandou0026#39;s talents ever dimmed. Some projects he had no respect for, and clearly just walked through the part – but when he cared, and when the director could tell the difference between a u0026quot;fullu0026quot; take and an empty one, Brando was electric. Morituri is an example where we see Brando at his best. His German accent in this is actually quite good – certainly better than his English accent – and it contains quite a few special Brando moments (like when he is discovered below-deck by someone who isnu0026#39;t aware he shouldnu0026#39;t be there). Jerry Goldsmithu0026#39;s (Omen) score is a highlight. Very Herrmann-esque.”