What initially sounds like a far-fetched spy tale quickly becomes a taut suspense tale with many angles. Besides three kinds of Germans we get American prisoners who in no way act heroically, and a tortured concentration camp survivor presented without the slightest sentiment. While mainstream war thrillers moved toward popular escapism in bright color, like the same studio's Von Ryan's Express, Morituri turns to the dark side.

The hero Kyle is a German of questionable loyalties, starting as a selfish fugitive from war and ending as an unaligned humanist. He has to wear and personify the insignia of a feared and despised elite organization. Standing in his way is Captain Mueller, a loyal German conflicted by his own command's lack of faith in his record. Kyle has to evade the suspicion of two high-ranking German naval officers, while trying to forge a bond with the "disloyal" members of the crew - and with the American prisoners locked away in the hold.

For once the mission is too hopeless and the complications too numerous for a simple solution, and Morituri is successful because we honestly can't predict what will happen next. Captain Mueller's skill is such that he can sneak through a foggy Pacific by passing his freighter off as an Allied steamer, but detection is always an imminent possibility. He has orders to scuttle the ship immediately if it might fall into enemy hands, but Kyle's mission is to disarm all the scuttling charges and save the vital cargo for the Allies.

The original story is by the same writer responsible for Fritz Lang's complicated Indian movies The Tiger of Eschnapur & The Indian Tomb, and he and Daniel Taradash weave a dozen unstable variables - alcoholic captain, suspicious officers, unreliable dissidents - into a satisfying suspense thriller.

Fox's German director Bernhard Wicki was simply okay with The Visit, The Bridge and the German scenes in The Longest Day, but none of those are as accomplished as his work here. Aided immeasurably by Conrad Hall's stark B&W images and Jerry Goldsmith's nervous music, he gives both Brando and Brynner one of their best vehicles. Brynner is intense and convincing even when he has to throw himself into a drunken rage over a moral issue (his beloved son, a German officer, has sunk an Allied Hospital ship).

After deep-dish political movies with half-baked ideas (The Ugly American) and a hopeless effort with Charlie Chaplin, Brando is excellent in a clearly-defined genre role. His German accent is much improved since The Young Lions and we spend many anxious moments watching his face as his character talks and balks his way out of one verbal trap after another.

The most disturbing part of the story is the Jewish torpedo survivor Esther Levy, played by the excellent Janet Margolin (David and Lisa, Take the Money and Run). Already the victim of a gang rape and deranged by the death of her brother, she helps Brando in his hopeless mutiny with a mad gleam in her eye. When the American sailors refuse to join in, she perversely offers herself to them - as a group - for the promise of their participation. It's eerie not only because the movie even allows such a bargain, but because she seemingly offers herself willingly. Nothing in the script or direction "places" her action as a glorious sacrifice, as in the WW2 melodrama Cry Havoc! where a U.S. nurse goes on a suicide date with a perverted Japanese officer. It's just one more grotesque wrinkle in an awful situation. This unexpected harshness probably repulsed audiences in 1965 - Morituri isn't a feel-good show. It comes off now as serious and inspired - despite the grim title, taken from the gladiator's oath to the Emperor Morturi te Salutant: We Who Are About to Die, Salute You.

Trevor Howard gets high billing but exits the film almost immediately in the first unconvincing scene set in Brando's home in India. Martin Benrath is good as a weasely first officer, and Wally Cox tries once again for a dramatic hit as a ship's doctor addicted to morphine. Familiar face Hans Christian Blech (Battle of the Bulge, The Longest Day, The Bridge at Remagen) has his best role as the leader of the dissident German sailors. Spotted in smaller bits are favorite 40's Nazi Martin Kosleck as a sailor and Hans Gudegast (Eric Braeden of The Rat Patrol and Colossus, the Forbin Project) as a radio man. Hidden among the faces of crewmen are Gary Crosby, Paul Baxley, Roy Jensen and George Takei.

Fox's welcome DVD of Morituri is a superb transfer of this dark and moody B&W film. Conrad Hall's lighting in the labyrinthine interior of the freighter Ingo (is this a joke on Otto Preminger's producer brother?) is a last gasp of excellent monochrome artistry. The track is clear, allowing us to appreciate Jerry Goldsmith's interesting score that successfully substitutes acoustic and electric guitar work for martial clichés

The only extras are a teaser and a trailer that try to push the film as a powerhouse action spectacle between two actor-titans, but the moody photography doesn't support that sell.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Morituri rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: trailer
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: May 25, 2004