blanche-2 Morituri (1965) stars Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Trevor Howard, Janet Margolin, and Wally Cox. Morituri is Latin for "We who are about to die salute you."Brando plays Robert Crain, a German pacifist living in India during the Second World War. The Allies use blackmail to convince him to use his engineering expertise to disable a German ship carrying rubber from Japan. If he disables the "scuttling" mechanism of the ship, the Allies can recover the rubber, which was in short supply during World War II.Of course, no one knows why he is on the ship - he says he is a German official. The captain (Brynner) is a good German but he hates the Nazis. His first officer, however, is a party member. Some of the crew are political prisoners working due to labor shortages.Crain ultimately tells the prisoners his plan to give the ship to the Allies. Then some American prisoners and German naval officers are rescued from a Japanese submarine. Excellent film, with plenty of action as well as suspense. Both Brynner and Brando are excellent in their roles, Brando especially, sporting a perfect German accent and giving an underplayed performance. It's an old wives tale that Brando mumbled - he mumbled when the part called for it, and he had a good ear for accents. Sad to see Janet Margolin, who died of ovarian cancer at age 50.Recommended to those who like WW II films.

Tracy Winters Dumb espionage flick with Marlon Brando running around cutting ship wires and lying through his dippy German accent on the way to the close-up showing his pained reaction to a Jewish woman explaining how terribly her people were persecuted.I don't know if the film was trying to be 'complicated', but if it was, than director Bernie Wicki failed miserably, because this tripe is rather easy to follow. Of course, any character here who's supposed to be 'good' is sympathetic to the Jews. God forbid Hollywood (which is Jewish-owned and operated) look at history from a Nazi's viewpoint.Mostly boring film bloated with the presence of 'big' names like Brando, Trevor Howard, and Yul Brynner. Boo-hoo.

dickc-671-863112 I saw this for the first time in 48 years on Netflix last night. The only visuals I remembered were 1-Janet Margolin with a bullet hole in her forehead 2-the Nazi assistant captain with a bloody forehead from banging on the ships side 3-the innovative(for 1965) helicopter wide shots.I had totally forgotten about the plot and any character development. Brando was coming off of some scathing reviews in "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Ugly American" and was about to go southern in "The Chase" so definitely a low time for him. Yul was Yul and Wally "Mr. Peepers" Cox was playing lost again like he did in "The Bedford Incident". If this were made 5 years later Janet Margolin would probably have shown more skin and fared better than a few Woody Allen movies. Oh yes, Trevor Howard makes a cameo appearance as Trevor Howard. The Netflix print looked like it had been stored in the trunk of a 1963 Volkswagen at the neighborhood junk yard. Too bad because th B+W kind of gave it a Noirish tone. I don't know if it was B+W to save money or to create a mood or just to say it was Brando and Brynners last B+W movie.

robinsdh Finally saw this flick from the beginning by streaming it on Netflix. Slow pace by today's standards but worth slowing down for. Various motivations complicate and drive the plot.Was surprised it was in B&W in the mid-sixties but adds to atmosphere.Some good camera angles such as the one following a conspirator as he races from bow to stern to warn our hero.I find suspenseful and worth the viewer's "wait" for something to happen.But I'll admit I'm amused that Trevor Howard is "guest staring" like it's a series.As I noted at first, it can be seen with a Netflix account. Too bad that's the only way but that's where you'll find lots of good movies.BTW: look for Starfish Island on the Web and see what you get.