Morituri

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.