''Morituri'' (also known as ''The Saboteur: Code Name Morituri'') is a 1965 American

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Bernhard Wicki and starring

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''

Yul Brynner Yuliy Borisovich Briner (; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner (), was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical ''The King and I'' (19 ...

, Janet Margolin and

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...

. The cinematography was by Conrad L. Hall, and the film musical score was composed by

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...

. Based on a 1958 novel of the same title by German writer Werner Jörg Lüddecke, the film centers on a German pacificist (Brando) blackmailed by the Allies into sabotaging a Nazi-controlled merchant ship, whose captain is having his own second thoughts about the war effort. The title of the film is from the Latin phrase, ''Morituri te salutant'' (“We who are about to die, salute you”), attributed to Roman gladiators. Wicki's first English-language film, ''Moritiuri'' received generally positive reviews but was a commercial flop. It was nominated for two

Oscars The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

in the

38th Academy Awards The 38th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1965, were held on April 18, 1966, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. They were hosted by Bob Hope, and were the first Oscars to be broadcast live in colo ...

, for Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Black-and-White Costume Design.

Plot

Robert Crain (

) is a wealthy German engineer and

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

who fled to India under a fabricated Swiss identity after being conscripted into the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He is blackmailed by English Colonel Statter (

) and the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

into participating in a plan to seize a shipment of rubber, which is in short supply and essential for both sides' war efforts, that will soon be carried by the German merchant ship ''Ingo'' from Japan to Nazi-occupied

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

. All German merchant ships are under orders to scuttle themselves to prevent the capture of their cargoes by Allied forces, so Crain's task is to use his engineering knowledge to disable the scuttling charges on the ''Ingo'' before the Allies move to take the ship. Crain is provided with fake documentation and a cover story: he is ''

Standartenführer __NOTOC__ ''Standartenführer'' (short: ''Staf'', , ) was a Nazi Party (NSDAP) paramilitary rank that was used in several NSDAP organizations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. First founded as a title in 1925, in 1928 it became one of ...

'' Hans Keil, a high-ranking SS officer needing to return to Germany. Aboard the ''Ingo'', Crain finds the captain, Mueller (

), to be a patriotic German whose humanistic inclinations are at odds with Nazi principles. The first officer, Kruse ( Martin Benrath), is a fanatical Party member who keeps a close eye on the captain, and the crew is a mix of Nazi loyalists and political prisoners who were pressed into service due to labor shortages. Crain begins covertly locating and disarming the scuttling charges. To deflect suspicion about his movements, he uses the charges to convince Kruse, who is unaware of the scuttling protocol, that he is secretly tasked with protecting the ship from a saboteur, and stokes Kruse's doubts about the captain's loyalties. Later, after one of the prisoners tries to kill Crain, he enlists them in a plan to have the Allies take the ship, while also winning Mueller's grudging trust by persuading him not to fire the scuttling charges when the ship is almost torpedoed by a Japanese submarine due to its disguise as a British merchantman. That submarine has two German Naval officers aboard, along with a number of American prisoners and Esther ( Janet Margolin), a young German-Jewish woman who has been raped and tortured by her Nazi captors. Complications arise when the submarine meets with the ship to transfer Esther and the prisoners. Despite the horrors Esther was subjected to, she is still openly defiant of every German she encounters on board the ship, including Mueller and Crain. When Mueller is alone with her, he is able to overcome her expectation that he too is a brutalizer, adding that he will assist her to escape once the ship gets to Europe, a hope that is soon dashed when Kruse also learns that she is Jewish. Later Crain persuades her to join in his plot, but she is disgusted by his lack of commitment to the anti-Nazi cause. The two German Naval officers, who are familiar with military personnel and operations in the Far East, become suspicious of Crain's SS identity and return to the submarine to check on his credentials by radioing to Berlin, giving Crain less than 24 hours to complete his mission. While awaiting the Naval officers' report Captain Mueller hears that his son, a German Navy officer, has been decorated for sinking an Allied hospital ship. Disgusted by this, Mueller becomes drunk and reveals in a rage the full extent of his anti-Nazi beliefs, which gives Kruse a reason to declare the captain unfit and take command of the ship. Meanwhile, about to be exposed, Crain organises a mutiny. For it to have any chance of success the American prisoners would need to participate, but when Esther appeals to them for help they only agree on condition that they can have sex with her, and she accepts. Just before the mutiny occurs, Kruse receives the submarine radio message that Crain's SS identity is false, and arms the loyal part of the crew. The mutiny is then easily defeated and the mutineers are assembled at gunpoint. Esther is thrown to the deck. Unable to bear any more, she throws herself at Kruse who shoots her. Mueller maintains he is "no traitor" and refuses to aid him - Crain is able to elude his pursuers long enough to detonate the scuttling charges he had not yet disabled. The surviving crew abandon ship, during which the anti-Nazi German sailors make sure the wounded Kruse drowns, as they laugh at him. Crain and Mueller are then the only persons left on board. Barrels of lard in the ship's hold spill open, expand and act as a stopper, temporarily keeping the ship afloat. Crain asks the captain to radio the Allies for rescue, and is surprised when he does so.

Cast

as Robert Crain *

as Captain Mueller * Janet Margolin as Esther Levy *

as Colonel Statter * Martin Benrath as Kruse * Hans Christian Blech as "Donkeyman" *

Wally Cox Wallace Maynard Cox (December 6, 1924 – February 15, 1973) was an American actor. He began his career as a standup comedian and played the title character of the popular early American television series '' Mister Peepers'' from 1952 to 195 ...

as Dr. Ambach * Max Haufler as Branner * Rainer Penkert as Milkereit * William Redfield as Baldwin * Oscar Beregi Jr. as Admiral Wendel (credited as Oscar Beregi) * Martin Brandt as Nissen * Charles De Vries as Kurz * Carl Esmond as Busch *

Martin Kosleck Martin Kosleck (born Nicolaie Yoshkin; March 24, 1904 – January 15, 1994) was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazi Germany, Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis ...

as Wilke * Norbert Schiller as Steward * Robert Sorrells as Koeniger, German Crew Member * Rick Traeger as Crew Member * Ivan Triesault as Lieutenant Brandt

Reception

The film did not do well on its original release and was a financial disaster. In an attempt to increase its commercial appeal, the film was reissued in 1965 under a new title as ''Saboteur: Code Name Morituri.'' Critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

of the ''New York Times'' criticized it for being "turgid." He praised Brando's performance, however, saying: On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Morituri'' holds a score of 75% based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The title "Morituri", the plural of a Latin word meaning "about to die," is a reference to a phrase used by

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

, ''

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant ''Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant'' ("Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you") is a well-known Latin phrase quoted in Suetonius, '' De vita Caesarum'' ("The Life of the Caesars", or "The Twelve Caesars"). It was report ...

''. (Hail Emperor, they who are about to die salute you.)

Box office

According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $10,500,000 in rentals to break even and made $4,045,000.

Awards

The film was nominated for two

in the

(1966) for best black-and-white cinematography ( Conrad L. Hall) and best black-and-white costume design ( Moss Mabry).

''Meet Marlon Brando''

After having appeared in a series of box office disappointments, Brando agreed to promote ''Morituri'' for the studio by participating in a day-long press junket at the Hampshire House in New York City.''Meet Marlon Brando'' (1965) – Fandor.
/ref> This event was the subject of ''Meet Marlon Brando'' (1966), a 29-minute black-and-white

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by

Albert and David Maysles Albert Maysles (November 26, 1926 – March 5, 2015) and his brother David Maysles (January 10, 1931 – January 3, 1987; ) were an American documentary filmmaking team known for their work in the Direct Cinema style. Their best-known films in ...

and Charlotte Zwerin. Brando was praised for his performance in the documentary by critic Howard Thompson who wrote, "The actor was never more appealing than in this candid-camera cameo, his best performance." The documentary premiered at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

in 1966. Since then, it has aired on French television but was not shown in its entirety in the United States until specialised streaming service Fandor made it available on November 15, 2013.Bernstein, Paula. "Exclusive Clip from 'Meet Marlon Brando,' Maysles Brothers Doc, Available for the First Time"
''Indiewire,'' 14 November 2013

References

External links

* * * * {{Bernhard Wicki 1965 films 1965 drama films 20th Century Fox films American black-and-white films Films based on German novels Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Seafaring films American World War II films World War II films based on actual events World War II spy films American war drama films 1960s English-language films Films directed by Bernhard Wicki 1960s American films