People are voting emotionally.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Marlon Brando was in the middle of his lean period when he made this World War Two thriller. "Morituri" did little to revive him as the film flopped when it came out in 1965. I am hardly surprised by this! The story on the written page looked quite interesting, no doubt. The final results are a right shambles. The main problem with this movie, is the lack of a coherent narrative. After about the opening 15 minutes, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with what is meant to be happening. Marlon Brando is cast as another German character who is ordered by British Intelligence to capture a particular vessel which is set to be dynamited. Brando needs to prevent this. Trevor Howard - in a couple of brief scenes - is the one who liasons with Brando at the beginning. The British actor should have been given more screen time. Yul Brynner is his usual robotic self as the ship's captain. I found myself having to guess what was occurring from one scene to the next and most of the film is restricted to being set and filmed on the ship. Long before the end (and it seemed interminable), I gave up on this rambling mess.

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.

Two German citizens on different sides of the war effort find themselves at the center of a clandestine cargo-grab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Marlon Brando plays the first, a pacifist expat who's arm-twisted into aiding British intelligence as a counter agent, while Yul Brynner takes charge as a disillusioned sea captain in charge of a precious Nazi payload. Though they're constantly at-odds, for reasons both above the surface and beneath, the two men have much more in common than either would like to admit. This makes for an interesting conflict, as both attempt to conceal a secret that would otherwise serve to potentially unite them. Commendable for the constant churn of its plot, which changes shape by the minute and drives its players to scramble in response, it deserves special marks for exploring the deep humanity of the cast. With but one exception, a first mate who's as dedicated to the Reich as Hitler himself, this vessel is awash in shades of grey, and that's a refreshing change of pace. Level-headed and even-handed, it keeps us guessing and even serves to shock on one jagged, violent occasion.

I happen to like maritime tales and settings, so the previous reviewers' remarks about the engine room scenes being boring were actually fascinating to me (the reciprocating engines/engine room of this era ship is seldom seen). That said, the plot of this tale was a little busy for me...too many twists and turns, like it was racing from port to port to get as much in as possible. I love Brando and Brynner, and they don't disappoint: Brando's role as a German is as good as his similar role in "The Young Lions", which is to say outstanding. Brynner's tortured alcoholic skipper is equally rewarding. The introduction of a Jewish refugee--as a girl who survives by at once reviling sexual depredations forced on her by SS in her homeland and yet too quick to use her charms to manipulate her captors aboard ship--seems rather tawdry and gimmicky, to lure 60's era pubescent boys into the theatre. I found her Svengali-like "sex-stare" to unnerving and ridiculous. There are many good performances by several minor characters (the First Mate is one, Wally Cox anti-typecast as a morphine addict Ship's Doktor is another). GREAT cinematography--helo flying shots, wonderful angles). The end of the story is rather abrupt and unfulfilling...I thought perhaps they'd run out of cash. It appears they actually darned near destroyed an actual vintage freighter in the making of the movie...! All-in-all, a good sea yarn and war tale, but seemed to a vehicle to put Brynner and Brando together, with some gratuitous sex thrown in for those not viewers not attracted to the former virtues...