RT Obscura, the exclusive column by renowned critic Kim Newman, sees the writer plumbing the depths of the RT archive in search of some forgotten gems. In his 13th column, Kim uncovers a forgotten Brando/Brynner war film.

It isn't only low-budget, no-star, outside-the-system quickies which languish in obscurity. Sometimes, substantial pictures -- through no fault of their own -- fall through the cracks. This maritime war movie boasts two of the biggest international stars of its era (Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner) along with obviously healthy production values and a strong suspense/action plot with potent emotional/political content. But it wasn't a box office success in 1965, is rarely cited in 100 Great War Movies lists dominated by much lesser films, Brando fans (taking a lead from the star's typically dismissive comments) underrate his performance, and television revivals are rare.



I suspect the major problem was the unresonant, clever-clever title (Morituri is Latin for, "we who are about to die," the gladiators' salute) - releasing it in some territories as The Saboteur - Code Name: Morituri didn't help win more audiences - though it's also true that war movies with mostly "enemy nation" characters haven't tended to be hits since the days of All Quiet on the Western Front. However, the fact that you aren't likely to have seen it as many times as, say, The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare (other examples of the Mission: Impossible style of WWII film) means it's likely to be a fresh, surprising, and indeed shocking viewing experience.

A huge shipment of rubber, destined for the tires of Nazi military vehicles, is to be sent from Japan to occupied France on the German merchant vessel Ingo, which is commanded by honourable Captain Mueller (Brynner), who has a black mark on his record because he was drinking rum while an earlier ship was sunk under him. The rubber is so vital that the Ingo will have a submarine escort and is required to make itself over as a British or Swedish vessel to get through various allied blockades.



And Mueller's life is complicated by eager, Nazi second officer Kruse (Martin Benrath), who wants his job, and a small group of dissident crewmen who are being shipped back to Europe to face political charges. Robert Crain (Brando), a German marine engineer who has skipped the fatherland and is spending the war luxuriously in India pretending to be Swiss, is blackmailed by a British officer (reliable one-scene man Trevor Howard) into boarding the Ingo, posing as a high-ranking SS officer named Kyle. The first of many twists is that the job of the saboteur is not to sink the ship, but to disable the handily-numbered "scuttling charges" so that it (and the rubber) can be seized intact by the Allies at a pre-arranged point along its course.