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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Set during World War II,
"Morituri" chronicles a German deserter and
ex-patriot named Robert Crain (Marlon Brando)
living in India blackmailed by a British officer
(Howard) to impersonate an SS Officer and help the
British capture a German freighter. The ship
helmed by Captain Rolf Mueller (Yul Brynner) is
filled with rubber tires traveling from Japan to
Germany. These crucial supplies desperately needed
by Germany but if the British can obtain the tires
it will help turn the tide during the war. Crain
must disable explosives on the ship designed to
scuttle it should it fall into enemy hands and
help deliver it to the British with no allies on
the ship except for sixteen prisoners of war and a
girl (Janet Margolin) who survived the German
concentration camps.
Beautifully shot by the brilliant Conrad Hall
("Road to Perdition," "Marathon Man" and "In Cold
Blood"), sharply directed by Germany's Bernhard
Wicki ("The Longest Day") and featuring intense
performances by Brando and Brynner, "Morituri"
stands as one of the best WW II action pictures
produced during the 60's. While Brando's role is
the showier of the two, both actors are in top
form.
Featuring a beautifully restored print, "Morituri"
looks sharp with great clarity and a nicely
detailed transfer that compliments Hall's black
and white cinematography. One of the reasons the
resolution and picture are so sharp is the use of
a dual layered disc for this 124-minute film. It
allows there to be little of the pixel digital
artifacts that occur when a transfer is compressed
too much. There are no noticeable analog flaws and
the digital ones are minor to nonexistent. The
mono sound is also faithfully transferred.
Fox has provided a series of other trailers from
their Fox War Classics series and, in addition,
the original theatrical teaser and trailer for the
film. We also get the Fox Flix recommendations as
well. There's no commentary although one by a
World War II scholar or film historian might have
been interesting.
A beautifully transferred print and strong
performances by Brando and Brynner highlight
"Morituri" a tense, involving WWII thriller that
holds up amazingly well today. The detailed and
sharp transfer looks exceptional on this DVD.
Highly recommended. |
