Mara Maru (1952)

Sadly Over-hyped

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Errol Flynn dives for sunken treasure in "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" director Gordon Douglas' "Mara Maru," with Ruth Roman, Raymond Burr, and Paul Picerni. This black & white yarn about avarice on high seas is predictable fare, but a top-notch cast, Gordon Douglas' assured direction, and some good underwater diving scene keep it afloat. Like the character that he plays, Errol Flynn was on his way down by the time that he cast in this adequate potboiler. Director Gordon Douglas doesn't let the action get water-logged for a moment, and "Mara Maru" is an entertaining epic even though it doesn't have any major surprises in it. Raymond Burr is perfectly cast as a villain with smooth edges who displays no qualms about cheating his partners as they set out to find a jewel encrusted cross. Picerni is just as oily as another villain who has a difficult time deciding whose side—either Burr or Flynn—that he wants to support. Virile Richard Webb gives a good account of himself as Flynn's former partner who winds up murdered before the first 30 minutes elapses. Another familiar face in this sturdy saga is Dan Seymour who plays a local cop in Manilla who wants to pin a murder on the intractable Flynn. Flynn fans will have a ball with this one. Of course, a capable stunt man probably wore the helmet and suit for the deep sea diving scenes, but Douglas does a good job of inserting close-ups of Flynn in the helmet into the action.

In 1952, Errol Flynn still looked passably good. He was one of the handsomest men in the movies, after all, and though he was an alcoholic, his face hadn't been completely destroyed yet. And he was trim. In the earlier "Cry Wolf" he was quite bloated.The story concerns a salvage diver working in the Philippines, Gregory Mason, who finds his partner Callahan (Richard Webb) drunk in a bar and talking about treasure. Later he's found dead, and Mason is accused.A private detective is able to clear him of the murder. Mason is hired by a man named Brock Benedict (Raymond Burr) to find a briefcase lost during a voyage. It supposedly contains diamonds. The late Callahan knew where the ship went down.Mason takes the job, but is warned by another salvager not to work with Benedict, but with him instead. Mason ignores him. To his surprise, Callahan's widow Stella (Ruth Roman) who is in love with Mason, and vice versa, is on the salvage voyage as well.Stella is certain that Benedict, once he gets the briefcase, is going to kill Mason. She urges him to end the voyage by saying a typhoon is coming and it can't be risked. Mason refuses and says he can take care of himself.Mason is later faced with a moral dilemma.Some exciting scenes. One rather annoying thing was that Flynn wore this helmet-like thing over his head, and he looked out at the ocean through a window built into it. Well, they used the same shot of him looking into the sea through the window over and over, and it was obviously the same shot. I don't know much about deep sea diving, but what he was wearing looked like a heavy suit of armor. I would think that would work against you.All the actors were up to the task, Burr always playing an effective villain in those days; and Flynn gives a strong performance, as does Ruth Roman.Ben Mankiewicz described Flynn as one of the most popular stars in the world, which is true, but he wasn't there as long as many of his contemporaries. By the late '40s Warners was giving him lower budget, black and white films, with the exception of That Forsyte Woman. He had a good ten years.TCM, in an effort to make it seem as if the stars at MGM, RKO, and Warners were the true stars and the people at 20th Century Fox, etc. did some acting on the side, won't tell you that Flynn does not appear in the top 200 box office stars of all time. Still, it was a wonderful career for a handsome, athletic actor of great charm.Maru Maru is entertaining and pretty good.

Yes, Errol Flynn looks more than his 43 years here...but not that much more...more like 48. So I don't buy all those comments that he had turned into an old man. He still had about 7 years more of making films in him before his early death at age 50.What is noticeable is how his star had fallen. It's not that this is a bad picture. In fact, it's a pretty decent mystery-adventure film. But, it's a far cry from the glory days of "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" and "That Forsythe Woman", and Ruth Roman was no Olivia de Havilland or Greer Garson.Nevertheless, the main cast does rather nicely. Here, Errol Flynn looks like the kind of man who might have stayed in the Philippines after the war, lived a tough life, and ended up deep sea diving. And the diction -- always one of his strong points -- remained. Ruth Roman, though a B picture actress, was a good B picture actress, and does very well here as the wife of Flynn's partner. Raymond Burr always did nicely as a heavy (no pun intended), and does nicely here; he really was quite good. And Paul Picerni as a PI, adds a nice touch.The plot is pretty straight-forward. There's a treasure to be had (dating from WWII) and the men who are after it are not to be trusted. When Flynn's partner (one of two men who knew the location of a diamond treasure) is murdered, it falls to Flynn to work his way through the intrigue to find the treasure and the murderer. There are enough twists and surprises to keep you involved, and I very much enjoyed this pic. Recommended

[Contains some minor spoilers about first 30 minutes of movie]Mara Maru, one of Errol Flynn's more mediocre movies, is obviously an attempt to cash in on the success of the B movies of the time, what we now call film noir, while attempting to add a twist of the usual Flynn style (i.e. a swashbuckler). The early part of the movie is almost an exact copy of the opening of The Maltese Falcon - the main character (in this case Flynn's) partner is murdered, he meets with hostile police, a past love affair with partner's wife is revealed, and then he meets with various mysterious villains who offer to help him towards large bundles of cash, if only he will acquire something for them.The mix isn't successful, with the noir element dominating most of the time, although the adventure quotient ups a bit later on. The problem with this is that Errol Flynn is great at being the charming rogue, but really not very convincing as the threatening Bogie-noir "man with a dark past" type. Indeed, no one is very convincing in this movie, most of the actors seeming like "Will work for food" types; moreover the plot proceeds much too slowly and ploddingly, and occasionally lapses into sentimentally, which has no place even in pseudo-noir. There are none of the directorial touches usually associated with noir movies either.Mara Maru is not an awful movie, merely boring and a waste of time; there are thousands upon thousands of movies your time would be better spent watching than this one. I'd recommend instead checking out either some of Flynn's much superior full-blown swashbucklers like The Sea Hawk, The Adventures of Don Juan, or The Adventures of Robin Hood; or some full-blown noirs, like The Maltese Falcon or Touch of Evil.