Too Late the Hero **** (1970, Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Ian Bannen, Denholm Elliott, Henry Fonda, Harry Andrews, Ronald Fraser) – Classic Movie Review 8452

Co-writer/ producer / director Robert Aldrich turns in another tough war film in his 1970 Too Late the Hero, with rousing action, funny dialogue and an exciting climax.

Michael Caine is engaging in one of his archetypal roles as a cynical cockney with the unfortunate name of Tosh, in director Aldrich’s follow-up to his 1967 classic The Dirty Dozen.

Cliff Robertson plays US navy lieutenant Sam Lawson, who is assigned to British army private Tosh (Caine)’s motley crew of ‘Dirty Fifteen’ Brits on a suicide mission to destroy a World War Two Japanese base with its radio on a Philippine island.

Too Late the Hero is violent, gung-ho and cynical – and, of course, very pro-American – with the top character work you would expect from Denholm Elliott (captain), Henry Fonda (captain), Harry Andrews (colonel), Ian Bannen (mad private), Ronald Fraser (despicable private), Lance Percival (corporal), Percy Herbert (tough sergeant) and Sam Kydd (Colour-Sergeant). Though it is not in the class of Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen, it is still an exciting and rousing movie.

Too Late the Hero is directed by Robert Aldrich, runs 143 minutes, is made by ABC Pictures, Palomar Pictures and The Associates & Aldrich Company, and is released by Cinerama, is written by Robert Aldrich and Lukas Heller, based on a story by Robert Aldrich, Robert Sherman, is shot in Metrocolor by Joseph F Biroc, is produced by Robert Aldrich, William Aldrich and Walter Blake, is scored by Gerald Fried and is designed by James Dowell Vance.

There was an unpleasant shock for the makers when it was a surprise box office flop. It cost $6,250,000, grossed $615,000 in the US, as well as $1,590,000 cumulative worldwide gross.

Aldrich told the studio that he would accept ‘anybody but Cliff Robertson’ as star and blocked him from attending the 1969 Oscar ceremony.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8452

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