The Last Grenade (1970)

The Last Grenade (1970) was one of those films that used to inhabit the late night schedules on ITV in the mid to late seventies, when mid-budgeted small scale pictures like this were still promoted as 'big events' by the TV companies - distributors still jealously guarded their biggest hits, often keeping them off of TV for a decade or more after their initial releases.  Consequently, The Last Grenade premiered on TV with a reasonable fanfare - it was a relatively recent release and it featured a cast of 'name' actors.  Unfortunately, it was also a time when I still wasn't old enough to be allowed to stay up and watch such films, (especially violent-looking ones like Last Grenade), so watching it became a 'Moby Dick' like prospect - something to eventually be hunted down and viewed when I was an adult.  Which turned out to be more difficult than anticipated, as it became one of those films which just seemed to vanish from sight completely.  It was pushed out of the TV schedules by the flood of newer releases that hit UK TV screens in the eighties, as distributors relaxed their restrictions on TV showings and never seemed to have been released on home video of any kind, (there was eventually a Blu Ray release).  I've also searched streaming services, both legit and dodgy in vain for The Last Grenade.  I was finally able to catch up with the film recently when it turned up on YouTube.  

So, was this personal white whale of a movie worth waiting for?  Well, it has to be said that it is a very uneven experience, never really settling into a rhythm or style and never really seeming to know where it is going or what it wants to be about.  The obvious point of comparison is another movie about mercenaries released a couple of years earlier: Dark of the Sun (aka The Mercenaries) (1968).  Both films use the then recent conflict in the Congo as a background, but whereas Dark of the Sun plays out its story entirely in the Congo, with a straightforward plot involving the rescue of some rebel-held hostages, The Last Grenade uses the conflict simply as a scene setter, establishing the characters and central conflict which motivate the subsequent narrative. The opening Congo-set scene of The Last Grenade actually contain its main action set-piece, as Major Grigsby (Stanley Baker) and his mercenaries await rescue by helicopter, only to have the helicopter - under the control of Grisby's friend and fellow mercenary Thompson (Alex Cord) open fire on them.  Smarting from the betrayal, Grigsby subsequently accepts a clandestine assignment from the British government to lead his surviving mercenaries in a series of raids across the borders of the New Territories in Hong Kong to try and repel Chinese insurgents being led and advised by Thompson.

At which point the film loses direction, alternating between Grigsby's (rather desultory) attempts to track and kill Thompson and his affair with the local British military commander's wife (Honor Blackman).  The two plot strands eventually cross over, precipitating a final confrontation between Grigsby and Thompson.  The problem is that the film constantly frustrates audience expectations - the first attempt to take Thompson ends in near disaster with Grigsby losing one of his crew and only escaping with his own life after Thompson inexplicably spurns the opportunity to kill him.  Rather than hit back, Grigsby's subsequent campaign against the insurgents seems to peter out in favour of his romance with the general's wife.  A confrontation between Thompson and Grigsby's remaining crew in a Hong Kong nightclub keeps the flagging action moving, but not for long.  The final confrontation itself ends up feeling very anti-climactic.  Aside from the slack plotting, the film also suffers badly from a lack of proper characterisation of its protagonists.  In the case of Grigsby, the characterisation comes less from the writing than it does from Stanley Baker, who turns in one of his typical obsessive granite-hard military bastard performances, successfully suggesting a degree of emotional complexity to the character through his relationship with Honor Blackman's character.  While Grigsby is at least a cliche, Thompson is devoid of any real characterisation, portrayed by Alex Cord as simply a sniggering and arrogant killer for hire.  At least we can understand Grigsby's motivation - a desire for revenge at his betrayal and his own personal code of honour.  But what is Thompson's motivation, (Other than money), for betraying his friendships and loyalties?  We never know and are never offered a clue, making the whole conflict between the two characters seem empty and pointless.

All of which contrasts poorly with that other mercenary film of the era, The Dark of the Sun, which not only has a clear cut plot driving its action along, but also provides the audience with far more charismatic protagonists in Rod Taylor's mercenary leader and his sergeant, played by Jim Brown.  This film also featured a conflict between fellow mercenaries, albeit as (for most of the film) a sub-plot, as Taylor clashes with a racist ex-Nazi subordinate.  This conflict actually amounts to something, providing Dark of the Sun's protagonist with a climactic confrontation between his military professionalism and duty and desire for personal revenge.  All of which is why Dark of the Sun is the superior film.  That said, The Last Grenade isn't a total wash-out:  there are the glimmerings of an intelligent drama about mercenaries and the morality of their use, but it doesn't develop any of its ideas properly.  It's very well staged, though, with excellent location shooting in Spain (standing in for the Congo) and Hong Kong and Gordon Flemyng's direction is perfectly adequate, with the set pieces well mounted, but is ultimately defeated by an episodic script that never allows the film establish an even pace..  The cast is also pretty heavyweight for this sort of film and mainly deliver decent enough performances despite an inadequate script.  In addition to Baker, Blackman and Cord, but also boasts Richard Attenborough as the general, Ray Brooks as a junior officer and Andrew Keir, Rafer Johnson, John Thaw and Julian Glover as Grigsby's crew.

Like Dark of the Sun, which was derived from the Wilbur Smith novel of the same name, The Last Grenade also has a literary origin, in this case John Sherlock's 1964 novel 'The Ordeal of Major Grigsby'.  The source novel was set during the 1948 'Malaysian Emergency' (one of a number of post-war colonial conflicts the UK became embroiled in) - the film adaptation updated the action to the sixties, relocating the action to the Congo and Hong Kong, losing much of its political context in the process.  While Sherlock co-wrote the original adaptation with Kenneth Ware, it was subsequently rewritten by James Mitchell, the number of writers involved perhaps explaining the final script's unevenness and apparent lack of direction.  The Last Grenade was one of two films that Stanley Baker starred in for producer Dimitri de Grunewald in 1970, the second being the Peter Hall directed heist film Perfect Friday, which is the superior film, far better scripted, with better characterisations and smoother plot development.  The Last Grenade remains worth watching, for the sight of a number of soon to household name British actors in early roles, if nothing else, but ultimately is a frustrating viewing experience, never fulfilling the early promise held out by the opening sequence.