Stanley Baker and Alex Cord are at each other's throats in "Dr. Who" director Gordon Flemying's "The Last Grenade," a gritty but anti-climatic actioneer about honor among mercenaries. Mind you, this film has the distinction of living up to its title. You may like it more than I or you may like it less than I, but you'll have to agree that "The Last Grenade" lives up to its title. The problem here is that the narrative wanders off course for an improbable as well as unconvincing romantic affair. Freshman scenarist Michael Ware could have given our hero a romantic interest with more connection to the plot. Honor Blackman is the lady in question. Baker plays Major Harry Grigsby as somebody afflicted with tuberculosis. He makes a sympathetic as well as believable character, but he suffers the most damnable ill luck. Basically, he is the kind of hero who takes a beating right up to the end before he surprises the villain with fatal consequences. Meantime, Flemying has assembled an distinguished cast, orchestrated the action against colorful scenery, and derived the benefits of Alan Hume's first-rate cinematography. Unfortunately, as mercenary movies go, "The Last Grenade" isn't half as good as either "Dark of the Sun" or "The Wild Geese." "The Last Grenade" cannot even compare with the Stallone & Statham "Expendables" epics. Indeed, despite strong performances, this 94-minute melodrama qualifies as second-rate fare. The film never recovers from a spectacular opening aerial massacre. Flemying stages several fights, but the arena and the size of those scenes shrinks rather than enlarges. The two leads cultivate a blood feud between themselves that infuses "The Last Grenade" with its primary source of energy. We want to see our hero finally outwit the villain. Indeed, he does but at an extreme cost.
At 42, Major Harry Grigsby (Stanley Baker of "The Guns of Navarone") has survived the best and the worst. Grigsby is waiting his friend, Kip Thompson (Alex Cord of "Stagecoach"), to fly his army of mercenaries out of the Congo. Ostensibly, Harry believes Kip will save the day when he swoops in on a helicopter to pick up his men. Imagine Grigsby's horror when Kip opens fire with a machine gun on Grigsby's men. Grigsby realizes he has been sold out by the greedy Thompson. Kip wipes out all but a handful of Grigsby's men. Suffering as he does from tuberculosis, Grigsby manages to get back to London when he recuperates. Nevertheless, rage smolders within him about Kip's treachery. Later, Grigsby learns from a government bureaucrat that the Red Chinese have Kip on their payroll. Whitehall is willing to foot the bill to send Grigsby to Hong Kong, but the elusive Kip kills one of his men in cold blood and captures Grigsby. Resourceful to a fault, Grigsby manages to escape. Grigsby's escape is cool. You don't see what he does in every adventure movie. Nevertheless, the Major feels like the deck is stacked against him. While Grigsby recovers in the hospital from his injuries,. Katherine Whitely (Honor Blackman), the wife of Grigsby's Hong Kong liaison, invites herself to visit him. This is a romance of convenience as you'll soon come to learn. Nothing about it seems credible given the circumstances. She comes to see him enough that she decides to divorce her husband, General Charles Whiteley (Richard Attenborough of "The Great Escape"), to live with Harry. You know that a romance between a mercenary and a woman with a relentless villain lurking in the background is not going to end well.
Ultimately, "The Last Grenade" isn't a fun movie, but it is well-made.
At 42, Major Harry Grigsby (Stanley Baker of "The Guns of Navarone") has survived the best and the worst. Grigsby is waiting his friend, Kip Thompson (Alex Cord of "Stagecoach"), to fly his army of mercenaries out of the Congo. Ostensibly, Harry believes Kip will save the day when he swoops in on a helicopter to pick up his men. Imagine Grigsby's horror when Kip opens fire with a machine gun on Grigsby's men. Grigsby realizes he has been sold out by the greedy Thompson. Kip wipes out all but a handful of Grigsby's men. Suffering as he does from tuberculosis, Grigsby manages to get back to London when he recuperates. Nevertheless, rage smolders within him about Kip's treachery. Later, Grigsby learns from a government bureaucrat that the Red Chinese have Kip on their payroll. Whitehall is willing to foot the bill to send Grigsby to Hong Kong, but the elusive Kip kills one of his men in cold blood and captures Grigsby. Resourceful to a fault, Grigsby manages to escape. Grigsby's escape is cool. You don't see what he does in every adventure movie. Nevertheless, the Major feels like the deck is stacked against him. While Grigsby recovers in the hospital from his injuries,. Katherine Whitely (Honor Blackman), the wife of Grigsby's Hong Kong liaison, invites herself to visit him. This is a romance of convenience as you'll soon come to learn. Nothing about it seems credible given the circumstances. She comes to see him enough that she decides to divorce her husband, General Charles Whiteley (Richard Attenborough of "The Great Escape"), to live with Harry. You know that a romance between a mercenary and a woman with a relentless villain lurking in the background is not going to end well.
Ultimately, "The Last Grenade" isn't a fun movie, but it is well-made.