Too Late the Hero is a 1970 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Ian Bannen and Harry Andrews.

In the 1942 Pacific theatre of World War II, Lieutenant Junior Grade Sam Lawson, USN, is a Japanese-language interpreter who — so far — has avoided combat.

His commanding officer, Captain John G. Nolan, unexpectedly cancels his leave and informs Lawson that he is to be assigned to a British infantry commando unit in the New Hebrides Islands for a combat mission.

Shortly after Lawson's arrival at the base, a patrol of British soldiers sprint out of the jungle and across the open field, pursued by the Japanese.

The base commander, Col. Thompson, instructs his men to keep well back, out of enemy range; they watch as the patrol are cut down by Japanese rifle fire.

Lawson's commando group is instructed to destroy the Japanese radio transmitter to prevent them from sounding the alarm about an American naval convoy which is scheduled to appear on the horizon in three days.

Jock Thornton, a lean Scot whom Lawson at first considers slightly cracked for skipping on patrol and singing the "Teddy Bears' Picnic", Pte.

By the time the squad reaches the Japanese post, Riddle, Connolly, and Currie are dead from a botched ambush — which, Hearne mutters to Lawson, was entirely due to Hornsby's incompetence.

[3] That year, when he was making films in Europe, he said he was going to scout locations in Burma and wanted Laurence Olivier and Trevor Howard to play the leads.

The film projects were Cross of Iron by Lukas Heller, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Tsar's Bride by Robert Sherman, Brouhaha by George Tabori, The Legend of Lylah Clare, Paper Eagle, There Really Was a Gold Mine (a sequel to Vera Cruz) and Genghis Khan's Bicycle, with the TV series being The Man by Heller.

Screenplays had also been completed on Now We Know by John O'Hara and Halstead Welles, Vengeance is Mine, Potluck for Pomeroy and Too Late the Hero by Robert Sherman.

Robert Aldrich recalled that the production company ABC Films wanted another version of his The Dirty Dozen, and that Too Late the Hero, a property that could use some of the same elements, had been languishing in studio drawers for over a decade.

[3] He ended up selling The Legend of Lylah Clare to MGM and setting up Too Late the Hero at ABC, where it was made for $6 million.

[8][better source needed] In October 1967, Aldrich announced he would make the film as part of a four-picture deal he had with Palomar ABC; the others being The Killing of Sister George, Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?

[15] The opening and closing segments were filmed outside the Subic Bay Naval Base using sailors and American civilians as extras.

[23] Shortly after filming, Robertson optioned the rights to Death of a Legend, the story of Blanche Walker Jurika, executed for fighting the Japanese in World War II.

"[27][28] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "an okay World War II melodrama ... the net result is not very much at all, except for a pervading load of bland competence, under the overall supervision of auteur Aldrich.

Oddly enough, Aldrich, who directed 'The Dirty Dozen,' substitutes boredom in the form of an annoyingly long prolog, repititious scenes, and combat in a closed space.

[citation needed] Owing to a geographical separation of rights, Too Late the Hero is one of those films with the odd distinction of having been novelized twice for two different marketplaces.