The Last Time I Saw Archie

As a huge Jack Webb fan and a huge Arch Hall (Sr. & Jr.) fan, I had long awaited the opportunity to see Jack Webb's portrayal of the life of Arch Hall Sr. I was a bit disappointed, though, when I discovered that the movie was a comedy about Arch's army career, not about his production of film greats like `Eegah' and `The Choppers.' This movie doesn't even mention his extensive prewar career making B-Westerns, preferring to imply that he had `no past.'

That said, however, Robert Mitchum does an excellent job of portraying Arch, as recollected by his wartime buddy Bill Bowers (adeptly portrayed by Jack Webb himself). According to Ray Dennis Steckler, Mitchum spent time studying the real Arch Hall, learning how to make every move speak of laziness and a drive to get somebody else to do the work. Steckler (who worked with Arch on `Eegah' and `Wild Guitar') says Mitchum did him to a `T.'

Bowers clearly romanticized his old friend quite a bit - if the real Arch Hall had been that good at manipulating circumstances to his favor, he would have become a Hollywood powerhouse, not a director of low-budget (if wonderful) schlock films. Nevertheless, watching Mitchum work people as Arch is enormously entertaining. I think this movie would appeal to anybody who has been in the service and dealt with the kind of ludicrous conditions that are familiar there. Mitchum as Arch gets to turn the whole system of controlled chaos to his advantage.

It's too bad Don Knotts didn't get more scenes, I started laughing as soon as he appeared on the screen. Everyone in the cast shows excellent comedic sense, and Jack proves (once again) that he was not just the straight man from Dragnet - he was a visionary and talented artist with considerable range.

Funny stories about con men in the military are nothing new, and this one seems especially implausible (even though it allegedly has some basis in truth). But that doesn't matter. Archie Hall is an unforgettable character, and the great Robert Mitchum brings him splendidly to life. For all the pros in the supporting cast, I'm not sure this quirky tale would even have worked without Mitchum.

Archie is a lowly GI serving on an obscure Stateside post during World War II. He and his pals feel the Army cheated them out of the plum assignments they deserved, but Archie doesn't waste his time complaining. Instead, with a mix of genius and audacity, he creates a splendid life for himself right where he is. Soon he's virtually running the camp.

The fast-talking Archie charms every beautiful woman in sight, including an enigmatic Japanese-American (played by France Nuyen) who may be involved in an espionage plot. His superiors are in awe of him and fall all over themselves to give him special privileges. And though his comrades in arms see through his games, and sometimes gripe about him, he's so successful that they can't resist jumping on his gravy train.

Jack Webb, who also produced and directed this film, plays the most strait-laced character in it, though not the self-righteous, uptight Webb usually seen on the screen. He plays Archie's buddy, Bill Bowers, who genuinely likes the con man but fears he's getting into something he can't talk his way out of. Thanks to Archie, Bowers finds his own love interest (played by Martha Hyer).

This movie has some laugh-out-loud moments but occasionally hits a serious note. It's neither as flag-waving as the military comedies of the 1940s nor as dark and anti-war as those of the '70s. It manages to be entertaining, moving and believable at the same time. For the believability, I give Mitchum the credit.

As many movie fans are aware, Bill Bowers and Arch Hall Sr. were real-life Army buddies who also happened to be in the film industry. When the movie came out, Hall disputed Bowers' recollections of their life in uniform. So how accurate this story is may never be known. And it's possible the main character was embellished, too. But even if the "Archie" we see here is mostly fictional, he's a great guy to spend a little time with.

That rarest of cinematic animals: A Jack Webb comedy...

That is, an INTENTIONAL Jack Webb comedy. In at least one interview Mitchum claimed this was his favorite role, because he "got paid $400,000 in advance". Mitchum plays Archie Hall, a charming con man who's always scamming his army superiors during WW2. Hall was real person, an army buddy of screenwriter William Bowers (played by Webb in his stiffly pseudo-relaxed "Joe Friday takes the weekend off" manner). But Mitchum with his "who gives a damn" attitude isn't really suited to playing a con man -- it's a role that would've suited, say, Tony Curtis better.

The supporting cast of character comics -- Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck (reunited 8 years after Stalag 17) as knucklehead sergeants, plus Louis Nye, Joe Flynn, and Del Moore as Mitchum's patsies in the platoon -- come off best, even if Nye overacts quite a bit. This may be the best part Moore ever had (and don't give me that Nutty Ptofessor crap -- Moore was wasted as Jerry's stooge). Too bad Moore never got a career-boosting TV gig (the way Flynn did with McHale's Navy), he was a very talented farceur.

"Archie" stars all the really great character players from the time period. People whose names you might not know, but who's faces and the voices were quite familiar, make up the Army Air Force unit. Don Knotts had been working on the Andy Griffith show for under two years when this was released so he wasn't as well known as he would later become, Joe Flynn had been in sitcoms since they began later to appear in many Disney movies for kids, while Robert Mitchum was an A List star and Jack Webb had been on radio for 25+ years along with TV's Dragnet before producing and directing series. Webb was the director and producer of "Archie". Of the military comedies, (Francis the Talking Mule, Your in the Army/Navy Now, "Archie" would be one of the best with a decent enough story, fun actors and humorous situations, mostly based on the chiseler (Mitchum's character) and the fall guy (Webb) interacting with each other and a bunch of extremely beautiful girls. Martha Hyer plays Webb's love interest while a gorgeous Vietnamese actress plays Mitchum's steady. Neither of the two girls would appear dated by today's standards, the beauty holds out. And that is the movie, high jinks by Mitchum, as he pulls the wool over the other members in the unit with Sad Sack Webb left holding the bag, and the women. It's fun, a good escape and don't miss the airplane crash with Mitchum running out of runway, you'll die laughing.

This movie combines features of the WWII Aviation Cadet program (Preflight), Civilian Pilot Training Program, and O.C.S. It is not like any of them as An Officer and a Gentleman is not like any USN program. However, I would think that the writer had been in one of the programs to get it so right as to how the guys interact with each other and with the military. I am the product of such a program (Aviation Cadets) and saw much to identify with. From the writer's list of credits, covering ever year of WWII it doesn't seen that he could have been in the military. Still, he got it right. The first time I saw the movie I thought the spy subplot was a stupid filler but I enjoyed it much more in later viewings.