The Last Time I Saw Archie

I had to note that the title character is none other than the producer of the Bad Film classics Wild Guitar, Eegah (also director) the Thrill Killers, and the Choppers. He is also the Dad of "star" Arch Hall Jr. Another great Webb film, and the only one he did with Mitchum. Webb should be better known for his film and radio work.

Comedy about sharp, ultra confident and ex confidence trickster Archie (Robert Mitchum) his new found friend Bill (Jack Webb - Director / Producer) and their lives avoiding duty at the army air corps flying school, finding women and hatching various schemes.

Daft comedy that is hampered by a largely unlikable lead in Jack Webb and a script which seems to be aiming for something akin to The Phil Silvers Show / Bilko, and not quite getting there. What raises this up though is Mitchum who generally seems to get all this and fits into it rather nicely. Plus there are fun support characters eg Louis Nye, Joe Flynn, Del Moore, Robert Strauss (being Bilko) and Harvey Lenmbeck (who was in Bilko). The script really isn't that bad and there are a few good laughs when it settles down, but overall there isn't enough here to make a whole film.

"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.

Light, entertaining piece that oddly seems to fit both Webb and Mitchum. The scriptwriter had an excellent feel for how things worked (and still work, probably) in the Army if you know how to play the angles. Most of us who spent a few years on active duty (I spent 21 yrs) pulled a lot of these stunts, and we all knew people like Archie Hall -- and most of the other denizens of Camp Buckley.

This ain't CITIZEN KANE, but it's a lot of fun, probably a lot more so if you spent time in uniform.

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.