THE LAST TIME I SAW ARCHIE
US, 1961, 98 minutes, Black and white.
Jack Webb, Robert Mitchum, Martha Hyer, France Nuyen, Louis Nye, Jimmy Lydon, Richard Arlen, Don Knotts, Robert Strauss, Joe Flynn.
Directed by Jack Webb.
The Last Time I Saw Archie is a World War Two humorous memoir by screenwriter William Bowers. He is portrayed by producer-director Jack Webb (taking some time off from his Dragnet and Police film and television series). The film is reminiscent of a number of films made during the war and immediate years afterwards. It seems somewhat anachronistic in 1961.
Robert Mitchum seems to enjoy himself as the self-opinionated con-man. There is a good character cast including some veterans (James Lydon and Richard Arlen), some characters who had acted this role many times - Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck. There are some comic touches from Joe Flynn and particularly Don Knotts. Despite the predictability, the film has a pleasant mood about it - and a memory of an American type (gone or perennial?).
1. The popularity of American service films? Comedies? For American audiences? International? Its re-creation of a period? Its seeming dated or not?
2. Jack Webb's films: police films, series? His direction and acting? Robert Mitchum in the lead? The strong character acting cast?
3. Black and white photography, comic pace, score?
4. The tradition of service films: the background of the war, the voice-over memoirs, the comic scenes, con-man tricks, romance, action sequences? How authentic the film?
5. The film as an autobiography - Bowers and his own work, career? In the light of Archie? Archie as the con-man on the pedestal?
6. A piece of Americana: American types, attitude towards the war, Devoted to military service, con-men and their smooth talk, the dreams of success?
7. Robert Mitchum and his languid style - the small-time success, moving into the armed forces, seeing him in action, smooth-talking, stories, tricking others, impersonating authorities, persuading authorities that he was authentic? His doing nothing during the war? The perks? The girls and romance? The spy sub-plot? The irony of his ending and his being in the movie studio? Ambitions for the White House? (Fulfilled, somewhat, in the '80s!)
8. Bowers as the ordinary American - integrity, admiring Archie, following Archie, getting caught? Romance? Hard-working at the end?
9. The range of officers - those in command, Don Knotts' impersonation of the incompetent officer, Cindy's uncle? The severe officers and their being tricked? The portrait of the ordinary men and their hopes, being persuaded by Archie, getting caught? Stanley and Greenbriar and the comic touches, waiting in the cold for the spies etc.?
10. The sketch of the girls - Peggy, Archie's mistake and her being a nice girl? Cindy and the exotic overtones of the spying? The touch on Japanese American citizens?
11. Comic detail, routines and jokes?
12. The tongue-in-cheek American hero? The self-centred and cynical hero? Values, conscience, lack of scruple - and the men's willingness to follow such a leader?
