The Last Time I Saw Archie ** (1961, Robert Mitchum, Jack Webb, Martha Hyer, France Nuyen) – Classic Movie Review 9588

Producer-director Jack Webb’s forgotten and neglected 1961 comedy The Last Time I Saw Archie stars Robert Mitchum as a real-life confidence trickster, Private Archie Hall, plying his trade at a US Forces base in the waning days of World War Two. Jack Webb also stars as his buddy and partner in trickery during their enlistment, William ‘Bill’ Bowers.

William Bowers’s autobiographical screenplay has some bright moments and Mitchum winningly wafts his way through it. But co-star Webb’s performance is less adroit and his direction is rather pedestrian and lacks sharp comic timing.

Mitchum’s character is based on Bowers’s wartime friend, film director and star Arch Hall Sr, who initially liked the attention but later sued the producers for invasion of privacy and won a settlement. This may be because Archie Hall is portrayed as a lazy, scheming American in the wartime Civilian Pilot Training Program, a flying school for pilots too old to fly aircraft but still OK to fly military gliders and liaison aircraft.

Also in the cast are Martha Hyer, France Nuyen, Louis Nye, Jimmy Lydon, Richard Arlen, Don Knotts, Robert Strauss, Joe Flynn, Del Moore, Richard Arlen, Harvey Lembeck, Claudia Barrett, Theona Bryant, Elaine Davis, Marilyn Burtis, Howard McNear, Bill Idelson, John Nolan, James Mitchum, Lillian Powell, Nancy Kulp, Don Drysdale, Billy Kilmer, Phil Gordon, Martin Dean, Robert Clarke, Dick Cathcart and Art Balinger.

Baseball pitcher Don Drysdale and football quarterback Billy Kilmer appear in cameos in their film debuts. Parts of the film were shot at Fort MacArthur.

The Last Time I Saw Archie is directed by Jack Webb, runs 98 minutes, is made by Manzanita-Talbot Productions and Mark VII, is released by United Artists, is written by William Bowers, is shot in black and white by Joe MacDonald, is produced by Jack Webb, is scored by Frank Comstock and is designed by Feild M Gray.

In 2020 the film is unavailable on DVD and there is an Internet petition for a home video release, started by the Jack Webb Fan Club Los Angeles Chapter.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9588

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