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ARCHIE SAVAGE (1914–2003). American actor, dancer, and choreographer.
Choreographed: The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah
(Robert Aldrich 1962); Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun (Osvaldo
Civirani 1964); The Wild, Wild Planet (Margheriti 1965); War of the
Planets (Margheriti 1966); Il Pianeta Errante (Margheriti 1966).
While he can be seen as a dancer in Federico FELLINI's La Dolce Vita,
the turning point in Savage's life came when he met up with Antonio MARGHERITI,
and that underrated director recognized that he would be an ideal addition to
the science fiction film he was making, Space Men (also known as Assignment
Outer Space). With his athletic build, striking gray hair, and commanding
presence, Savage was instantly persuasive as an older astronaut assigned to
escort a novice space traveler to a space station; clearly, unlike others in
his position, he hadn't received the news that actors in Italian science
fiction films didn't really have to act. Although he is given less and less to
do as the film progresses, and eventually is called upon to sacrifice his own
life in a battle against an out-of-control spaceship computer, he was by far
the film's most credible and memorable performer. Believe me, as part of my
latest research project, I have watched almost all of the cinematic astronauts
of the 1950s and 1960s, from Bowman and Poole to Abbott and Costello, but
Savage's Al and William LUNDIGAN's
Colonel McCauley are the only ones I would actually get into a spaceship with.
But after this one choice part, Savage again struggled to obtain
palatable work, and he must have been particularly displeased to find himself
cast in Italy's own cheapskate versions of the cheapskate American jungle
movies of the 1950s. And so, he reinvented himself as a choreographer for films
that would not normally employ a choreographer, such as The Last Days of
Sodom and Gomorrah and Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun. It was
in this capacity that Margheriti rehired him to add some futuristic dances to
the first three films in his "Gamma Quadrilogy." Of course, modern dance had
previously been employed for a touch of strangeness in travesties like Cat-Women
of the Moon (1953) and Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956), but
Savage really thought about what he was doing, so that after watching The
Wild, Wild Planet, one remembers the butterfly dancers observed in two
performances as well as the odd dance moves executed by everyday people in the
background of one scene, a device picked up and regularly used in the German
series Space Patrol. Yet Margheriti could have profited from also giving
him acting roles as well, since his gravitas would have provided needed
support to all the handsome hunks and beautiful models who starred in those
films and perpetually seemed overmatched in facing the hazards of mad
scientists, sinister aliens, and misbehaving planets. However, except for a
fleeting cameo in War of the Planets (one voice cries out "Archie!"), he
remained behind the camera for all three films. Approaching sixty, Savage retired from all film work and
spent the last thirty years of his life primarily as a teacher to younger
dancers, one hopes only minimally tormented by the might-have-beens of his
underutilized life. Since he was an obscure performer even to experts in the
genre, it is understandable, but lamentable, that he was never summoned back to
join other veterans in a science fiction film, where he could have given
helpful pointers to some young actors as well.
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