Remembering Arcade, Peter Billingsley's B-Movie Springboard to Couples Retreat

The director certainly doesn't give his actors much help in Arcade. A young Seth Green doesn't need it, being already fully fledged and amazingly haired as the comic sidekick, and at least Megan Ward (now of General Hospital) gets to save the day by being the last girl standing in V-R goggleland. But putative star Peter Billingsley is allowed to roll his shoulders and eyes a lot and spends the last third of the movie staring at a blocky graphics on a TV screen.

Thing is, Billingsley wasn't there for what he could do on camera. While A Christmas Story had been undervalued on its release, by 1993 it was elevated to an American institution, its star's face beamed into homes 24/7 over the festive season. But Billingsley had outgrown Ralphie and new cult fame wasn't assisting his career. Instead, he was making a living doing guest spots and after-school specials, such as 1990's steroid drama The Fourth Man, where he met Vaughn. (See the diminutive Billingsley and the towering Vaughn recreate their oddly assigned roles here.)

Then, Arcade. In a recent interview for Couples Retreat, I reminded the affable Billingsley of the film; he confirmed there was a method to the seeming madness of starring in such a low-rent production. Acting on the advice of his mentor, the late Bob Clark, director of A Christmas Story, he'd decided to learn the nuts and bolts of filmmaking. After all, he'd been around it longer than anyone his own age, having done his first commercials, aged 2, which in turn led to his first national screen incarnation as "Messy Marvin."

Thus Billingsley took Arcade with the proviso that he also have behind-the-scenes roles, securing his first credits as post-production supervisor and as an editor, albeit under the nom-de-schlock Peter Michaelsen. Straight after Arcade, he starred in a short film that he also wrote, directed and produced. Then he did further editing work on other people's projects and joined Vaughn's start-up production company. Billingsley subsequently co-produced Made in 2001 and then executive produced on Zathura, The Break-Up, Iron Man and Four Christmases.

His Vaughn-Favreau connections matter a lot. But so does the man's due diligence. No doubt Billingsley would've found his way back to the limelight without Arcade, but for its place in the comeback of one of America's most beloved child stars, it's a Bad Movie We Love.

Michael Adams is the author of the upcoming comic memoir Showgirls, Teen Wolves, And Astro Zombies: A Film Critic's Year-Long Quest To Find And Watch The Worst Movie Ever Made (HarperCollins)

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