Sam el sinvergüenza

The film begins well with its depiction of 1960s suburbia, the introduction of the Bissell family (including the ducks), the amusing jibes at the advertising industry (including the inaccurate but hilarious depiction of the filming of a Hertz car rental commercial), provides some great performances from all the principals, and from a great supporting cast, such as Edward Andrews, R.Q. Jones, and Neil Hamilton. It has a smart, yet affectionate quality to it. But as the film chugs along, it seems to run out of steam, as the gags keep repeating themselves, and it begins to seem more like a less successful imitation of the popular Doris Day/Rock Hudson romantic comedies of the time, and one can begin to understand why Lemmon didn't put this one in the top drawer of his memories.

"Good Neighbor Sam" is a 1964 film starring Jack Lemmon, Dorothy Provine, Romy Schneider, Edward G. Robinson, and Mike Connors.

Lemmon plays ad man Sam Bissell, married to the lovely Min (Provine). Min's best friend Janet (Schneider) comes to live in the area after her divorce, but she soon finds out she has a problem.

Her grandfather has left her his estate, but on meeting with the lawyer, she finds out that she's supposed to be in a good marriage to Howard (Connors), her ex-husband.

When her cousins, who want the $15 million she inherited, come to visit, Sam happens to be in her house, which is next door. Janet introduces him as her husband.

At work, Sam gets a big promotion when the product's president wants a wholesome individual with good values to head up his account. Between that and a detective in a truck spying on both houses, Sam and Janet have to continue to pretend they're married, to Min's aggravation. Then Howard appears.

Cute comedy that is overly long and a little frantic. The premise is simple but on the flimsy side and doesn't quite come off as intended - a Rock Hudson/Doris Day type comedy. It lacks the gloss and snap of the Hudson/Day films.

Nevertheless, the performances are good. Provine, with her good figure and quirky voice, is lovely as the sometimes frustrated Min, and Romy Schneider, a huge star in Europe, is beautiful and vivacious as Janet.

Sam is the type of role Lemmon could play with one hand tied behind his back. I don't imagine it was much of a challenge.

The good supporting cast includes Edward Andrews, Louis Nye, Robert Q. Lewis, Anne Seymour, and Charles Lane (who died in 2007 at the age of 102 and worked to the end).

Given the presence of "Mad Men," "Good Neighbor Sam" begs comparison between the way the advertising world is presented in both vehicles. Guess what - it's about the same! The Robinson character quotes the Bible and considers most of the people he deals with as cheating husbands with no moral values.

It was fun for me to see Provine, whom I interviewed, Nye, and Robert Q. Lewis (whom I saw on stage in The Odd Couple), none of whom I'd seen in a film for a while. Nice memories and a mildly entertaining film.

Jack Lemmon was groomed at Columbia and what a run Lemmon had... working as co star to glamor girls Rita Hayworth, Doris Day and Kim Novak in a series of great films. Jack Lemmon was also loaned out to WB for his Oscar winning Mr. Roberts working with Henry Fonda, William Powell and directed by John Ford, and loaned out to UA for Billy Wilder's comedic masterpiece Some Like It Hot with the peerless Marilyn Monroe, and Joe E Brown. (All four: Wilder, Monroe, Brown and Lemmon ought to have won Oscars).

Good Neighbor Sam was one of if not the last film Jack Lemmon made at Columbia Pictures, and it is a riotous film co starring Romy Schneider, Mike Connors, Edward G Robinson and the dazzling Dorothy Provine (on loan from Ms Provine's studio Warner Bros). Dorothy Provine should have been a major movie star.

David Swift who directed Pollyanna with Jane Wyman, a film that made Hayley Mills a star and other fine films such as Mr. Lemmon's Under The Yum Yum Tree directs here and creates a lot of fun. The cast is superb.

This is a laugh out loud funny film, and one of Jack Lemmon's true gems.

GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM was one of three films from the middle 1960s that Jack Lemmon detested. After making THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES and THE APARTMENT Lemmon felt he was finally being recognized as a fine dramatic actor, and suddenly he was in this film, UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE, and HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE. He felt that these were minor films, and always disliked making them.

In the case of UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE, one can sympathize with Lemmon's feelings. He never played a more detestable character in any of his films than in YUM YUM TREE where he was a total letch. But he was in top comic form, supported by good casts and good scripts in SAM and WIFE. They were not great movies, but both were entertaining.

The plot of GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM is an old one: a family friend is in a tight spot and needs to borrow the spouse of his/her closest friend to get out of it. Another example of this is GUEST WIFE, where Don Ameche borrows Dick Foran's wife (Claudette Colbert). There the complication is that Ameche's boss (Charles Dingle) believes Ameche's wife is an amazing, supporting woman in her "husband's" remarkable career as a correspondent in Asia. Here Romy Schneider borrows Dorothy Provine's husband (Lemmon) to pretend that she is happily together with her husband to claim a $15,000,000.00 estate. But her husband (Mike Connors) shows up, and to save the situation pretends he is Provine's husband. This leads to complications of mutual jealousies between Connors and Lemmon, as well as problems concerning a multi-million dollar ad campaign Lemmon is handling on behalf of dairy farm millionaire (and total prude) Edward G. Robinson.

The film has many nice spots in it, especially for Robert Q. Lewis, as a friend and fellow employee of Lemmon who is nearly driven nuts by watching the odd goings on between Lemmon - Provine - Schneider - Connors. Also the ultimate private detective, Louis Nye, who has some great (and for 1964 really advanced) devices for his business. My favorite bits are now a trifle dated - the running gag about the old Hertz Rent-A-Car ads ("Let Hertz Put You In The Driver Seat"). A wonderful chase, involving painting and billboards, raps the film up very nicely. Lemmon was wrong - not in the same category as SAVE THE TIGER, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, or THE APARTMENT, but a worthy, entertaining film.

Jack Lemmon stands at the top of his profession when it comes to comedy. No other actor has his sense of timing or expressive manners to offer competition to the master. "Good Neighbor Sam" is Lemmon at his best. Playing the average guy next door who gets into all kinds of problems through mostly no fault of his own. Everyone will enjoy this movie and the other Lemmon films similar to it. I rated this a 7.