Good Sam

In this comedy-drama from Leo McCarey, Gary Cooper plays Sam, seemingly the one guy in the world who takes the Christian tenet of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you seriously. And for his efforts, he is constantly being taken advantage of to the point that his wife, the sassy Ann Sheridan, is ready to take the kids and leave him. Sly writing relieves some of the sappiness, and Cooper has such a solid male presence that he doesn't seem terminally wimpy despite the fact that others use him like a doormat. Finally, after Sam threatens to abandon his Good Samaritan philosophy, all his selfless deeds pay off, and his family comes together in a warm, homespun conclusion. To those who say this isn't worthy of Capra, well, I love Capra, but McCarey has a body of work that any director would be proud of.

Sam Clayton (Gary Cooper) is going the extra mile to be a good Samaritan. His wife Lu (Ann Sheridan) is starting to get annoyed. He loans his car to the Butlers which keeps getting worst. He's letting her no-good brother Claude to live with them. He keeps helping no matter what it costs him and it rarely goes well.

Critics are a little too hard on this film. It's a fun light-hearted take on the feel-good sentimentalism of the era. Certainly, Cooper is deadening his performance. He's almost playing it as a clueless rube but his character knows more than he's letting on. On the other hand, I love Sheridan's performance. She never lets her character fall out of love with him despite her conflicting feelings. The bus is a fun setup and I love the woman rushing into the store. The 'It's a Wonderful Life' ending is a bit tacked on. I would be more happy with the brother and Shirley Mae as the emotional climax and ending. In a way, that's the most important gift Sam ever gives. That's the emotional heart because it's probably more important to Lu. The story makes the house more important by placing it at the end.

Oh, where to begin with "Good Sam" (1948). It is widely agreed, that the film broke Leo McCarey's 10+ year streak of masterful films. McCarey, who directed and produced the film while also contributing to the story, would never truly recover from this blow, and his subsequent filmography includes three debated entries and one successful re-make of an old McCarey classic. "Good Sam" is therefore an easy film to glance over, as it returned its maker back amidst the mortals. It is also unlike most American comedies of the time, which may have been the reason why the same critics who loved "Make Way for Tomorrow" (1937) and "Going My Way" (1944) did not warm up to the way similar themes are tossed around in "Sam".

Gary Cooper plays Sam Clayton, a clean-cut, post-war family man loved by his community. Sam is the kindest man you could find, always willing to help anybody in distress as best he can. In another Cooper film, a character like this would be viewed as the ideal that we should all emulate, but McCarey is here to show the other side. Sam's constant helping of others grows to be a strain on his family, who are unable to lead a normal life because of it. He borrows people money while his own family lacks the money to buy a proper house for themselves. He is constantly finding new "characters" who benefit from his good nature, much to the suffering of Sam's wife Lu, played by Ann Sheridan.

I think "Good Sam" is a fantastic premise, as the central dilemma is something that all people will - and should! - sometimes have to consider. Helping others is important, it is a central aspect of what defines us as human. But empathy is only good when the behavior of others mirrors it, otherwise a good man can end up being used. I like the fact that the film does not play all its cards immediately, but gives us different view points. Considering that the film is trying both to be funny and to be moving and frustrating, it reached these goals with me. I laughed, I was moved, and I definitely was frustrated...

Where does it fall flat then? It is hard to pinpoint really. The film starts off very comedic. Ann Sheridan gives a wonderful performance as the housewife pushed to the edge, and Cooper's buffoonish behavior and general inability to read his lady is certainly a fitting catalyst for Sheridan's wrath. The characters are well-established as they both get laughs and serve as each other's straight men. But as the film went on, I started to feel that the comedic nature of the main dilemma does not fit to the everyday realism of the narrative. McCarey has taken delightfully comedic characters and inserted them to a very serious film. And it is the mismatch of it all that breaks the experience. There is both serious comedy and funny melodrama here, and someday someone will call this a forgotten masterpiece, but for me the whole is shaky even if the parts work.

There is also individual elements that clash, the worst of which being the inclusion of a suicide subplot that gets treated as if killing yourself is not a big deal in the slightest. The woman in question (Joan Lorring) attempts to kill herself because she fell in love with a treacherous married man, and the film lets Sheridan shame her, while simultaneously suggesting, that the cure for this woman is to find a nice, unmarried man and get married. How very psychological indeed. Lorring also gives the film's worst performance, as she is way too polished for a suicidal woman.

"Good Sam" also resembles better films, and feels therefore worse than it is. Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" (1960) is a more famous serious comedy about a guy who gets taken advantage of, also including a more believable suicide-attempt narrative, treated with respect to the sore subject matter. Yet the film that "Good Sam" will bring to mind for most is Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), another tale about an every-man who is always helping others but can't catch a break for himself. McCarey's film also finds its protagonist in a bar, on Christmas. Compared to George Bailey, Sam Clayton looks very two dimensional.

Even with all the negative sides addressed, "Good Sam" is easily worth a watch. McCarey is one of the all time greats and lack of perfection is not a crime. His film carries serious merit and is very ambitious, and although I mentioned two similar films, it actually does stand out from a crowd with its style and subject.

This movie is less than two hours long. I would have sworn it was almost three. It drags something awful. How could the same director who had just previously made "Going My Way" and the less inspired but still enjoyable "Bells of St. Mary's" have allowed his actors to deliver such leaden performances?

And who approved this script??? There isn't an ounce of humor in it. Gary Cooper's character is not nice so much as just plain dull and stupid. It's as if he wears a sign that says "Kick me" on his back and really means it.

Ann Sheridan's character, who should be the center of reason here, is presented as materialistic, more interested in shoes and dresses than her family. It makes it harder for us to sympathize with her.

Everything here falls flat. What previous reviewers who found this funny found to laugh at I honestly cannot guess.

If you want to watch a Leo McCarey films, there are some great ones to pick from. But avoid this. And if you do start it, don't tell yourself "It has to get better." It never does.

Leo McCarey's Good Sam, the story of a suburban good guy who can't say no to his friends and neighbors, should have been a masterpiece. It has many of the same ingredients as It's a Wonderful Life, and was directed and co-written by a man who was at his best Frank Capra's equal. McCarey directed the best Marx Brothers picture, Duck Soup, plus the splendid Ruggles Of Red Gap, the heartbreaking Make Way For Tomorrow, the enormously popular (if overlong) Going My Way, and its sequel, The Bells Of St. Mary's. He was even in a partnership with Capra, to produce films independently, but lost his touch after the war. Good Sam shows McCarey's brilliance with actors, all of whom (Gary Cooper, Ann Sheridan, Ray Collins, William Frawley) are excellent, but the script is convoluted and the story, an inspired idea, is, as told, hard to follow. It's worth watching, for McCarey's directorial "touches", which are wonderful, but the film is plodding and episodic, and seems to go on forever.