''Good Neighbor Sam'' is a 1964 American

Eastman Color Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

screwball comedy Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...

film co-written and directed by David Swift, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by

Jack Finney Walter Braden "Jack" Finney (born John Finney; October 2, 1911 – November 14, 1995) was an American writer. His best-known works are science fiction and thrillers, including '' The Body Snatchers'' and '' Time and Again''. The former was the ba ...

. The film stars

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadi ...

Romy Schneider Romy Schneider (; born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach; 23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982) was a German-French actress. She began her career in the German genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central chara ...

Dorothy Provine Dorothy Michelle Provine (January 20, 1935 – April 25, 2010) was an American singer, dancer and actress. Born in 1935 in Deadwood, South Dakota, she grew up in Seattle, Washington, and was hired in 1958 by Warner Bros., after which she firs ...

, Michael Connors,

Edward Andrews Edward Bryan Andrews Jr. (October 9, 1914 – March 8, 1985) was an American stage, film and television actor. Andrews was one of the most recognizable character actors on television and films from the 1950s into the 1980s. His stark white hair ...

Louis Nye Louis Nye (May 1, 1913 – October 9, 2005) was an American comedic actor. He was an entertainer to the troops during World War II and is best known for his work on countless television, film and radio programs. Early years He was born Loui ...

, Robert Q. Lewis, and

Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...

. The screenplay was the motion picture debut of James Fritzell and

Everett Greenbaum Everett Greenbaum (December 20, 1919 – July 11, 1999) was an American television and film writer and actor who contributed to such shows as ''The Andy Griffith Show'' (24 Episodes), ''M*A*S*H'' (35 Episodes), '' Love American Style'', ''Th ...

, who had written many American television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

s including ''

The Andy Griffith Show ''The Andy Griffith Show '' is an American sitcom, situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in colo ...

'' and ''

Mister Peepers ''Mister Peepers'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952, to June 12, 1955. Overview Wally Cox starred as Robinson J. Peepers, Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher. Others in the cast included Tony Randall a ...

'' (created by David Swift). Greenbaum also created the mobile sculpture featured in the film.

Plot

Sam Bissell, a hard-working San Francisco advertising executive, has two young daughters and a loving wife, Min. An extremely important client, Simon Nurdlinger, is considering taking his business elsewhere when he believes there are no "family men" working at Sam's company. Sam's boss, Mr. Burke, introduces the client to Sam. The client is delighted by Sam and agrees to do business with him and the company. Sam feels his career is now on the way up and he goes home to celebrate with his wife. There, he meets his wife's longtime friend and their new next-door neighbor, Janet, and they all have dinner together to celebrate his promotion and Janet's new home. Sam gets drunk and tumbles down the grand carpeted staircase of the Fairmont Hotel, knocking down a waiter carrying trays of meals. Janet, a beautiful woman, is recently divorced from her husband Howard and is happier than ever. She has also come into a large inheritance from her grandfather, which carries the stipulation that she must still be married to Howard in order to receive the inheritance. State law dictates that a divorce is not final until a year from final settlement. Since only six months have passed, Janet decides to hide the divorce from her cousins Irene and Jack who stand to inherit if Janet is disqualified. With Howard unavailable, Sam is pressed to impersonate him when Irene and Jack arrive for a visit. Having never met Howard, Irene and Jack seem convinced but begin watching the couple with a telescopic surveillance camera hidden in a phony workmen's truck nearby. Janet and Sam (with Min's complicity) are thereby forced to continue the charade for several days, with Sam cohabiting and being driven to work by Janet, and sneaking in to occasionally visit Min through the back yard, or hidden in a laundry basket. When caught pretending by Mr. Burke and Mr. Nurdlinger, Sam and Janet are then forced into a double charade in which Janet pretends to be Min. The situation begins to unravel when Irene and Jack hire a private investigator to keep watch on Sam and Janet, and Howard re-enters the picture. Sam panics after noticing new advertising billboards around the city showing his face with Janet's, and so paints clown faces on them late the last night before the attorney is to give Howard and Janet their inheritance.

Cast

Production

The film, set in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, makes use of obligatory exterior shots, including a long montage of scenes of Sam driving his car all over the city, up and down hills, as well as the curvy block of Lombard Street, as so many directors love to portray. The remainder of the film was shot in the Los Angeles area, both on location (including the

Bradbury Building The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Built in 1893, the five-story office building is best known for its extraordinary skylit atrium of access walkways, stairs and elevators, and t ...

) and at the studio.

Reception

The film grossed $9,072,726 at the box office, earning $5.3 million in rentals.

References

External links