Underplayed Gems

Good Neighbor Sam (1964)

Good Neighbor Sam poster
Directed by
David Swift
Genre
screwball comedy film
Country
United States
Runtime
2h 10m
Rated
6
Rating
6.6 of 10 from 55 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A family man agrees to pretend he is his wife's best friend's husband so she can claim an inheritance. The fake marriage gets tangled up with his advertising job, which demands he appear wholesome and respectable.

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What happens

Good Neighbor Sam is a 1964 American screwball comedy film co-written and directed by David Swift, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Jack Finney. Shot in Eastman Color, it stars Jack Lemmon, Romy Schneider, Dorothy Provine, Michael Connors, Edward Andrews, Louis Nye, Robert Q. Lewis, and Edward G. Robinson. In the film, a family man is talked into helping his wife's recently divorced best friend claim a large inheritance by posing as her husband in order to fulfill a legal requirement. However, the ruse spills over into the man's advertising job, where his recent promotion requires him to maintain a wholesome image. The screenplay was the motion picture debut of James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, who had written many American television sitcoms including The Andy Griffith Show and Mister Peepers (created by Swift). Greenbaum also created the mobile sculpture featured in the film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.