Awesome Farce!
Earlier this week I found out that one of my favorite films just came out as part of a Jack Lemmon retrospective. It’s “Good Neighbor Sam” from 1964. So I got that baby queued up on Netflix and we watched it last night.
Sam is an all-American everyman; sort of a earlier version of Darrin Stevens, only not married to Samantha. He works for an ad agency in San Francisco. He lives in a very California looking subdivision, with his two beautiful kids and two lovely quacking ducks in the backyard. I can’t begin to describe the comedy of errors Sam gets himself into. Jack was absolutely the perfect for this part. Dorothy Provine is his lovely wife.
Lots of familiar faces in the cast, like the great Edward G. Robinson, Neil Hamilton (Inspector Gordon on Batman!) and Robert Q. Lewis (the young people are now saying, “WHO?”)
Oh the cars! I love 60’s cars, so I’m watching it and popping up with comments like, “Wow, look at that Falcon station wagon!” There’s a phenomenal ‘64 Thunderbird in the cast too!
It’s a hilarious visit back to the days when men and women wore hats, and not just because they were going to the Ren Fest. Pantyhose hadn’t been invented yet, and housewives wore sheath skirts around the house (at least in movies!)
So did I talk you into watching it yet?