El buen Sam

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.

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.

This spoof was kind of tedious and one joke. I was cheering for something bad to happen to Sam and his freeloaders. Louise Beavers being in on the family dysfunction with Ann Sheridan was amusing. But Gary Cooper as Sam simply put his wife and family dead last. His wife was not a partner, she was a house slave he took for granted and never consulted as an equal. The neighbors kids came before his children. Some might think this is a satire on Christian charity. It was actually a joke movie about a man's compulsion to sacrifice his family's wants and needs to satisfy others....any needy soul will do. All without considering them. If there wasn't one he'd probably dig one up to sacrifice for. Why? What was at the heart of his compulsion? I know it was a comedy but his compulsion had to hold some credibility. While I was watching this movie I boiled at the prospect of being married to a guy like Sam.

One joke movie, the jest being that altruist Sam never met a schnorer he didn't like, whose endless variations on it become stale after about 30 min and downright dull after an hour, which is when I bailed. Some of Ken Englund's dialogue produces a chuckle but the dearth of physical humor is hard to understand from the director of "The Awful Truth" who cut his comedy teeth on Hal Roach two reelers. Plus Coop is even stiffer than usual and Anne Sheridan is given virtually nothing risible as the long suffering wife other than a couple sarcastic rejoinders. Give it a C.

It took three years for Leo McCarey to get back to the screen after directing Bing Crosby in that double barreled triumph of Going My Way and The Bells of St.Mary's. Sad to say, Good Sam didn't quite live up to the standards of those two films. Leo took no Oscar nominations home for this one.

Gary Cooper is a fine upstanding citizen with wife Ann Sheridan and two small kids and a mooching live-in brother-in-law played by Dick Ross. He's an impulsive do gooder, an easy touch for a sob story and a handout. He drives poor Ann to distraction. A sermon by minister Ray Collins at the beginning of the film on the virtues of charity put Cooper's generosity into overdrive.

It's a nice film, maybe a bit too unbelievable. I can't believe that Ann Sheridan hadn't taken Coop in tow by this point of her marriage. Two noted baseball immortals, Babe Ruth and Dizzy Dean, had in common the fact that they both married strong willed women who took charge of the finances lest their hubbys give it all away.

Still I did like the message of the film which is delivered by Harry Hayden who has a small role as a banker. Coop's generosity not only with cash, but co-signing loans for various people has put him as a credit risk. When he needs the money he can't get a loan from the bank. But later on Hayden comes over to the house and tells Sheridan that he changed his mind and approved the loan for their new house. Character and decency should count for something. It was a very similar message to one that was delivered in a far better film, The Best Years of Our Lives when Fredric March as a veteran who returns to his job as a bank loan officer, approves a loan to a veteran on the strength of his character.

Character and decency should count, but Coop's pants pockets still needed a lock put on them.