Product Details

• Actors: Jack Lemmon, Romy Schneider, Dorothy Provine, Mike Connors, Edward Andrews
• Directors: David Swift
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: GoodTimes Home Video
• Run Time: 131 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000F3OB8O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,792 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Can this outrageous rent-a-husband scheme work? .... Superior quality video tape recorded in the LP Mode... Jack Lemmon is in peak form as a harried ad man in this scintillating comedy. As the only clean-living person at his agency, Sam Bissel (Lemmon) is put in charge of its most important account, Nurdlinger's Dairy, headed by straight-laced Simon Nurdlinger (Edward G. Robinson). Sam and his wife Min (Dorothy Provine) celebrate the promotion with longtime friend Janet Lagerlof (Romy Schneider), who has good news of her own. She stands to inherit $15 million -- but only if she is happily married. Since Janet has just seperated from her husband, she offers her good neighbor Sam $1 million if he will play the part. As complications multiply, Sam and Janet are forced to continue the charade, both to win her inheritance and to advance his career.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny old Lemmon Classic, January 10, 2006

By 

C. A. Luster "The Rook" (Burke, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Good Neighbor Sam [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie should be on DVD. Anyone that enjoys Jack Lemmon in comedy will thoroughly love this one. Fans of Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies should enjoy it too. For that matter anyone that enjoys any of the comedies from the 1940s to 1970s will probably like it. This is one of Lemmon's best comedies. Be sure and catch this on TV since you can't find it at rental stores any longer and they unfortunately have not shown the wisdom to put it on DVD yet.

The plot is that Lemmon, who is married, has a married neighbor that needs him to pretend to be her husband to get an estate settlement. When her real husband comes home things get screwy as jealousy and trying to cover each others stories leads to some wacky chase scenes and painting billboards all over town. A good cast, decent writing, funny action, and good look at 1960s style comedy, make this fun to watch.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hysterically funny!, August 11, 2007

By 

Ohickadee (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Neighbor Sam (VHS Tape)

I am a HUGE Jack Lemmon fan and this has to be in my humble opinion, for what it's worth, one of Jack's funniest movies. I originally saw it on TV while growing up during the 60's. If memory serves me correctly, I believe Lemmon regretted making this movie and considered it one of his worst. That said... I happen to think it is hilarious, filled with a great cast and memorable scenes of the old Hertz commercials showing bloopers of the ads being filmed of the Hertz man being lowered through the air into a moving car, continually tripping over something whether it be the seat, windshield, or whatever as he is lowered into the car.

Jack Lemmon plays Sam Bissell who is married to Min (Dorothy Provine). He is an employee who works at the bottom entry level of a major Advertising Agency when suddenly he is chosen as an unknown and fresh candidate to be the Account Executive by the head of the Agency's powerful client, "Nurdlinger Dairy" to be their model of what they stand for: wholesome and family-oriented.

Min's beautiful European friend Janet (Romy Schneider) suddenly shows up on Sam & Min's doorstep after separating - and I think, technically divorced - from her husband (played by Mike Connors - formerly "Mannix"). Janet moves into the house next door then learns that her grandfather has died and left her an inheritance of $15 million IF she meets the qualifications of being happily married. Enter Janet's relatives who want in on the inheritance and contest the Will unexpectedly show up at Janet's. The $15 million proves too irresistible to Janet so during the introduction between her relatives, Sam & Min she impulsively introduces Sam as her husband.

To convince Sam (& hesitant Min) to agree to let Sam play her husband until the legal hearing, she offers to share a portion of her inheritance to them. Min hesitantly goes along with the plan. But things get really complex when Janet is falsely introduced to the owner of Nurdlinger Dairy as Sam's wife. The pressure is on when Janet's suspicious relatives hire Louie Nye as a private investigator to find out if Sam is truly exactly who Janet claims him to be--her husband.

Louie the P.I. camps out across the street in a truck disguised as a vacuum-related business. On the truck a vacuum is mounted on top with the vacuum serving as a periscope vessel to enable Louie to spy on them day and night.

It gets even more complicated when Janet's tentatively-divorced husband returns to reconcile but by now, pictures have been unknowingly taken of Sam & Janet for the Nurdlinger Dairy advertisement billboards which are now displayed all over town. And the race is on.

This is a funny movie and will guarantee a lot of laughs.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great 60's screwball comedy!, January 12, 2006

By 

J. Arena (Williamsburg, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Good Neighbor Sam [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This Jack Lemon comedy is sheer delight from beginning to end. There are no movies being made like this today! However, it seems to me that every sit-com in history copied some aspect of Good Neighbor Sam. So, why is there no DVD?