I noticed that this was called a 'sex romp' or 'adult comedy', however, the film really is pretty wholesome and not the sensual film you might imagine.

The film is a merry mix-up film starring Jack Lemmon, Dorothy Provine and Romy Schneider. Lemmon and Provine are happily married and he has a lower-level job working for an advertising firm. However, his hum-drum life is about to be turned upside down when some seemingly harmless lies begin to snowball. First, when his wife's friend (Schneider) is about to inherit $15,000,000 dollars, there's a problem--because it's stipulated that she can only have the money if she's happily married. But, she's separated from her husband (Mike Connors)--and Lemmon agrees to pretend to be the husband. At the same time, Lemmon has a VERY old fashioned client (Edward G. Robinson) and Robinson prizes Lemmon for being a decent family man. However, the 'wife' he sees Lemmon with is Schneider--and to keep this account, they must continue to pretend to be married. Plus, some of Schneider's cousins now have hired private detectives to prove the two are not happily married--and there's even more reason for them to pretend to be married. It all gets pretty crazy and the lie continues to snowball even more. How far it goes and how it all ends is something you'll just need to see for yourself.

Aside from people THINKING there is hanky-panky going on, this is a pretty chaste and rather funny comedy. In many ways, it's reminiscent of an old-time Hollywood screwball comedy and I enjoyed it very much. My only quibble, and it's a minor one, is that Schneider was miscast. Her Austrian accent was not adequately explained away in the plot and although very beautiful she just wasn't right for the part because of this inexplicable accent. However, Lemmon was terrific and the film was quite clever.

When Good Neighbor Sam was released in 1964 Jack Lemmon was being taken seriously as a dramatic actor as well as a light comic actor as witnessed by the rave reviews he got for The Apartment and Days of Wine and Roses. While Good Neighbor Sam doesn't stack up against those two films in Lemmon's career, it's still an amusing and pleasing romp.

Have you ever noticed how many films like Good Neighbor Sam start out with a mistaken impression? Through a lie told by Romy Schneider who is the good neighbor that Sam has, people in her life and in his get the impression that they are married. He's married to Dorothy Provine and she's married to Michael Connors. And both for their own reasons have to keep the deception up. All the situations the principal players get into stem from the original white lie.

It would be so much easier if everyone told the truth from the gitgo, but then we wouldn't have a movie.

Lots of familiar names pop up here in support. Edward Andrews as the unctuous boss of the advertising agency Lemmon works for, Louis Nye as the creative private detective who gets it wrong, and last but not definitely not least Edward G. Robinson as the puritanical dairy king.

Minor league Lemmon, but still fun. And as another reviewer says, that theme is unforgettable. You'll have it in your brain for days.

Producer-director David Swift also co-adapted Jack Finney's novel about a suburban divorcée outside of San Francisco who involves her neighbors in a hare-brained scheme to win a fifteen million dollar inheritance: she has to be happily married to receive the settlement, so she gets square, unassuming family man Jack Lemmon to pose as her spouse. Although far too long at 2 hours-15 minutes, the film takes a remarkably cogent approach to its slapstick merriment, and the grounded, terrific players allow the scenario to remain colorful while skillfully averting 'wackiness'. Lemmon's advertising exec (with natty spectacles) is a wonderfully low-keyed schnook, and Jack's comic confusion never boils over into bellowing territory; as his wife, Dorothy Provine is the perfect match for this Lemmon characterization (she's a good sport throughout). Edward G. Robinson's role as a dairy magnate is tiresome (he's like a guest extra in a TV sitcom),and the material slips into contrivances at about the one-hour mark, but the script is surprising: it has a good ear for dialogue and a few bright ideas, though some judicious editing was certainly called for. **1/2 from ****