IN WHAT MUST be regraded as an in-betweener (that being a story that is half way between being a farce and a sort of serious story), we see Gary Cooper in this curious comedy from Leo McCarey. We can't say that it doesn't have a great deal to offer; yet it never really realizes its full potential.
BEING A PRODUCT OF the great Director McCarey, it has a great lineage from which it inherited many of the traits that had been become common ingredients of a feature comedy by that time. "That time", in this case, would be the late 1940's.
MANY OF THOSE very traits were developed during those "golden" years of the silent movie era; being the mid to late 1920's. Two of the mainstays of technique were developed in the Hal Roach Studios. These were the slowing down of the comic action to allow for the building of a gag to a climax and effect; instead of rapid fire barrages of punches, kicks, custard pies and pratfalls.
THE SECOND PRINCIPAL, which is a sort of methodical outgrowth of this deliberate style, has been named, "Reciprocal Destruction". This sort of extended gag witnesses the back and forth, ever escalating loosing of mayhem and malicious mischief on the property of others; with each side, all the while, never doing anything to prevent the other side from destroying ones own property. Got It?
THE MAIN EXPONENT of such comic principles are those silent film shorts starring Laurel & Hardy. Mr. Leo McCarey is said to have been the main architect of these methods.
IN THE FILM of which we are speaking, GOOD SAM, we have Mr. McCarey attempting to recapture some of the zaniness from by gone days by using generous portions of these now "old" reliables. Perhaps Leo was seen as having hit the zenith of his career in the Bing Crosby vehicles, GOING MY WAY and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S.
THE RESULTNIG MOVIE comes out with what we must call mixed results in the final product. McCarey places a very contemporary, though highly idealized American family (Gary Cooper, Anne Sheridan, etc.) into a sort of latter day Laurel & Hardy comedy.
AT THE VERY heart of the story is a spoof of what would happen if someone, e.g., the head of a typical, church going, God fearing, Judeo-Chrisyian household takes the Golden Rule to an extreme. It is in this that, we believe, is the crux of the problem.
AND, JUST AS a word of caution, please do not confuse this picture with the Jack Lemmon starring comedy vehicle, GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM (); which we feel does a much better job of hitting the old bull's eye!
WE HAVE TO believe that, while the feature is somewhat enjoyable, it is doomed to failure from the start. After all, how can you make the loving and good treatment of your neighbors into a fault and expect anything else?
BEING A PRODUCT OF the great Director McCarey, it has a great lineage from which it inherited many of the traits that had been become common ingredients of a feature comedy by that time. "That time", in this case, would be the late 1940's.
MANY OF THOSE very traits were developed during those "golden" years of the silent movie era; being the mid to late 1920's. Two of the mainstays of technique were developed in the Hal Roach Studios. These were the slowing down of the comic action to allow for the building of a gag to a climax and effect; instead of rapid fire barrages of punches, kicks, custard pies and pratfalls.
THE SECOND PRINCIPAL, which is a sort of methodical outgrowth of this deliberate style, has been named, "Reciprocal Destruction". This sort of extended gag witnesses the back and forth, ever escalating loosing of mayhem and malicious mischief on the property of others; with each side, all the while, never doing anything to prevent the other side from destroying ones own property. Got It?
THE MAIN EXPONENT of such comic principles are those silent film shorts starring Laurel & Hardy. Mr. Leo McCarey is said to have been the main architect of these methods.
IN THE FILM of which we are speaking, GOOD SAM, we have Mr. McCarey attempting to recapture some of the zaniness from by gone days by using generous portions of these now "old" reliables. Perhaps Leo was seen as having hit the zenith of his career in the Bing Crosby vehicles, GOING MY WAY and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S.
THE RESULTNIG MOVIE comes out with what we must call mixed results in the final product. McCarey places a very contemporary, though highly idealized American family (Gary Cooper, Anne Sheridan, etc.) into a sort of latter day Laurel & Hardy comedy.
AT THE VERY heart of the story is a spoof of what would happen if someone, e.g., the head of a typical, church going, God fearing, Judeo-Chrisyian household takes the Golden Rule to an extreme. It is in this that, we believe, is the crux of the problem.
AND, JUST AS a word of caution, please do not confuse this picture with the Jack Lemmon starring comedy vehicle, GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM (); which we feel does a much better job of hitting the old bull's eye!
WE HAVE TO believe that, while the feature is somewhat enjoyable, it is doomed to failure from the start. After all, how can you make the loving and good treatment of your neighbors into a fault and expect anything else?