Good Sam

Good Sam (1948)

He'll take the whole world...and you to his heart!

Sam Clayton has a good heart and likes to help out people in need. In fact, he likes to help them out so much that he often finds himself broke and unable to help his own family buy the things they need--like a house.

Date of release
1948-09-01
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (24)
Runtime
1h 54m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director
Leo McCarey

Casting

Interesting facts

Good Sam is a 1948 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Gary Cooper as a Good Samaritan who is helpful to others at the expense of his own family. The film was directed by Leo McCarey and produced by McCarey's production company, Rainbow Productions. It received mixed reviews, with critics alternately liking and disliking the film based on whether they viewed it as a serious story or a spoof. The film was one of the top box-office draws of 1948, grossing $2.95 million.

Production

Good Sam was written by Ken Englund based on a story by Leo McCarey and John D. Klorer. Sinclair Lewis was asked to work on the script but refused, stating: "[A] man who tried to lead in our times the life of an apostle would be an idiot and would be considered by others to be one".

McCarey's production company, Rainbow Productions, borrowed Ann Sheridan from Warner Bros., to play the wife of Gary Cooper's character. According to the American Film Institute, Cooper's career was "floundering" at the time, and while he was filming Good Sam he signed a "significant contract" with Warner Bros.

For the scene in which a Salvation Army marching band accompanies Cooper's drunken character home, director McCarey assembled a 25-piece band composed of students from several high schools in the Los Angeles area.

The film was shot in Los Angeles from August 4 to October 1947. In January 1948, McCarey reportedly filmed additional scenes to provide alternative endings for the film. Preview audiences were then asked to state which of the two endings they preferred. The unused ending is not known.

Interior scenes of the church were modeled after the interior of the city's St. James Episcopal Church. The Rev. J. Herbert Smith, pastor of All Saints' Episcopal Church of Beverly Hills, was a technical advisor.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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