September 8 movie: Good Neighbor Sam. Jack Lemmon plays a junior adman and devoted family man who, through one of those plot contortions which only happens in the movies, ends up pretending to be married to his wife's best friend. Most of the movie is this slapsticky "running around trying to hide the truth from the boss, and the evil cousins! and the neighbors!" which is not my favorite thing. The movie was worth watching for a couple of reasons: first, it's an interesting snapshot of the changing morality of the early 60s. All the executives at the ad agency are sleazy lechers. And the big client, who condemns their lack of morals, is a sanctimonious prig. The only good people in the movie are Lemmon's easy-going eccentric, his wife, and her friend who has just gotten a divorce.
The second (and best) thing about the movie is the expression of Lemon's eccentricity: he builds mechanical animated sculptures out of household junk. Old bicycle gears and picture frames and stuff, and it moves. When I saw his sculptures I thought wow, just like Jean Tinguely! Except Lemmon's sculptures don't self-destruct. Then the best friend character shows up, sees the big sculpture in the backyard, and says "It's like Jean Tinguely in Paris!" A movie that likes the same art I do definitely gets bonus points.
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