One More Time

Even if you don't like the earlier film, "Salt and Pepper," you have to admit that it is a paragon of structure and traditional storytelling compared its sequel, "One More Time." That's not to say that the second Davis Jr/Lawford team up isn't enjoyable--it is just bizarrely different from the original. "Salt and Pepper," directed by Richard Donner--veteran director of some of the Sixties' best TV series, and later of the classic action/comedies in the Lethal Weapon and Superman series of films--was a light and breezy "Rat Pack" action/comedy. It was wholly conventional for its time. But when it came time for the sequel, the producers apparently decided that the success of the first film was due more to the comedy elements than the thriller elements. With that in mind they made the obvious choice for their new director—Jerry Lewis. The singular Lewis had never directed a film starring anyone else but himself, so I'm not sure what the producers expected would happen. Well, the result was that Jerry didn't just add a few comic touches to the already proved formula. He took the thing over entirely and made "One More Time" a pure 100% Jerry Lewis film, with all that means for good and bad. If you're familiar with Lewis' film-making, you know that his films are very light on plot (ranging from hardly any as in "Cinderfella" to none at all as in "The Bellboy" and "Hardly Working.") and very heavy on surreal jokes, visual gags and his own patented mugging and clowning. Well, the plot of "One More Time" is this: Lawford impersonates his rich brother, who is mysteriously murdered, and Davis Jr. doesn't figure it out until near the end. That's about it. The film is 90 minutes long and at least an hour of that is just Sammy Davis Jr. doing a spot on Lewis imitation in a series of increasingly strange and barely connected (but often funny) vignettes as he rambles about in Lawford's ill-gotten English manor. If you go into this film expecting anything different (as the audiences in 1970 did) then you're going to be sorely disappointed (as the audiences in 1970 were). But if you go in expecting a Jerry Lewis film—you get a pretty good one!

Salt & Pepper return, a bit more grizzled (especially in Lawford's case) and a lot more manic (particularly in Sammy's case, who also sheds his hepcat's pomade sheen for an au courant afro) in this manure-for-brains atrocity.

This time, the expatriate Rat Packers seem less concerned with hitting on dollybirds and more concerned with taking pratfalls and wearing goofy costumes. Indeed, under the direction of Jerry Lewis, the once swinging club owners are transformed into the second coming of Martin and Lewis.

Jerry changes the dynamics of the partnership here: instead of the Dino figure doing the singing, it's the Jerry clone who warbles the ditties (three to be exact). The Total Filmmaker also encourages Davis to make "funny" faces like there's no tomorrow, and Sammy gleefully obliges. Bugging his one good eye and contorting his rubber lips in all directions, D. Gives a master class in mug-a-minute, desperately unfunny overacting.

For the record, S & P still smoke a whole lot of cigarettes. They also have a brief run-in with Christopher "Dracula" Lee, Peter "Dr. Frankenstein" Cushing and Dudley Sutton as a leering hunchback. Which provokes Sammy to let out a scream loud enough to hear in Las Vegas.

Alas, the one thing he doesn't do is scream "Hey, la-a-a-a-d-dy!!!!!" Aww, what a gyp.

In this sequel to Salt and Pepper, Pepper's brother, an English lord is killed, and Pepper impersonates him to find out who did it. He doesn't tell his friend Salt, who is distrustful of Pepper's brother. This is yet another attempt to recreate the good times of earlier Rat Pack movies, but they should have stopped after Robin and The Seven Hoods. The plot gets worse and worse, and by the end, it is a total mess, with Davis and Lawford breaking out of character to talk to the audience.

One More Time (1970)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Charles Salt (Sammy Davis, Jr.) and Christopher Pepper (Peter Lawford) are once again on the run after being connected to a murder of the rich Lord Syndey Pepper (Lawford).

ONE MORE TIME really shouldn't have been made and I'm really not sure why it was. This here is a sequel to SALT AND PEPPER, which apparently made enough money at the box office where the producers thought a sequel would be a good idea. For some reason, Jerry Lewis was brought on to direct the picture. I viewed this shortly after the legendary comedian passed away. Days after I went through countless talk show appearances and various interviews and yet I never heard him talk about this film.

With all of that said, I wasn't a fan of the original picture and this one here was pretty much more of the same as we get Davis and Lawford running around, trying to be funny but being letdown by a pretty bland screenplay. There's just nothing fresh or original here and both stars just appear to be going by the numbers. What's even stranger is that Lewis stayed behind the camera yet he has Davis doing this strange scenes that just don't work. Davis is pretty much asked to act like Lewis but it's not funny and it's more awkward than anything else.

The film has some fairly poor pacing and there simply weren't enough laughs here to make the film worth sitting through. If you enjoyed the first film then perhaps you'll enjoy this one a tad bit more than I did. The highlight is without question a cameo by a couple British stars.

In London, Chris Pepper (Peter Lawford) and Charlie Salt (Sammy Davis Jr.) get arrested and lose their nightclub. Chris' twin brother Lord Sydney Pepper is tired of the embarrassment. He's willing to pay their fines but insists that they leave the country. They refuse. They go live it up with Chris pretending to be Sydney. Then Chris finds Sydney's dead body. He decides to switch places but it turns out that Sydney had been murdered.

Chris should have told Charlie as soon as possible. This should be a buddy comedy. For that to happen, they need to be both in on the scam and then both get in trouble. This could have been a fun screwball comedy as the duo gets chased around by the killers. It's not funny with Chris hiding the truth in the first half. Sammy is sort of released in the second half. I can certainly see the comedic potential of this pairing. Apparently, this is a sequel and maybe the first one is better.