SALT & PEPPER/ONE MORE TIME Kino Lorber Double Feature Review

[AndyDursin]

Double-feature madness from late '60s is on-tap with Kino Lorber's upcoming Blu-Ray of SALT & PEPPER (102 mins., 1968, PG-13) and its sequel “One More Time” – the unlikely hit pairings of Rat Packers Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford, playing London night club owners during the height of London's mod era. While the duo get swept up in the investigation behind a female spy's death in their establishment, Davis finds the time to croon a Leslie Briscusse-penned track and there are lots of flavorful location shots of the city and its surroundings – making for a movie that's more entertaining as a travelogue than a dramatic/comedic piece, since young Richard Donner was saddled with a weak Michael Pertwee screenplay that's not particularly funny or involving (John Dankworth's painful “comedy” score doesn't help either).

The movie's success brought Davis and Lawford back ONE MORE TIME (92 mins., 1970, PG), a pedestrian sequel that makes its original look like a comic masterwork by comparison. Making the only directorial outing of his career in which he didn't appear is Jerry Lewis, who stages numerous, claustrophobically-shot “comedy scenes” with the flimsiest of plots written by scribe Michael Pertwee (since he did so great the first time, why not bring him back?). Les Reed's music is at least a little bit of an improvement on Dankworth and the movie embraces self-parody more than its predecessor, as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee even walk in for the briefest of cameos – but this is strained, unappealing stuff only the hardest of hardcore Rat Pack fans are likely to endure all the way through.

Both movies – seldom released on home video – have been resurrected here in acceptable MGM catalog transfers (both 1.85 with mono sound) and a “Trailers From Hell” segment by Larry Karaszewski that rightly suggest fans buy a copy of “Mad Magazine” artist Jack Davis' terrific poster work for both films – but bypass the movies altogether!

[Monterey Jack]

[Eric Paddon]

One of the most hilarious of bloopers is when Sammy and Peter appeared on Joey Bishop's talk show to plug "Salt And Pepper" and as the film clip was being set up, Joey says, "Now let's see a clip from their new movie, Salt and Peter." Abruptly, Sammy and Peter's heads flipped around from watching the monitor to looking back at Joey just as the clip started and the audience started laughing so hard that it drowned out the first 30 seconds of the clip.

[AndyDursin]

Funnier than the film!