One More Time (1970)

Filmed in 1969 and released in 1970, One More Time looked to recreate the success of Salt and Pepper, but proved to be a somewhat different film.  From the off, it pretty much sidelines the whole 'Swinging London' vibe of the previous picture, with the 'Salt and Pepper' club being closed down by the authorities on suspicion of violating various regulations within minutes of the titles finishing.  With their assets frozen, Sammy Davis Jr's Charlie Salt and Peter Lawford's Chris Pepper are left scrabbling around trying to find the money to pay a fine or face six months in prison.  Pepper, naturally, turns to his twin brother, Lord Pepper, (it was alluded to the previous film that he was the 'black sheep' of a wealthy and connected family).  As always seems to be case in cinema, his twin, although also played by Lawford, is his complete opposite and disapproves of his lifestyle and friends.  While agreeing to pay Salt and Pepper's fines, he insists that, in return, they leave the country for good and that Chris Pepper gives up any claim to the family money or estates.  Before any of this can happen, Lord Pepper is murdered - Chris Pepper finds him and decides to swap places with him, not even telling Charlie Salt of his subterfuge.  He then decamps to the family seat in the vague hope of finding out why his brother was killed, with Charlie, who thinks that he, Lord Pepper, murdered Chris.  Every English upper class country life cliche is run through and mistaken identities and various hi-jinks  involving Davis and Lawford abound.  Which is pretty much the entire film.  Except for the revelation that Lord Pepper had been working for Interpol to crack a diamond smuggling ring in Africa, but had double crossed them to work with the smugglers, then double crossed them in order to abscond with a fortune in diamonds.  Which is why everyone is trying to kill either him or his brother pretending to be him.

As can be gathered from this synopsis, in contrast to Salt and Pepper, the thriller part of this comedy-thriller has been relegated to being virtually a sub-plot.  Indeed, there are times when it feels like an afterthought as the film instead focuses on the comedy part, which largely consists of a series of 'zany' set-pieces, sometimes bordering on the surreal and involving lots of physical comedy.  The influence of the director, Jerry Lewis, seems clear here - there are times when it feels as if he is trying to make a Jerry Lewis film without Jerry Lewis in it.  It feels, at times, as if Lewis is trying to make Sammy Davis his on-screen proxy, as he is involved on most of the slapstick set pieces.  Lawford, consequently, feels as if he has been relegated to a secondary role for most of the film - in his 'Lord Pepper' persona he seems to have been forced very much into the role of straight man to Davis, (shades of Lewis' partnership with Dean Martin, where Martin seemed ever more marginalised until Lewis finally ditched him and went solo).  While some of these sequences are mildly amusing, most have little or no relevance to the plot, not moving the story along at all.  Eventually, in a sequence in which Davis finds a secret panel in the castle library, which leads to a dungeon occupied by Frankenstein's laboratory, complete with Peter Cushing as the Baron and Christopher Lee as a vampire, (but definitely not Dracula), these comic interludes tumble over into complete irrelevance.  

The focus on these comedic interludes means that, compared to Salt and Pepper, the action sequences in One More Time take on a secondary role.  For sure, those that are present are competently staged - a fight with heavies in Lord Pepper's London flat, a horseback chase in the course of a hunt, culminating in a shoot out in a country pub, for example - but none can really compare to the car chase or the various fights and shoot outs in Salt and Pepper.  The wrap up of the plot feels pretty perfunctory and is followed by a fourth wall breaking final scene in which Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford, as Davis and Lawford rather than Salt and Pepper, directly address the audience and discuss their next film.  It just feels like a step too far and undermines the integrity of the whole film.  Which isn't to say that the film didn't already have problems - with Lawford, in effect, playing a different character for much of the film, his scenes separate from Davis, there are few opportunities for the interplay and banter between the Salt and Pepper characters that had been a key feature of the earlier film.  The relative neglect of the thriller elements means that One More Time lacks any strong adversaries for Davis and Lawford - whereas Salt and Pepper boasted John Le Mesurier's ruthless spy-master and Michael Bates' Inspector Crabbe as antagonists, the bad guys behind the smuggling ring in One More Time remain shadowy figures, never really established as proper characters.  As a result, there is little sense of peril for the main characters. 

The film does have some positive aspects, though.  The ditching of the whole 'swinging sixties' background early on was undoubtedly wise - by 1969 it was obvious that the whole cycle was running out of steam and to give it a central part in a film slated for a 1970 release would immediately have given the movie a dated feel.  Like Salt and Pepper, One More Time's supporting cast boasts a plethora of familiar British character actors: while Michael Bates' Inspector Crabbe might have vanished, he is replaced by Leslie Sands' Inspector Crock.  Allan Cuthbertson and Anthony Nicholls play Interpol chiefs, while Percy Herbert, Bill Maynard and Dudley Sutton turn up as heavies and John Wood is a chauffeur.  Despite the emphasis upon would be 'madcap' set pieces, some of the humour from the first film continues in One More Time - the race jokes and Sammy Davis confusion over British colloquialisms, this time he misinterprets an enquiry as to whether Lord Pepper is still 'holding his ball', or whether he's going to drop it, turn up.  Moreover, like the first film, it does look good, with great production values and impressive locations, (the castle that had doubled for the military college in Salt and Pepper here doubles as the Pepper family castle).  

Ultimately, though, Michael Pertwee's script is scuppered by Jerry Lewis' direction and his relentless focus on slapstick comedy rather than wit, clever dialogue and plot development.  He just seemed incapable of integrating any of the film's elements into a satisfactory whole.  Even Davis musical numbers feel forced - in Salt and Pepper they are staged as part of his nightclub act, but in One More Time they jarringly seem to come out of nowhere.  In a contemporary newspaper interview actress Fiona Lewis, who was cast in the film, described Lewis as an 'egomaniac' - when the film appeared, she was absent, her scenes apparently cut in their entirety.  he film as it stands would seem to back up her assessment of the director, though, as Lewis' direction seems designed to force the film into his own image - a slapstick comedy with an irritating tendency to sentimentality when it comes to the relationship between the central characters.  It isn't that One More Time isn't entertaining - in parts it is certainly enjoyable, largely thanks to the presence of Davis and Lawford and a strong supporting cast - but as a sequel to Salt and Pepper it is pretty disappointing, lacking most of the elements, (strong and interesting plot, amusing dialogue, action set-pieces) which made that film so likeable. Still, it does have a good opening, as Salt and Pepper drive through 1969 London in an open top Rolls Royce, as the opening titles roll.  Unfortunately, it is pretty much all downhill after that.