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!
