LEE-A-THON MOVIE OF THE DAY NO. 6 B

ONE MORE TIME!  

This is sorta the Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing version of GENIUS AT WORK.  GENIUS was an obscure little film which happened to feature both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in it.  Sadly, they didn't appear in a scene together and both appearances were mere cameos.  Well, for Cushing and Lee fans, there's ONE MORE TIME:  A 1970 Jerry Lewis-directed comedy (!) starring the legendary team of Salt & Pepper (otherwise known as Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford).  Salt and Pepper are ring-a-ding-ding nightclub pals in London who go to see Pepper's (Lawford's) twin brother (who happens to be a Lord) in order to bum 1000 pounds to pay their court fines.  While visiting his twin brother, the Lord is killed by a poison dart through a window. Pepper assumes his brother's identity in order to find the killer (and to get the title and the estate and the money...).  Weirdly, he doesn't inform Salt about the deception his poor friend is heartbroken.  (Nasty but I guess it was deemed necessary to find some comedy shtick).  Salt goes to work for the "Lord" at his estate in order to find out if the "Lord" actually killed Pepper.  Yeah, you can guess hijink ensue.  

This quite unfunny comedy film shows once and for all the Jerry Lewis has no idea what comedy is.  Lewis directs the film like a lead balloon and Davis & Lawford are left to struggle through unfunny joke after dire slapstick situation trying desperately to conjure what personal charm they can.  At least Sammy gets a few songs.  Where are Lee and Cushing, you ask.  Well, they have the briefest of brief cameos as Sammy pulls a copy of the Kama Sutra off the library shelf to open a secret passage down to the cellars of the mansion where he finds a mad doctor lab complete with Frankenstein monster, hunchback assistant, blonde strapped to an operating table and Peter Cushing (in his Frankenstein garb) and Christopher Lee (in his full Dracula drag).  While Sammy mugs in exaggerated horror, Cushing and Lee have one line apiece.  And then they're gone from the movie.  Believe it or don't, this was the SECOND Salt & Pepper film!