Salt and Pepper

Around the time that Peter Lawford was officially declared persona non grata by Frank Sinatra from the famous Rat Pack, Sammy Davis, Jr. defied the chairman of the board and teamed with Lawford to do this spy spoof Salt And Pepper. And Davis lived to tell the tale.

Salt And Pepper casts Davis and Lawford as a pair of club owners in the swinging Soho section of London in the Sixties. As cool a pair of hip dudes you'd ever want to meet. A working girl is killed in their club which brings the wrath of constipated police inspector Michael Bates down on them. Bates doesn't like them on general principles, I wouldn't with all the nasty cracks made about him being so uptight. But Bates is the least of their problems because the girl was an enemy agent and that gets Davis and Lawford involved in a plot to bring down the British government the details of which I won't reveal because they are truly to bizarre.

The Sixties made London the hip capital of the world and at the same time Ian Fleming and his James Bond novels brought to the screen by Sean Connery put a new twist on the spy novel. Salt And Pepper combines both trends with Davis and Lawford constantly rolling witty dialog off their tongues. The film is fast paced and breezy with nary a bow to any reality.

I did mention Michael Bates before who looks through the entire film like he needs a stiff shot of prune juice. His performance is a tribute to James Finlayson, the perpetually uptight foe of Laurel and Hardy in dozens of films. Bates gets quite a few laughs of his own.

Salt And Pepper holds up well and was popular enough for a sequel One More Time to be made. You'll probably want to check that one out as well.

This is just too goofy and corny to rate well. The editing and continuity are clunky, but that's not the worst of it. The goofy 50s sitcom musical cues are beyond cliche, the dialogue is fit only for 50s sitcoms, and the movie is so stupid that it can only be enjoyed by cultural deficients or hipsters who like their fare drenched in superficial ironies.

It has historical merit as an exaggerated view of fashions, looks and behaviors of London's famous swingin' 60s. This film was meant to be hip at the time, so it can be viewed by modern eyes as a window into what director Donner thought would sell as 'cool.'

I thought this would be worth watching: 60s caper movie with Rat Packers fallen on unhip times, trying to juggle their increasing fogeyness with the galloping modernity of the late 60s. I thought at least there'd be some unintentional ironic fun to be had in comparing their view of 60s London with Austin Powers, and that they'd both be similarly and amusingly inauthentic. But the fun stuff isn't there. There are too many scenes of Pete and Sammy in cheap hotel room/dressing room/cellar/police station shots, when Sammy Davis sings, it's not the knockout like Sweet Charity's Rhythm of Life that you're hoping for, and the copy of Crosby/Hope's Road series is never pulled off because neither of these blokes is a good enough comedian and the script is terrible anyway. It's like watching your dad trying to be funny.

Also, there aren't enough pretty girls in pretty 60s dresses. For a better version of this sort of thing, you'd be better off watching the Man from UNCLE movies. Robert Vaughan is a little bit of an old git in them, but he's self-mocking and sexy, Ilya Kuryakin is genuinely dishy, and they have proper party scenes with proper pretty frocks and just enough plot to pay attention to. This movie, not funny, not pretty, and more than a little embarrassing, isn't even good enough to laugh at.

I thought this movie was pretty hep and funny, given its age (came out in 1968). You can't go wrong in this goofy spy film set in swinging 60's London. Sammy plays Charles Salt and Lawson plays Chris Pepper, nightclub owners of the Salt and Pepper Club by night and spies by day. There's pretty girls and Sammy and Lawson getting into all sorts of trouble while still looking cool. Sammy is working his usual swinging self with numerous wardrobe changes and Lawson being the brains of the group. The duo work well together, especially during exchanges to each other. Some folks might not like this lighthearted film so it's not to be taken too seriously. Davis's song "i like the way you dance" features.

This movie actually has a very witty script. Several people have complained they didn't laugh. It's SATIRE, the slapstick may be lowbrow humor, but the script has several witty moments - you really have to pay attention closely to the dialogue. A humorous take on the spy movies and tv shows that were barraging the airwaves and theaters of 1968. This was a classic form of camp humor films of the mid 60's through early 70s. Unfortunately, the humor is a bit dated for those who did not live through the insanity of the times. Two nightclub owners are sucked into a web of espionage in which they must save the entire country of Britain. A bit convoluted, the film could have been edited down by a good 20 minutes and been a better film. That said, it was still a fun romp. Vaudeville, meets burlesque, meets 007, meets Rocky and Bullwinkle. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 3/30/2021.