Mjeteconer Just perfect...

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Michael_Elliott Salt and Pepper (1968) ** (out of 4)Charles Salt (Sammy Davis, Jr.) and Christopher Pepper (Peter Lawford) are friends who own a nightclub in Soho and after a woman is found dead there they are held on suspicion. Pretty soon the two are working as undercover spies to try and track down why so many other agents are being killed. The 1960s were full of various spy movies and Rat Pack member Dean Martin was having a major success with his series. It was an obvious idea to try and get others into the mix and with SALT AND PEPPER both Davis and Lawford got to get back up on the big screen. Sadly, the end result isn't nearly as good as one would have hoped for.For the most part SALT AND PEPPER is a mildly entertaining film that works largely because of the two leads and their performances. There's no question that they've got a nice chemistry together and their timing bouncing off each other is quite good. Davis is given an extended music sequence and Lawford gets to be that classic British charmer. The two of them make the film worth watching and especially if you're fans of theirs.With that said, outside of them there's really not too much going on here. The plot itself is rather routine, boring and it never offers up any fresh or original. I'd also argue that the direction is rather lackluster and there's not really much humor to be found in the screenplay. Technically speaking the film is well-made but there's just not enough entertainment here to make it worth recommending.

bkoganbing 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.

Woodyanders After discovering the body of a murdered female agent in their trendy Soho, London nightclub, groovy owners Charles Salt (the divinely hip Sammy Davis, Jr.) and Christopher Pepper (smooth Peter Lawford) partake in a fumbling investigation and uncover an evil plot to overthrow the government. Can our cool, yet inept duo stop the bad guys in time? Director Robert Donner (who later went on to helm such major hits as "The Omen," "Superman," and the "Lethal Weapon" pictures), working from a blithely silly script by Michael Pertwee, relates the cheerfully asinine story at a steady pace and maintains a suitably wacky tone throughout. Naturally, we get the inevitable slapstick car chase and plenty of cartoonish explosions, plus a few endearingly crummy racial and homosexual puns in the dialogue. Davis, Jr. and Lawford easily carry the picture with their breezy and engaging on-screen chemistry. Whether he's singing a rousing song on stage while surrounded by hot dancing chicks or ineffectively attempting to use martial arts on the villains, Davis, Jr. is nothing short of a total gas to watch (he even sings the great ending credits theme song). The tip-top supporting cast have a ball with their colorfully broad roles, with stand-out contributions by Michael Bates as the uptight, blundering Inspector Crabbe, John Le Mesurier as the sinister, one-eyed Colonel Woodstock, Ilona Rodgers as the fetching Marianne Renaud, and Ernest Clark as the stern Colonel Balsom. John Dankworth's jazzy and spirited score really hits the swingin' spot. Kenneth Higgins' vibrant color cinematography likewise does the trick. Moreover, the ladies are sexy and attractive and there's a certain animated funky'n'zany 60's go-go vibe to the whole movie that's impossible to either resist or dislike. An enjoyable piece of fluffy nonsense.

VLeung 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.