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The Films of Jerry Lewis

The Bellboy

The Ladies Man

The Errand Boy

The Nutty Professor

The Patsy

The Family Jewels

Three on a Couch

The Big Mouth

One More Time (July 5)

A sequel to 1968's Salt & Pepper, One More Time follows Peter Lawford's Christopher Pepper as he decides to pass himself off as his wealthy twin brother after the man is found murdered - with Pepper's inexplicable decision not to tell Sammy Davis Jr's Charles Salt, his supposed best friend, about the switch merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the movie's ill-conceived, illogical elements. There's little doubt that One More Time gets off to an impressive strong start, as filmmaker Jerry Lewis, working from a script by Michael Pertwee, kicks the proceedings off with an amusing bit in which Salt and Pepper attempt to explain their rationale for parking their car in an impound lot to a police officer. From there, however, One More Time slowly-but-surely morphs into an interminable mess that's rife with misguided instances of comedy - as Lewis has packed the film's oppressively episodic midsection with one unfunny set piece after another (eg Salt and Pepper visibly age as a slow butler brings them their food, Salt experiences wacky complications while drinking a cup of coffee, etc, etc). The padded-out atmosphere results in an aimless feel that's perpetuated by the inclusion of several palpably pointless interludes (eg a long and utterly tedious sequence in which Salt sullenly wanders around Pepper's mansion to the strains of a melancholy ballad), and it is, as a result, ultimately impossible to label One More Time as a vanity project gone hopelessly, irredeemably awry. (On the other hand, it's impossible not to get a kick out of Peter Cushing and Christoper Lee's cameo appearances as, respectively, Dr. Frankenstein and Dracula.)

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© David Nusair