Salt & Pepper

Year releasted: 1968

by Keith Phipps
February 9th, 2005

Tagline:
"Join The Salt & Pepper Club"

Plot:
Charles Salt (Sammy Davis Jr.) and Christopher Pepper (Peter Lawford) run the Salt & Pepper Club, a swinging Soho nightspot where the lightshows are psychedelic, the jackets are Nehru, and the chicks are, like, groovy. But it's not all topless croupiers and oblique drug references: There's also espionage. When Davis and Lawford discover a murdered hooker in their office, hilarity and madcap antics follow, as they so often do in such situations. Enlisted by the British Secret Service to uncover a mysterious plot, the pals begin combing the English countryside for clues, encountering danger, double-crosses, and vaguely racist comments at every turn.

Key scenes:
Early on, Davis straps on an electric guitar that seems mostly for show as he revs up the crowd and cavorts with go-go dancers in a high-intensity rock song that might have been intended to make him look "with it," but has precisely the opposite effect. Later, Davis takes Lawford on a wild ride in a gadget-outfitted spy car that he seemingly purchased only because Salt & Pepper wouldn't be a '60s spy movie without one. Fresh off that adventure, Lawford relaxes by bedding the previously elusive Ilona Rodgers, not recognizing that she plans to assassinate him. Fortunately, Davis does, and he shoots Rodgers dead moments before she can make the kill—because what's a little murder between Rat Pack buddies?

Can easily be distinguished by:
Sign that it was made in 1968: Davis' love-beads-and-turtleneck ensembles could hardly have come from any other year.

Timeless message:
Sometimes the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of a drunken Englishman and a perpetually giggling American entertainer.

Memorable quotes:
"I'm Pepper, he's Salt," Lawford says, correcting a police inspector who draws incorrect assumptions about their names.