Tickle Me

source: Tickle Me

I had never seen this film before but watched it on TCM January 8, 2013. I couldn't take my eyes off Jocelyn Lane who played Pam Merrit. I have compiled a list of the most alluring beauties in film and it is led by Brigitte Bardot. Never having heard of or seen Jocelyn lane, she was not in my top ten until now. Bardot is still number one, but I have replaced number two (Hedy Lamar) with Jocelyn Lane. Reason: incredible body with cute and curvaceous buns. Face? I'll still take Brigitte and Hedy. Some of the others on my list include Vivien Leigh, Janet Leigh, Natalie Wood, Gail Russell, Cathy O'Donnell (yes, from 'The Best Years of Our Lives' - so wholesome looking), Nicole Kidman and Marisa Tomei, amongst others. Lane retired in 1971 and married a prince. They divorced and she received $1 million; she thought it was too little for a prince's ex.

Elvis Presely was deemed to be about the only sure thing in movies as a bankable star when Allied Artists paid Elvis the the great salary of one million dollars to star in this film. Norman Taurog directs this film in a breezy style and the movie while a AA film was produced at nearby Paramount. Allied Artists was a boutique studio with films such as Love In The Afternoon, Friendly Persuasion, Soldier In the Rain, El Cid, and 55 Days At Peking, etc. AA had a small studio and no TV division and its fates rose and fell with its movies competing with giant studios such as MGM, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Some of the major film personalities that worked at AA were Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Ava Gardner, David Niven, and Sophia Loren. AA would go on to film Cabaret with Liza Minnelli, Pappillion with McQueen, and The Man Who Would Be King with Sean Connery. Directors such as William Wyler, John Huston and Billy Wilder contributed to the success of AA.

Of all the Elvis Presley quick cash mockery movies, I find this one to be the most horrendous and insulting to the core fans. Not only is this celluloid catastrophe released at the height of Beatles' cool but it pilfers songs from the landmark 'ELVIS IS BACK' LP from 5 years earlier and has our hero lip-synching these classics in front of barnyard animals, kids & whatever else available in this ridiculous romp. 'Tickle Me' would not be worthy of Elmo let alone Elvis Presley. This is truly the epitaph of a film career that seemed so promising with King Creole & Jailhouse Rock. I'd comment on the plot if there was one and would enjoy tearing this flick further apart if I only had courage to ever go back and view it again. Not in this lifetime!

As an Elvis fan, one who thinks his music is excellent, this film was a major disappointment. I don't have a list of my 10 worst films, but if I did, this would certainly be among it!

This really is an entertaining movie. Although corny, it makes you laugh if you think about how stupid it is and how much movies have evolved since then. Elvis absolutely hated these movies. He did enjoy his first four, ( Love me Tender, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, and King Creole) King Creole was his favorite to make and probably his best movie period. He hated making the silly musical movies of the sixties. He knew they were stupid. However, Colonel Parker had him brainwashed in the beginning and before Elvis knew what he was doing was going to ruin his career for 8 years, he was already obligated into contracts 5 years in advance. He went on to make a comeback in 1968 and reclaim his throne as the king of rock. That is what he is, the king of rock n' roll, and he wasn't a bad actor either, he did the best with the absolutely HORRIBLE scripts thrown at him as he could. He did just as well with those scripts as Brando could have.

Elvis Presley plays the Panhandle Kid, staying busy at a female dude ranch pitching hay, checking out the gamms on the girls while they're exercising, arguing with his female boss (who can't keep her hands off him!) and, of course, singing whenever the movie's pace needs a boost. In an outrageous but silly/enjoyable plot twist, it turns out one of the young ladies is involved with villains who are after her hidden treasure. All this leads Elvis to a ghost town where the bad guys dress up like ghouls and try to scare the sideburns off him. A brainless hoedown with an array of songs from the vault, "Tickle Me" served as Presley's IRS tax-bill movie and he's barely in character. Jocelyn Lane is a sexy cowgirl, while the haunted house finale is something new for a Presley picture. ** from ****

This flick is fairly frightening! The plot is beyond explanation, but it does include the beautiful and undervalued Jocelyn Lane (Hell's Belles) and Allison Hayes (Attack of the 50-foot Woman). Not only are all of the songs forgettable, the script was left in the trailer. A 2 out of 10. Best performance = Jocelyn Lane. Don't go near this one unless you've sat through Schindler's List and need a goofy fix of sterilized nonsense (plenty of pretty girls though). Jack Mullaney is his usual mental defective sidekick and Julie Adams was a decent actress (Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Last Movie), but this one is right there with SPINOUT, CLAMBAKE, and LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE. Sorry Elvis!

Elvis Presley plays a singing rodeo cowboy waiting for the rodeo season to open and takes a job at a dude ranch/health spa for models and well-to-do women. The adorable Jocelyn Lane plays the cowboy/handyman's love interest. The ranch manager(Julie Adams) also has eyes for the singing distraction. Hidden treasure in a ghost town causes mild suspense and some slapstick comedy. In order to save money for the production company no new songs were recorded for the movie. Some tunes are almost five years old. The better ditties include:"Night Rider", "Dirty, Dirty Feeling", "Slowly But Surely" and "Easy Question". Some of the background sets are super cheap; the plot kind of flimsy; but the magic between Presley and Lane sizzles and smolders. I think that and the music are worth the price of admission. Also in the cast are: Jack Mullaney, Edward Faulkner and Barbara Werle.

Allied Artists, the studio known for grade C efforts starring the Bowery Boys, made a bid for respectability in the late 50s by signing class directors like Billy Wilder, William Wyler, and John Huston to make films for them. They did, but by 1965, the studio was facing economic disaster. Their salvation turned out to be Elvis Presley. Colonel Tom Parker cut a deal for his "boy" to make "Tickle Me," and, sure enough, the grosses for the film saved Allied Artists from bankruptcy. Unfortunately, everything about "Tickle Me" is bankrupt. The songs are good, especially "Dirty, Dirty Feeling," but that's because they had already been released on earlier Presley albums, and weren't commissioned specifically for the film (after Presley's salary, there wasn't enough money to hire songwriters). Elvis brings his customary charm and wit to the proceedings, thereby making it watchable (Jocelyn Lane helps in that department, too), but this is probably the artistic low point of his movie career. More than any of his other films, this one was strictly meant to cash in on his popularity. It's the ultimate example of Colonel Tom Parker, the showbiz pimp, in action.

The deadening treadmill of cookie-cutter Presley vehicles, foisted upon him by his "mentor" Col. Parker, continues here with both good and bad results. Presley plays a singing rodeo rider who finds himself working at a ranch where zaftig women go to peel away pounds. It's run by Adams, who has her sites set on him and is also home to exercise instructor Lane, who is more skeptical, at least at first. Presley's roomie is dim bulb fellow hand Mullaney while his chief antagonist is jealous swim instructor Faulkner (who sports one really awkward-looking and unappetizing set of swim trunks hoisted up practically to his chest!) Presley has to fend off the female guests of the ranch who are hungry not only for steak, but for him, while Lane searches in vain for a fortune her grandfather left behind in a nearby western ghost town. It all comes to a head in a protracted finale that seems more like a very bad episode of "Scooby Doo" than a piece of musical froth. Presley lopes through the film with varying degrees of interest, lip-synching to songs he had recorded months and years prior (a symptom of the low budget of the project), not that it stands out too much to the casual viewer. It's just that the songs bear virtually no relation to anything and there's not even a title tune. The script is preposterous, so Presley goes along for the ride as well as he can. Lane is almost legendary as one of The King's most attractive costars. Her body, even by today's standards, is unbelievable, so it's hard to imagine how jaw-dropping she must have seemed in '65. Her acting leaves quite a bit to be desired, but most male viewers will care very little! A Brit in real life, she provides a creditable American accent. Adams doesn't even try to mask her character's outright lust for Presley. She isn't given much to do at all beyond drooling over him, but she looks great doing it and does it with verve. Mullaney is annoying as would be expected from anyone being led through tired "3 Stooges" style schtick. (The films writers had worked with the comic trio previously.) Most of the rest of the cast are only shown is brief bits. At times it seems like the story – to use a term loosely – was cobbled together in order to take advantage of pre-existing sets left over from a prior movie and it's possible that that is what happened. Nonetheless, this was an inexplicable box office smash, placing the studio that backed it into the black and giving Presley (who was entitled to 50% of the profits) a hefty payday as well. At least it is colorful and attractive to the eye most of the time and undemanding (to say the least.) It's just a shame that someone as handsome and talented as Presley was unable or unwilling to be placed in projects that better displayed his charms while also paying tribute to them instead of bleeding them and his reputation dry.