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This movie was Elvis Presley's funniest movie. It's almost Elvis in slapstick. This movie didn't make much sense, but it wasn't supposed to. It was pretty obvious that Elvis enjoyed making this movie. Even though the supporting cast wasn't particularly strong, this movie makes up for it with all the crazy antics in the film.

While not receiving the same fanfare as some of Elvis' more renowned movies including Viva Las Vegas or Fun in Acapulco, this film is really very underrated and underscores the essence of Elvis flicks. Perhaps because Elvis is not cavorting with a well known star, such as Ann Margaret or Ursula Andress as in the aforementioned vehicles, this picture tends to always get underplayed. Most memorable is the ravishing English star, Ms. Jocelyn Lane, who absolutely lights up the scenery whenever she is around - what a stunner!

In Tickle Me (easily one of the great titles of Elvis' illustrious screen career), the King plays -- brace yourself -- a singing rodeo cowboy with a lucrative second job as a handyman at a beauty spa. Naturally, all of the women at the ranch compete for E's attentions, but he's only got eyes for the stunning Jocelyn Lane. The second half of the film gets supremely silly, as the lovers search for a hidden treasure of gold in a haunted house. The horrifyingly awful gags that accompany the climactic sequence belong in a Scooby Doo episode, but are more accurately akin to the Three Stooges -- since writers Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds had put in time for the eye-gouging, hair-pulling, face-slapping nitwits. Tickle Me has a weird appeal to me, however, as it allows Elvis the opportunity to show off his talent for comedy (an under-appreciated aspect of his acting for which he shows remarkable aptitude).

More astonishing than the script for the final 2 reels in the haunted house part of TICKLE ME is the real life fright (to us 40 years later) is the phenomenal success of this Allied Artists film. In Sydney alone TICKLE ME opened at the massive, gorgeous treasure chest State Theatre and filled all 2500 seats for an unprecedented run of 8 weeks. Built in 1929 as a luxury outlet and famed for its Astaire Rogers runs in the 30s, and the Sinatra runs of the 50s, nothing but nothing topped Elvis there in 1965. Even when his films played other major luxury palaces in Sydney before and after TICKLE ME was the winner. As flabbergasted as I am to realize that success was repeated in city after city in every country it played, NOW I realize how well this film saved Allied Artists. This was their last production until 1969. They concentrated on releasing Euro dramas like A MAN AND A WOMAN and in the 70s were responsible for CABARET and PAPILLON. If the rentals in 1965 in the US alone were $3m then you can double that from the rest of the international ticket sales: $6m from a $1.4m investment. They weren't Monogram Pictures once for nothing, were they!

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 ****