Chatouille-moi

Funny! This is one of my Elvis favorites! Yes, there is nothing serious here but good fun entertainment. Elvis in some really great candid shots and a spooky ghost town. Elvis in the rodeo. I really like this one and hope to see it on DVD. In fact, why isn't the entire Elvis movie collection on DVD??? When I think of all the trash movies that are being sold, why not some good, clean Elvis fun and some great music, too? I have been watching the Elvis movies since I was 6 years old. I love these old fun movies. I have the entire collection on VHS and have bought all that are available on DVD. These films take me right back to my youth. Pop some corn, pour a Pepsi, sit back and relax and recall the good IL' days when Elvis was showing off on the big silver screen.

I have to admit this movie holds a special place in my heart as I saw in with the first girl I ever dated and fell in love with back in 1965. But all that aside, some 45 years later, I still enjoy the movie even if I haven't seen the girl in 40 years. Elvis as a singing rodeo cowboy gets sidetracked working at a dude ranch for young women wishing to look better and hooks up with Jocelyn Lane, possibly the best looking woman on the planet in 1965. The music, taken from some older Elvis LPs, fits fine. The songs "Dirty, Dirty Feeling" and "Slowly But Surely" are great songs on their own as is the opening sequence number, "Long Lonely Highway", which was released as a single. "Such An Easy Question", also released as a single in 65, is more of a romantic ballad and is quite good, tho it sounded better when it was released a couple years earlier on the "Pot Luck" album. They added some background orchestration to the movie version that is totally out of place. Julia Adams and "Wild" Bill Williams head up a stellar supporting cast. A good, solid Elvis movie and remember, these movies were not made to compete for Oscars.

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!

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).

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.