In May 1965 "Tickle Me" hit the cinemas and even though MGM's "Girl Happy" had been released just one month earlier, Allied Artist earned rental fees of 3.4 million USD for the USA and Canada. So it can be estimated that the audience had paid 6.8 million USD for the tickets. Translated into the present by using our factor of 15 this means ticket sales of 102 million USD and rental fees of 51 million USD. Today "Tickle Me" is often overlooked, but in fact this is one the most successful Presley movies and one of the very few that earned him an award. Elvis was honored with a Laurel Award as "Best Male Musical Actor". His competitors were The Beatles, who were nominated with "Help", their second movie.

The German audience had to wait until January 27, 1966. Here the film was called "Cowboy Melodie" which surprisingly means "Cowboy Melody".

Storyline

Lonnie Beale (Elvis) is a singing rodeo cowboy who happens to work on a beauty farm. Here he falls in love with Pam and both visit an abandoned western town to search for a treasure. Of course some gangsters are after the money, too.

Production Staff

Ben Schwalb (producer), Norman Taurog (director), Elwood Ullman und Edward Bernds (script), Walter Scharf (music), Loyal Griggs (camera), Archie Marshek (editor).

Principal Cast

Elvis Presley (Lonnie Beale), Jocelyn Lane (Pam Merritt), Julie Adams (Vera Radford), Jack Mullaney (Stanley Potter), Merry Anders (Estelle Penfield), Connie Gilchrist (Hilda) und Edward Faulkner (Brad Bentley). The German voice of Elvis was dubbed by Rainer Brandt. 

Production

When Allied Artists was in financial trouble the management had a great idea: Let's hire Elvis Presley, make a ton of money and refloat the company! The project was budgeted with 1.5 million USD, but unfortunately the king and his manager expected a fee of $600,000 and a lump sum for expenses of $150,000. Besides that they demanded 50% of the earnings reduced by the amounts paid upfront. After all was said and done half of the budget went straight in the pockets of the principal actor!

To show how lucrative this movie was for Elvis, we once again use our beloved factor of 15. The fee and the lump sum for expenses would be 11.25 million USD today. Even without the foreign markets the studio would have earned rental fees of 51 million USD. Reduced by the 11.25 million USD paid to Presley upfront there would be 39.75 million USD to be split 50/50 between the studio and the singer. So Elvis would have made 11.25 million USD (fee and lump sum for expenses) plus 19.88 million USD (profit share) making a total of 31.13 million USD. Certainly not bad for six weeks of work.

The movie was shot between October 12th and November 24th, 1964 at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Of course the studio could not afford to hire a famous comedian like Jerry Lewis, but they used Jack Mullaney, who somewhat looked and acted like the star. Another way to save money was to do without an original soundtrack. Instead of having Elvis record new material, Allied Artists simply used some lesser known tracks from the albums "Elvis Is Back!" (1960), "Something For Everybody" (1961), "Pot Luck With Elvis" (1962), "Fun In Acapulco" (1963) and "Kissin' Cousins" (1964).  The movie was produced so effectively, that in the end Ben Schwalb was $4000 below his budget!

Soundtrack

Of course RCA Victor used the movie as an excuse to release all the songs again. Combined the records sold 2.8 million units and provided Elvis with two number one hits in the Adult Contemporary Charts. A tap on the covers leads to the reviews.  

Home Entertainment

In 2018 Koch Media teamed up with Explosive Media for a digital hd release of "Tickle Me". For a short review, just tap on the cover.

Trailer