Tickle Me - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Elvis Presley is Lonnie Beale, an out-of-work rodeo star trying to make ends meet until the season starts up again. He comes to the town of Zuni Wells (a fictional town somewhere in the American West) because a friend says he can get a job on a ranch, but his friend is nowhere to be found. Having no other option, Lonnie begins singing in a local club, but he gets fired after a fight with one of the customers. Thankfully, Vera Radford (Julie Adams) sees his performance and offers him a job at a ranch she runs called the Circle-Z to take care of the horses. The Circle-Z is not what Lonnie expected, though: It is a guest ranch where actresses and models go to lose weight and to get in shape, a fitness salon, referred to as "Yogurt Gulch".

After upsetting the staff a few times by disrupting activities with his singing, Lonnie follows Pam Meritt (Jocelyn Lane) to the nearby ghost town of Silverado where he learns that one of her relatives has hidden a treasure. While there, they have a comical vision of what the town must have been like when it was still populated. Back at the ranch, people keep trying to abduct Pam to find out what she knows about the location of the treasure. In specific, they want to get their hands on a letter in Pam's possession. Lonnie finds himself defending her more than once. Lonnie and Pam soon begin a relationship, but matters are complicated when Vera throws herself at him and Pam walks in on them.

There is a brief interlude where Western films are spoofed and parodied in a comedy sequence where Lonnie Beal is the Panhandle Kid, a milk drinking cowboy, with Pam Meritt and Stanley Potter (Jack Mullaney) in costume as characters in the saloon.

When rodeo season starts, Lonnie goes on the circuit, but because things were left unresolved with Pam, he is unable to do his job well. Every time he tries to call her, she hangs up on him, and when he writes to her, she sends it back, marked "Return to Sender" (an homage to a song that was a big hit for Elvis in 1962). Eventually, one of the ranch hands, Stanley Potter, finds Lonnie on the circuit and talks him into confronting Pam.

When the two reach the Circle-Z, Pam is on her way to Silverado, so they follow her. A fierce storm begins when they arrive, so the trio decide to spend the night in a deserted hotel. But the hotel is not as deserted as they think. It seems to be haunted, as strange things keep happening to Pam and Stanley whenever Lonnie is not around. Eventually we learn that the ghosts and goblins in the hotel are actually masked men trying to get to Pam's treasure.

Finally, the men after the treasure are defeated and unmasked, and the hiding place of the treasure is discovered in the hotel. Lonnie and Pam decide to get married, and they have a big reception at the Circle-Z. Stanley gets tangled up in the decorations behind their car. The film ends with Lonnie singing to Pam as they drive off toward their honeymoon, dragging Stanley in a metal tub behind them.