Tickle Me 1965

Lonnie Beale, Elvis Presley an out-of-work rodeo star with a heart of gold, is trying to make ends meet as the season nears. He travels to the fictional Western town of Zuni Wells after a friend says a ranch might hire him, but that friend cannot be found. With few options left, Lonnie takes to singing in a local club, hoping to earn enough to keep himself afloat, until a troublemaker in the crowd costs him his gig.

Vera Radford, Julie Adams sees Lonnie’s performance and offers him a job taking care of the horses at a ranch she runs called Circle-Z. Yet the place isn’t what Lonnie expects. Circle-Z doubles as Yogurt Gulch, a fitness salon where actresses and models come to shed pounds and get in shape, and Lonnie quickly finds himself at odds with the staff as he disrupts activities with his songs.

On a tip from Pam Meritt, Jocelyn Lane, Lonnie heads to Silverado—the nearby ghost town—where he learns that one of Pam’s relatives has hidden a treasure. The town comes alive in his imagination as he and Pam share a playful fantasy of what it once was, a moment of lighthearted camaraderie amid growing danger.

There is a playful interlude that parodies Western films, in which Lonnie becomes the Panhandle Kid, a milk-drinking cowboy, while Pam and the ranch hand Stanley Potter, Jack Mullaney in costume, portray other exaggerated figures in the saloon. This wink at classic cinema sits beside the brisk, real stakes of the treasure hunt and the tensions simmering beneath the surface at Circle-Z.

Back at the ranch, danger intensifies as people try to abduct Pam to force her to reveal the treasure’s location, and they seek a letter that Pam possesses. Lonnie acts to protect her, and a genuine romance blossoms between them, but things get more complicated when Vera throws herself at Lonnie and Pam walks in on them, adding a wrench to Lonnie’s loyalties. Vera, Julie Adams becomes a rival in love, a twist that further complicates Lonnie’s choices and deepens the emotional stakes.

When rodeo season arrives, Lonnie hits the circuit, but unresolved feelings for Pam complicate his performances. Every time he tries to call, she hangs up, and when he writes, his letters return marked “Return to Sender”—a sly nod to a 1962 Presley hit that echoes his own restless ties between fame and home. Lonnie’s struggle to balance career and heart continues as he wrestles with what he really wants.

Stanley finds Lonnie on the circuit and talks him into confronting Pam, leading them all back toward Circle-Z and the chase for Silverado’s treasure. Pam is on her way to Silverado, so they follow her, hoping to prevent the treasure from falling into dangerous hands. A fierce storm locks them into a hotel that seems haunted, and eerie things happen to Pam and Stanley whenever Lonnie is away. It’s not ghosts, but masked men in disguise, trying to trap Pam and force the treasure’s location into the wrong hands.

When the truth is finally uncovered, the ghosts and goblins are unmasked as the would-be treasure thieves, and the hiding place of the treasure is revealed. Lonnie and Pam seal their partnership with a marriage, celebrated with a big reception at Circle-Z. The ceremony marks a hopeful turn, even as chaos continues in the aftermath—the old stagecraft of the town colliding with the new life they’re building. The closing scene fuses joy and humor as Lonnie sings to Pam while they drive off on their honeymoon, dragging Stanley in a metal tub behind them, a lighthearted wink to the adventures they’ve shared and the family they’ve become.