His expression says it all

TICKLE ME —–an electric shock would work better to wake you from the stupor this crummy Elvis movie will put you in. If not his worst (‘Competition on line 1’), then close enough, as he perjures himself on this 1965 cheapie directed by Norman Taurog.

This time out, he’s a rodeo cowboy, working at a ranch where models and actresses go to exercise and scamper around in bikinis. Fair enough, but then the rest of the bottom-scraping plot arrives, via treasure, a haunted house, 9 lip-synched songs, a couple of fights, and a rack of badly mugged jokes. One tune, “Night Rider” (originally done on the “Pot Luck” LP back in ’62) is a keeper, and co-stars Julie Adams and Jocelyn Lane are for sure sexy (Adams could act, Lane was terrible, though hot enough to short-out Vegas) but whether they will keep you there for 90 minutes is debatable.

Done for peanuts ($406,400 plus $750,000 for The King), with cardboard sets. Pretty bad. On hand are Jack Mullaney, Merry Anders, Connie Gilchrist, Barbara Werle, Edward Faulkner, Allison Hayes, Bill Williams and Red West (in case the King needs a cheeseburger). The va-va-va-voom La Lane, who adorned The Gamma People, The Son Of Hercules vs. Venus and War Gods Of Babylon, as well as “Playboy”, later married ‘Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg’.  This Elvoid gasser grossed $5,000,000. Later in the year he followed with Harum Scarum (speaking of candidates for Worst).

T for Tease: free extra pic of Jocelyn Lane