A Ticklish Affair (MGM) (1963)

TOT MAKES HIGH-FLYING SCREEN DEBUT Six-year-old Peter Robbins, introduced in “‘A Ticklish Affair,”’ literally makes a high-flying screen debut as a young astronaut who takes off toward the clouds in a U. S. Navy weather balloon. He scares the wits out of Shirley Jones, Gig Young, Red Buttons and Carolyn Jones, but all ends hilariously and happily in the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy, filmed in Panavision and color. It’s a Joe Pasternak hit. Still 1804-24 A Ticklish Affair Mat 2-C AT LONG LAST, GIG YOUNG GETS THE GIRL It’s getting so you can’t trust Hollywood, Gig Young has been double-crossed but he really isn’t complaining. For years he went around winning critics but losing the girl. This year, he gets Shirley Jones, Sophia Loren and has Doris Day waiting to fall into his arms. This is only in the movies, of course. At home he has Elizabeth Montgomery. The so-called double-cross is Hollywood’s way of waking up to the fact that audiences have been romanced by Gig Young, even if his celluloid heroines haven’t. So producers did a turnabout and decided to go along with the ticket buyers. First thing Gig knew, he was making love to Shirley Jones in “A Ticklish Affair” at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and marrying the girl. This on the heels of winning Sophia Loren in “Five Miles to Midnight.” And the pay-off is that Doris Day refuses to start “Something’s Got to Give” until Gig Young is free. And that’s how he gets the girl third time running. “Vou know, it’s not so much getting the girl at the end of the film that’s so great,” Gig declares. “It’s all that footage leading up to the clinch.” As the U.S. Navy Commander in “A Ticklish Affair,” he’s right at home. During World War II, Young served as an officer in the Navy and Coast Guard, so he fits the uniform hand SHIRLEY’S JEANS WERE PEELED OFF There’s always something new in a movie star’s life and Shirley Jones experienced a unique “first” in MetroGoldwyn-Mayer’s comedy, “A Ticklish Affair,” in which she co-stars with Gig Young, Red Buttons and Carolyn Jones. Prior to the start of the picture, Shirley reported to MGM’s wardrobe department for her fashion fittings. B ut when she got there, she was told her fittings would take place in the PROP department instead. It seems that the needle and thread wielders, ordinarily on hand for costume fittings, were not required for the bluejeans worn by Shirley in many of her scenes for “A Ticklish Affair.” They were so snug-fitting they were GLUED on! 2 somely and naturally. Although he spends some time in the romantic com edy chasing an AWOL U.S. Navy balloon which is carrying Miss Jones’ small son aloft, he spends more time in orbit over blonde Shirley. On the subject of women, Gig likes them feminine, soft, pretty and wellgroomed, “One of the things that should be watched in our business (movie-making), he says, “is that some of these pretty young things believe it makes them look dedicated to their art to go around looking sloppy. Not for me. | appreciate it if a woman tries to make an effort to look glamorous for me. Even when we go sailing, my wife, Liz, wears attractive sportswear.” Sailing on his 36-foot boat, the Unicorn, is Young’s latest hobby. “The boat’s a beauty,” he enthuses. “It has a 2,000 mile range and I hope to take it down to Mexico and chase some marlin one of these days.” At the moment, however, -Young is too busy chasing girls and catching them—thanks to the latest Hollywood double-cross. Gig Young, usually the Best Man, finally gets the girl in *‘A Ticklish Affair’’— and she’s lovely Shirley Jones. Red Buttons and Carolyn Jones also star in the merry Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy, filmed in Panavision and color. A Ticklish Affair Still 1804-78 Mat 1-D SHIRLEY JONES, GIG YOUNG, RED BUTTONS, CAROLYN JONES STAR IN MGM's RIB-TICKLING COMEDY, “A TICKLISH AFFAIR” Astronauts are all the rage these days, and there’s a captivating one in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s _ rib-tickling new romantic comedy, “A Ticklish A ffair.’ He is six-year-old Peter Robbins, who makes a high-flying screen debut by taking off toward the clouds in a U.S. Navy weather balloon. And when you see Pete sail high over the city of San Diego, soar over the city’s famed Zoo and then over the Pacific, you’re going to be just as tense and apprehensive of his safety as are Shirley Jones and Carolyn Jones, watching the suspenseful flight from the ground, and Gig Young and Red Buttons, who come to his rescue. Shirley plays the attractive Navy widow, Amy Martin, doing her best to be both mother and father to three funloving little boys. Gig Young is Commander Key Weedon, who is trying to persuade Amy to let him take over the “father” role. Red Buttons is Simon, Amy’s brother, a flight officer of Pan American World Airways, who is the Santa Claus who supplies the Martin boys with such “toys” as Navy blinker lights and, later, balloons filled with helium. And Carolyn Jones is Tandy, Simon’s girl friend, who lives next door. It is the blinker light which first brings Amy and Key together when the men on the U.S. aircraft carrier Constellation coming by Point Loma are alerted to the light signaling an offshore S.O.S. Key and a shore patrol, suspecting a foreign agent of sending messages, trace the light to Amy’s house, where the “agent” turns out to be her youngest son, Grover (Peter Robbins). This contretemps marks the beginning of Key’s ardent wooing of Amy, but the latter insists she doesn’t want to marry a Navy man again. They are always roaming all over the world and she wants a permanent home for her boys. But Key bides his time, and now comes the day when Simon brings home the weather balloons as a new sport for the youngsters. When it’s Grover’s turn at what is supposed to be a localized backyard flight, he adventurously unties the anchoring guide rope and sails off on his perilous voyage. _ By the time Key and Simon go after Grover and rescue him, with a Navy blimp, a helicopter, police, fire department and practically the whole population taking part in the suspenseful operation, while an unconcerned Grover is having the time of his life, Amy has had a change of heart. Never mind a permanent home for the boys—she’ll settle for a permanent father for them! “A Ticklish Affair” gives two-time Academy Award nominee Gig Young something he seldom gets—the girl. And in the latter role, Shirley Jones, clad in a variety of fetching bluejeans or at-home shorts, is well worth waiting for, As the second romantic couple, Red Buttons and Carolyn Jones add to the fun and in one scene do a snappy Bossa ‘Nova. Eight-year-old Billy Mumy and Bryan Russell, a year older, enact Grover’s brothers and Edgar Buchanan plays their understanding “Gramps.” A Joe Pasternak production in Panavision and Metrocolor, “A Ticklish A ffair” was directed by George Sidney. Ruth Brooks Flippen wrote the screen play, based on the story, “Moon Walk,” by Barbara Luther, and George Stoll composed the attractive musical score, including the picture’s title song. Gig Young isn’t pulling a holdup on Shirley Jones in this scene from “A Ticklish Affair.”’ He’s a U. S. Navy Commander on the trail of a foreign agent sending out blinker light messages from Shirley’s house. The ‘‘agent”’ turns out to be her six-year-old son. But mama doesn’t spank him. After all, he is responsible for getting Gig and Shirley together. Red Buttons and Carolyn Jones add to the merriment of the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy, filmed in Panavision and color. Still 1804-4 A Ticklish Affair Mat 2-A GOOD GIRLS OR NOT-SO-GOOD, SHIRLEY JONES MAKES GOOD THING OF HER ROLES When she’s good, she’s very, very good. When she’s bad, she wins an “OsCae Shirley Jones is the girl who can be good when she’s bad and even makes virtue pay off without scaring Hollywood producers. “IT don’t mind being ‘good,’” she avers. “If I can’t make a girl with principles interesting, I’m not much of an actress.” If pressed, she may admit that “being typed gets an actress in a niche that is good to get out of,” but good girls don’t scare Miss Jones. She recently had fun being the youthful widow of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “A Ticklish Affair” who, without sacrificing a scruple, wins Gig Young. In “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” she beat out Stella Stevens and Dina Merrill to get Glenn Ford, even though she played the type of girl who says goodnight on the doorstep. However, when she did leave the latch off, as in “Elmer Gantry,” she walked off with an Academy Award. “All actresses want to play a variety of roles,” she says, “but it’s not easy to get producers to think that way. Yet | feel that the burden of proof is on the actress.” Minding her manners and morals in such films as “Oklahoma,” “Carousel,” “The Music Man” and the British comedy, “Bobbikins,” is proof that virtue only adds to the Jones appeal. Immediately following “A Ticklish Affair,” Shirley was signed for the romantic lead with Rossano Brazzi in “Dark Purpose,’ to be filmed on the Isle of Capri. Next comes a second comedy with Glenn Ford set in the Bluegrass country of Kentucky. It’s said that Rock Hudson is holding a film for the Jones girl. Broadway producer David Merrick is dangling a Broadway musical as bait, and Metro-GoldwynMayer is setting up a third assignment. “Without doubt, it’s easier to attract attention in a characterization with shady overtones or in a film with shock‘ ab toed ona ” Shirlev savs. ““B IT reing situations, Shirley says. Utasre fuse to be an actress who only measures the potency of a role by the number of questionable words or meanings in the dialogue. “T have no objection to being the good girl ina film. It’s up to me to make that girl provocative. J ust as if 1s up to me to make the ‘bad girl’ good. All I want is a producer who believes in me as an actress, not as a symbol of virtue or of sex,” And that’s the philosophy of Shirley Jones who, as the typical girl-next-door, makes everyone want to move into the neighborhood. CAST AY MOURN S25. cues Peete Shirley Jones Commander Key Weedon............ Gig Young Flight Officer Simon Shelley......Red Buttons CNA IMGITIN 2s eee sre Carolyn Jones “Gramps -3Martiticeec-s Edgar Buchanan Yeoman Corker Bell_.-......... Eddie Applegate Captain Haven Hitchcock.......... Edward Platt Alexi: Mathinis238 sects 2 nt ea Billy Mumy Luke: Martin:=~ se eee Bryan Russell Policemen ics: 225.22 Robert Foulk GIPeMGfic.--on. Siete eens Milton Frome Grover Martiiie._ane Peter Robbins Produced by Joe Pasternak. Directed by George Sidney. Screen Play by Ruth Brooks Flippen. Based on the Story ‘‘Moon Walk” by Barbara Luther. A Euterpe Production, In Panavision and Metrocolor. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In her latest movie, Carolyn Jones makes quite a change from her early-day pioneer woman of the MGM-Cinerama drama, ‘‘How the West Was Won.’ Here is how Carolyn looks in Metro-GoldwynMayer’s modern-day comedy, °*A Ticklish Affair,”? in which she plays Red Buttons’ fiancee. Shirley Jones and Gig Young also star in the new Panavision and color attraction. A Ticklish Affair Still 1804-51 Mat 1-E