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A Ticklish Affair

A Ticklish Affair
A Ticklish Affair.jpg
Directed by George Sidney
Produced by Joe Pasternak
Screenplay by Ruth Brooks Flippen
Based on "Moon Walk"
by Barbara Luther
Starring Shirley Jones
Gig Young
Red Buttons
Music by George Stoll
Cinematography Milton R. Krasner
Edited by John McSweeney, Jr.
Production
company
Euterpe, Inc.
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release date
  • August 18, 1963 (1963-08-18)
Running time
88 minutes
Country United States
Language English

A Ticklish Affair (a.k.a. Moon Walk) is a 1963 film directed by George Sidney. It stars Shirley Jones, Gig Young and Red Buttons, with a screenplay by Ruth Brooks Flippen, based on a short story by Barbara Luther. It was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1964.

Commander Key Weedon (Gig Young), a pilot with the U.S. Navy, is sent to investigate when an S.O.S. emergency signal is spotted in the San Diego area near NAS North Island. He discovers it is the doing of a six-year-old boy, Grover Martin, whose Uncle Simon (Red Buttons), an airline pilot, gave the boy a blinker light as a gift.

The child's mother, Amy (Shirley Jones), is an attractive widow, and Key develops an immediate interest in her. Her three sons also enjoy the attention Key gives all of them. Amy has a blind spot when it comes to naval officers, however, not wanting a permanent relationship with one because they are constantly on the move. She had been a military child herself, and missed not having permanent "roots". Sure enough, Key gets orders to go to Italy, so Amy refuses his marriage proposal, though they love each other.

Uncle Simon has a new treat for Grover and his brothers. He ties them to helium balloons and flies them as one would a kite. Unfortunately, Grover cuts his tether and he goes floating for miles over San Diego. Large-scale rescue operations are quickly organized by the Navy, and it turns out to be Key himself who lowers himself on a rope ladder from a vy Navy blimp to rescue the boy. A grateful Amy then decides that wherever he goes, Key is the man for her.

As appearing in A Ticklish Affair, (main roles and screen credits identified):

Originally titled Moon Walk, the production was intended to be a vehicle for Jean Simmons. Contract obligations, however, were at play and Shirley Jones ended up with the role. After an Academy-award winning performance in Elmer Gantry (1960), she was hoping to concentrate on serious roles, but instead Jones was assigned to comedies such as The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). Jones reluctantly fulfilled her contract despite her reluctance to take on "fluff" roles in a rom-com like A Ticklish Affair. Despite the "screen chemistry" of the leads, critics did not consider the film interesting family fare.


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