Ann Margret Photographed During the Paint Dance Scene of “The Swinger” (1966)

1960s sex kitten Ann-Margret teams up with legendary director George Sidney to craft this perfect ’60s movie. In her autobiography “Speed Bumps” Teri Garr (in 1965, a young background dancer) reveals she was Ann-Margret’s double for many shots in the body painting sequence and that the long and messy shoot involved wallowing in colored pudding for hours.

George Sidney had previously made Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas with Ann Margret. Sidney says the script for Viva Las Vegas had been written in eleven days in order to meet a commitment and The Swinger was similar. “We did the script in ten days,” he said. “The studio had a commitment and needed to fulfil it... We devised a script that would give Ann-Margret an opportunity to show her facets. And boom, boom - off we went.”

Filming started December 13, 1965 and finished by March 1966 after which Ann-Margret went to Vietnam to entertain the troops. Sidney called the film “a wild, outrageous ‘in’, what’s-happening-in-the-world-today kind of picture.”