targeting specific frames in objective movieclips

ok, i'm going to try to describe my dilemna as clearly as possible here:

i currently have two movie clips in my main timeline, located on the same layer, we'll call them her1MCx and him1MCx. each one of those movieclips contains a single movieclip that is split up into four seperate 10-frame stop(); sections. so we have:

her1MCx->her2MCx[1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40]
him1MCx->him2MCx[1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40]

i have a function setup in frame 10 of her2MCx that has a gotoAndPlay action set to play at frame 11 of her2MCx and another gotoAndPlay action set to play at frame 31 of him2MCx. here is the code i have used for the function:



i have this function assigned to multiple buttons in the frame the action is defined in., as such:



when i click on a button, the section of the movie clip on that layer plays at frame 11, but the movie clip located on him2MCx at frame 31 does not play. i've tried targeting frame 31 of him2MCx both absolutely and relatively, to no avail. i have also tried using frame labels, and targeting that portion of the movieclip in that manner, but met with similar disappointment. am i missing something here? i'm willing to provide the fla upon request. feel free to aim me @ yuckyplecks if you'd like. thank you in advance for your assistance. -db

the current outcome of what i've done is located at http://www.debrisblanc.com/siteX/index.html under the "store" link. if you click on either the guy or the girl, they will come to the "front" of the stage. then, when you click on one of the subcategories, on top of the guy or the girl, it minimizes that character to the side of the screen. the desired effect that i'm going for is for both characters to behave in such a way when a subcategory has been chosen on either character. -db

c'mon people. this can't be that complicated. (just too complicated for me, apparently.) i'm stuck here, and i haven't been able to find any mention of a rule that i'm in violation of.

bump.