Skidoo [Blu-ray]

Director: Otto Preminger Otto Preminger

Overview

Producer and director Otto Preminger reportedly experimented with LSD in the late 60's, which inspired him to make this notorious comedy in which Jackie Gleason plays Tony, a mid-level gangster and former hired killer not very happy with his life. He bickers a lot with his wife Flo (Carol Channing) and isn't sure what to make of his daughter Darlene (Alexandra Hay), especially since she started dating a hippie named Stash (John Phillip Law). Two of Tony's superiors, Angie (Frankie Avalon) and Hechy (Cesar Romero), order him to get arrested, go to prison and once behind bars whack "Blue Chips" Packard (Mickey Rooney). Though he's not pleased with the idea, Tony grudgingly goes along, but once inside, he's accidentally dosed with LSD by counterculture activist the Professor (Austin Pendleton). His consciousness expanded by his trip, Tony leaves his violent lifestyle behind him and with the Professor's help plans an escape after turning the entire prison population on to acid. Certainly your only opportunity to see Groucho Marx play a character named "God," not to mention a supporting cast that includes Slim Pickens, Peter Lawford, George Raft, Frank Gorshin and Arnold Stang, Skidoo is also remembered as the film in which Harry Nilsson sang all the credits.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/23/2014
UPC:	0887090087001
Original Release:	1968
Rating:	R
Source:	Olive
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:37:00
Sales rank:	17,621

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jackie Gleason	Tony Banks
Carol Channing	Flo Banks
Frankie Avalon	Angie
Groucho Marx	"God"
Fred Clark	Tower Guard
Michael Constantine	Leech
Frank Gorshin	Man
John Phillip Law	Stash,Geronimo
Peter Lawford	Senator
Burgess Meredith	Warden
George Raft	Capt. Garbaldo
Cesar Romero	Hechy
Mickey Rooney	`Blue Chips' Packard
Austin Pendleton	Fred the Professor
Alexandra Hay	Darlene Banks
Luna	`God's' Mistress
Arnold Stang	Harry
Doro Merande	Mayor
Phil Arnold	Mayor's Husband
Slim Pickens	Switchboard Operator
Robert Donner	Switchboard Operator
Richard Kiel	Beany
Jaik Rosenstein	`Eggs' Benedict
Stacy King	The Amazon
Renny Roker	Prison Guard
Roman Gabriel	Prison Guard
Harry Nilsson	Tower Guard
William Cannon	Convict
Stone Country	Themselves

Technical Credits

Stanley Ralph Ross

Doran William Cannon

Elliott Baker

Otto Preminger	Director,Producer
Stanley Ralph Ross	Screenwriter
Doran William Cannon	Screenwriter
Elliott Baker	Screenwriter
Charles Spurgeon	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

One of the most legendary of all Hollywood fiascos, Skidoo witnessed Otto Preminger and most of his cast delving headfirst into psychedelic absurdity. The film predated Easy Rider and Bob & Carol by a year, rising like a festering wound out of the period when Tinseltown studios were making desperate and embarrassing attempts to connect - in any way possible - with the throes of the then-burgeoning counterculture. Unfortunately - unlike the same year's wonderful I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (yet another picture about squares who decide to drop out) - this loony and misguided, acid-fueled gangster farce never finds its footing. That said, it doesn't begin as a complete disaster, but forks off into left field about halfway through. The curtain rises on a conventional and surprisingly genial note - in the first act, Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing and Frankie Avalon seem to be delivering the kind of characterizations and dialogue more at home in a Disney farce. But once Gleason gets imprisoned and accidentally ingests LSD, beware; the film makes a beeline toward supreme audience irritation and never lets up. Preminger seems to be equating nonsensical mishmash and illogic with "hipness"; this may be the only picture in memory to feature a "Dance of the Garbage Cans" musical number, a deus ex machina in which three prisoners escape by building a hot air balloon with materials found inside of a penitentiary, and a finale in which two romantically (and physically) involved couples swap partners and marry at the drop of a hat, just, apparently, for the sake of confounding the logical fabric of the script and being weird. Much has been made of the bizarre fact that Harry Nilsson sings the final credits (yes, right down to the "Copyright MCMLXVIII,") but that represents the very least of the film's problems. Frankly, the picture isn't funny, or for that matter, entertaining either - not even for aficionados of terrible cinema. The most depressing sidelight is that the studios' attempts to connect with the youth movement continued for several years after Skidoo, and quickly sank even lower. Hollywood didn't really figure out a way to squeeze psychedelic extremities like the ones seen here into a mainstream picture until the brilliant psychodrama End of the Road hit cinemas in 1970. But by that time, the counterculture was already at death's door.

All Movie Guide - Nathan Southern