Skidoo, Otto Preminger 1968

[Scott]

I had terribly low expectations but was still disappointed. Watched Skidoo, one of those big budget comedies from the late '60s, about hippies but starring actors who were middle aged or older. With Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Arnold Stang, Peter Lawford, Cesar Romero, George Raft, Mickey Rooney, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, Frankie Avalon and Groucho Marx in his last movie. Groucho was 77 and tried LSD in preparation for his role.

It was just awful. Nothing funny. Director Otto Preminger had played Mr Freeze on Batman and had some fellow special guest villains in the movie. Hippie dialog by Rob Reiner (uncredited).

I heard that the movie was a critical and commercial failure but that people were reassessing it. 

Jackie Gleason is a retired hitman upset that his daughter has become a hippie. Groucho Marx calls him out of retirement to bump off Mickey Rooney in prison before he can testify before Peter Lawford's congressional committee on organized crime. Gleason gets into prison by taking the place of a recently sentenced convict. He shares a cell with a hippie who brought his own stationary which Gleason borrows to write a letter to his wife, Carol Channing. He licks the envelope and only then learns that it's laced with LSD. He has a pleasant psychedelic experience which turns him away from violence. 

Music by Harry Nilsson. Briefly turns into a musical when Carol Channing sings the theme song, "Skidoo", as she and the hippies raid the boat from which Groucho Marx runs his criminal empire. 



Cesar Romero and Arnold Stang look on as Jackie Gleason smacks Frankie Avalon.

[JD]

Never even heard of it before.  Is it pronounced "Skee-doo" like the jetskis, or "Skidoo" like "Twenty-three skidoo"?

[Scott]

Pronounced like Twenty-three skidoo. Although I'm not sure the word is ever uttered except in the song sung by Carol Channing near the end. And Otto Preminger says it in voice-over in an Austrian accent before the closing credits.

And here it is, the full movie on YouTube: youtu.be/t5wzeQG6FMA. I should have looked there before getting the DVD on Netflix. One of the very few comedies in which Arnold Stang is murdered.

I don't think Otto Preminger wasn't known for his sense of humor.

[Scott]

So, I was listening to a podcast, Thought Spiral with Andy Kindler and Josh Weinstein. To give themselves something to talk about, they have begun giving each other "assignments" to watch or listen to something they can discuss the following week.

Josh looks through his DVDs to find something for Andy to watch.

"...and this one's bonkers. Have you ever seen Skidoo?"

"No."

"Oh, it's f****n' crazy. I mean, it's terrible. It's crazy to watch and fun to watch."

"Is it really pretty bad?"

"Yeah. But it's like---you have to see it kind of. It's Jackie Gleason, it's Groucho Marx, it's Carol Channing, it's Otto Preminger directed it. It's like Otto Preminger late '60's weird acid trip movie. It's f*****g bonkers, but it's worth seeing."

"I should do that one."

[Scott]

Andy Kindler and Josh Weinstein discuss Skidoo. Andy Kindler's side of the conversation in bold. Neither one understood the plot which I didn't think that was that difficult:

"The music was at times unforgivable. They sang public domain songs a couple of times. Like three times they sang, like uh--"

"Camptown Races or something?"

"No, Ten Little Indians, 9 little 8 little 7 little Indians. So I thought that was like back when they had to do that. And then all of a sudden Frank Gorshin comes in, the tough guy... it really is like an acid trip in the sense, like---it's like a bad--it's like magical mystery tour if it was nothing good..."

"Well, it's like a movie that's cast like a '70's variety show almost."

"Yes!"

"It's like the cast is like--it feels like a Sonny and Cher sketch almost."

"Yeah, it feels like a--almost like---from a Honeymooners where they do their stage show...and it wanted to be a musical sometimes, too."

"Right..."

"Do you want to see Carol Channing almost naked?"

"Yes. I kind of did. I didn't know I did."

"One of the big buttons on that thing is she ends up sleeping with Jackie Gleason."

"Her husband."

"Is that her husband?! I could not--oh! So they're arguing in the first scene--'GET OUT OF HERE, YOU BIG--' So why would it be a button that they'd sleep together? I thought that was like making...'How did THIS happen?' Like--"

"No, it's a happy ending."

"Another woman is almost naked."

"A lot of bikinis."

"...You have Jackie Gleason crying. You have Groucho Marx not...being...funny. Right?"

"Right. Reading cue cards basically."

"He's reading these things [unintelligible]"

"Just another level of performance in the movie."

"Burgess Meredith--as soon as one of these people came in, all I could focus on is what are they doing here---how are they getting out of here. And it's like everything. Juggling--they have a thing where there's juggling in it. It's like they threw everything against the acid wall--"

"Right."

"And it even had a tuba at the end."

"But don't you agree that, if you're of the so-bad-it's-good school of movies, this is kind of a special thing."

"I think it really is---"

"I'm usually not that guy. But this is just so, like---"

"Right, I think you may unfortunately even have to watch it twice."

"Yeah."

"--because there are some parts that--"

"Feel free."

"--because there are some parts that are unwatchable."