Skidoo - Ein Happening in Love

I like a good bad movie. I can go on and on about how wonderful "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" is - and I have. And I don't need those MST3K idiots adding lame improv chatter to make a bad film more enjoyable! So I had been looking forward to "Skidoo" for years. I finally watched it last night, after procuring a copy on eBay (pretty much the only place where you can find this film, currently).

My reaction, in a nutshell: Blah. Yuck. Ho hum.

It's pointless to say more, especially when so many "Skidoo" fans have already weighed in - quite eloquently, I might add - within these comments pages. But I will say this: Usually on the IMDb, when you see so many well-written praises for a famous train wreck of a film, you get the feeling that this is something to see. Don't be snowed as I was! What most of these folks are not telling you is that "Skidoo" is meant to be a wacky comedy. But it's simply a deadening, painful-to-watch document of the twilight of many a great performer's career, where, before either dying or retreating to the safety of TV movies, the cast - some game, some barely even trying (I'm looking at you, Groucho Marx) - flounder in this pathetic attempt by the dinosaurs of 1950's Hollywood to try to stay relevant by making a "hippie movie."

This film is flat, boring, pretentious and hopelessly uncampy. It has the distinctively ugly look of late 60's studio cinema, and like many of those other strident, unfunny all-star comedies of the era ("The Great Race," "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" et al), it's just plain awful.

After years of hearing about this, I finally tracked down a pirate cassette of this unbelievable film. Oh My God, any fan of bad movies must see this for the thrill of a lifetime!

This is the film that dares to ask the question, `what happens when a director of bloated epic dramas tries his hand at screwball comedy?' Now ask what happens when he and most Hollywood are desperate to get `with it', and you'll be approaching the bizarre truth of `Skidoo'. If you thought Otto Preminger couldn't get any worse then `Hurry Sundown', this will prove you quite wrong.

I'm tempted to compare this film with late 60's wrecks like `Casino Royale', but it's really in a different league. Its more like a big budget "Love American Style" episode or a middle-aged embarrassment like `The Mother's In-Law'. Perhaps there was once a scenario lurking at the bottom of all this, or someone had a screenplay and it blew away. Either way, the whole thing appears to have been edited with a lawn mower.

But incoherent structure is only part of this remarkable cinematic experience, it also contains the wackiest cast of middle-aged actors ever, all of whom should have known better. Beyond embarrassing for all concerned, which is why it's so great to watch. Everyone on screen just looks confused, as if Otto's only direction to them was `act crazy now'. Burgess Meredith chews at his small part like bubble gum, even out doing himself in `Hurry Sundown' or 'Such Good Friends'. Carol Channing is the real mind blower here! I thought I would die when I saw her groovy striptease, but then I saw the film's climax where she leads a hippie flotilla in a freaked out royal navy uniform as they board Grocho's yacht while Carol sings the ridiculous theme song. Your life as a film fan is incomplete until you've watched this scene and played it back to make sure you really saw it. Jakie Gleason's acid freak out is even better than Vincent Price's in `The Tingler'.

This film had a big budget but from the jailhouse freak out scene, it's pretty clear that no one working on this acid movie had any idea what tripping was like. Imagine Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith and Slim Pickens all acting kooky and pretending to freak out. It all ends with Grocho in his last film getting stoned with Austin Pendlton in his first film as drift away in a lifeboat with a tie-dye sail. Then Otto Preminger announces the film is over as Harry Nelson sings the entire credits!

What could they have been thinking? This has got to be one of the biggest missteps in Hollywood history. The film seems to have barely been released. I've only read one contemporary review of it, and that one describes Carol Channing as `a walking sight gag'. It seems that everyone involved with this film sobered up and decided to quietly bury the evidence. Even today, few bad movie fans know of `Skidoo', since it is not shown on TV and has never been released on video. Reportedly, Preminger's daughter controls the negative and is sitting on it to protect here father's reputation. I found a copy of the film's soundtrack album in a thrift store a few years back, and it too is a dusey. Once you've heard Ms. Channing scream `Skidoo, skidoo, do what ya wanna do' over & over again, you may never been the same. Seek out `Skidoo', it smells like pumpkins!

It's very hard to describe SKIDOO. It starts as a spoof of gangster movies. Jackie Gleason plays a hoodlum who is forced into prison so he can bump off a possible informant (Mickey Rooney) In prison, Gleason accidently helps himself to a dose of cell mate's (Austin Pendleton) acid laced stationary, and has an LSD trip hi-lighted with cruddy special effects, dancing co-stars, etc. In the meantime, Gleason's adoring wife (Carol Channing) allows their hippie daughter to bring over about a hundred of her hippie friends. Throw in a tired looking, unfunny Groucho Marx as "God", an actually funny Frankie Avalon, a trip-out scene where Hollywood old-timers like Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Fred Clark, and Slim Pickens get embarassingly stoned. Channing is down right frightening when she leads the finale musical number. It's also impossible to fathom Otto Preminger behind this hoo-hah!

This late-60s artifact has to be seen to be believed. It was, sadly, Groucho Marx's final film, but he's still pretty good in it. I think this was a little bit unfairly maligned when it came out - perhaps audiences weren't ready for the craziness. In a nutshell, Jackie Gleason plays Tony Banks, a retired hitman. Tony is married to Flo (Carol Channing), and they have a blonde-bombshell daughter Darlene (Alexandra Hay). Tony is paid a visit by two messengers, a former coworker named Hechy (Cesar Romero) and his son Angie (Frankie Avalon), who have a job for Tony on the behalf of their employer, a mob boss named God (Marx). Seems there's a squealer sitting in the state pen, by the name of Blue Chips Packard (Mickey Rooney), and God wants him dead before he can spill the beans. While this offer is being made to Tony - can he refuse? - Darlene is falling in with a hippie named Stash (John Phillip Law), which of course the traditional-minded Tony isn't down with. He does take the job (without telling his wife and his daughter), which involves his being embedded in the prison and then "kissing" (killing!) the dirty rotten squealer. Things don't go as planned, as you might expect. And this being 1968, the spectre of LSD appears over all of the proceedings. If you ever wondered what it would be like for Ralph Kramden to take acid, wonder no more. He accidentally ingests it (licking an envelope!) and is coached through his trip by The Professor, played by Austin Pendleton. Meanwhile, God sits in his offshore yacht, afraid to even go above deck. There's plenty of singing and dancing, and the entire hippie experience is on full display. Among the rest of the cast are Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, George Raft, Peter Lawford, Michael Constantine, Richard Kiel, and Slim Pickens! So me, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, even though it's thought to be just abysmal. Skidoo is very dated, but it's a fun microcosm of life in '68.

This film is unbelievable... Big stars, a big Hollywood director... and what they came up with is the movie equivalent of a car wreck!

You don't want to look, but you find yourself unable not to.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen this film a dozen times and it still blows my mind how this ever got put on film. You won't believe your eyes or ears!

And Groucho Marx and half of the cast never looked more worse for wear.

By far, this is one of my favorite "bad" films. Watch it... and then blame the dog!