Skidoo (film)

Infobox Film
name = Skidoo


image_size =
caption = Movie poster
director = Otto Preminger
producer = Otto Preminger
writer = Doran William Cannon
narrator =
starring = Jackie Gleason
Carol Channing
Frankie Avalon
Groucho Marx
Mickey Rooney
George Raft
Arnold Stang
Slim Pickens
Burgess Meredith
Peter Lawford
Frank Gorshin
Austin Pendleton
Cesar Romero
Roman Gabriel
John Phillip Law
Alexandra Hay
Stacy King
Donyale Luna
Doro Merande
music = Harry Nilsson
cinematography = Leon Shamroy
editing = George R. Rohrs
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = December 19, 1968 (USA)
runtime = 97 min.
country = U.S.A.
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:110479
imdb_id = 0063612

"Skidoo" is a 1968 comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures. It satirizes the modern world and its s, technology, anti-technology, hippies and free love, and features the use of LSD.

The movie featured a cast of stars and veteran character actors, including Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Cesar Romero, Frankie Avalon, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin, Richard Kiel, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Slim Pickens, George Raft, Mickey Rooney, Arnold Stang, and Groucho Marx in his final speaking movie role. It has a score by singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, who also appeared briefly in the movie.

ynopsis

A retired mobster, Tony Banks (Gleason), now settled with wife Flo (Channing) and daughter Darlene (Hay), worries about his daughter's new hippie boyfriend Stash (Law), and his own paternity of Darlene. Romero and Avalon appear as two mob bosses, Hechy and Angie, who bring Tony the news that "God" (Marx) wants him to carry out one last job; murder his old pal "Blue Chips" Packard (Rooney), before he can testify before the US Senate's Crime Commission. Tony refuses, but upon finding his old friend Harry (Stang) shot through the head, goes along with God's wishes, and is sent to the new, high-tech island prison where Packard is being held, infiltrating as a convict.

In his absence, Flo invites Stash and his friends to stay at their house, to beat a vagrancy charge. She visits Angie (as does Darlene, looking for her in turn) to persuade him to either cancel the job, or take her to God (who's living without a country, on a yacht in international waters) so she can ask personally. Angie won't take Flo— but he will take Darlene, who nonetheless insists on bringing Stash along. God takes a liking to Darlene, as does God's mistress Elizabeth (Luna) to Stash, but both are frustrated in their pursuit.

One of Tony's cellmates turns out to be a draft dodger called Fred the Professor (Pendleton); an electronics wizard who has renounced technology, but still rigs a television set to allow Banks to communicate with Packard between cells. Banks realises he can't kill his old friend, and thus will probably never leave the prison. He writes his wife with the news, on stationery borrowed from Fred, and ignores Fred's pleas not to lick the envelope. When he does, he discovers the hard way that all the stationery is soaked with LSD... enough to send the whole prison on a hard trip. Fred guides Tony through the resulting acid experience, helping him come to terms with his worries about Darlene and his past, and plotting their escape.

Darlene and Stash spend the night aboard God's yacht, with Stash getting word back to Flo and his friends about their location, and a coded plea for help. As the hippies mount a rescue, Tony and Fred build a makeshift balloon from discarded freezer bags and garbage cans, dump the whole supply of stationery into the prison's lunch, and fly out of the prison as everyone below begins to freak out.

As it happens, both the hippies (led by Flo, who sings the title number as they storm the yacht) and the balloon arrive at God's hideaway at the same time. As they hunt him down, God abandons ship. Tony and Flo borrow a cabin on the yacht and renew their relationship, while Angie marries Elizabeth, and Stash and Darlene take their own hippie vows. God and Fred sail off together to pursue a simpler life.

Before anyone can leave their seat, Preminger's voice calls out "Stop!" and beckons the audience to stay for the credits, sung by Nilsson with asides ("How was your popcorn?").

Cast

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

Critical and public reception

The movie missed the mark with both critics and audiences, and bombed at the box-office. A soundtrack album by Nilsson was issued, along with a single, "I Will Take You There," but neither became a hit. The movie received some belated attention in the 1980s when it was shown on cable television, and the soundtrack was lauded when it was reissued on compact disc in 2000 (in the UK) and 2003 (in the US). Nonetheless, no official home video release has ever been made, and the movie is presumed locked away in the Preminger archives, as was "Bunny Lake Is Missing" for several years. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City periodically exhibits a 35mm print of the movie, and it was also shown in Los Angeles in 2007. "Skidoo" appeared most recently on cable, on January 5, 2008, on Turner Classic Movies as part of its "TCM Underground" movie series.

Writer Paul Krassner published a story in the February 1981 issue of "High Times", relating how Groucho Marx "prepared" for his role in an LSD-related movie by taking a dose of the drug in Krassner's company, and had a moving, largely pleasant experience. (In his 1976 book "The Groucho Phile", Marx commented that both the movie and his performance as the mobster boss God were "God-awful!") Most of the rest of the cast and crew, though, apparently had no familiarity with the drug; Nilsson (who reportedly did use LSD years later) confessed he'd simply pretended to be drunk for his role.

ee also

*Skidoo (soundtrack)

External links

*imdb title|id=0063612|title=Skidoo
*tcmdb title|id=90381|title=Skidoo
*amg title|id=1:110479|title=Skidoo
*" [http://www.sirbacon.org/4membersonly/groucho.htm My Acid Trip with Groucho] ", by Paul Krassner