Skidoo

Skidoo (1968)

Runtime:  98 minutes

Directed by: Otto Preminger

Starring: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, & other famous names I'll mention in the review

From: Paramount

How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?, The Movie

Believe it or not, I've seen this infamous flop, long ago. However, this-via TCM Underground late last night-was the first trip in widescreen. What a motion picture this is, something that satirizes such things as hippies while at the same time trying to be “hip” in order to appeal to “the youths” at the time. Believe it or not, a bunch of old Hollywood farts who did not really understand hippies and the counterculture did not succeed at making something for them. As nice a cast as this features and Otto Preminger is a legendary director, practically all the famous faces are old people so of course they will seem woefully out of touch; I'll just presume that the actual youths in the late 60's scoffed pretty loudly at Skidoo.

Jackie Gleason is a retired mob hitman who is asked out of retirement to kill someone in prison before he testifies before a Congressional hearing. Meanwhile, wife Carol Channing has to deal with their teen daughter becoming (gasp) a hippie. This is supposed to be a comedy, but to me “comedy” is more like it. Much of the gags and jokes splat on the ground like an egg tossed from a high rise building. Lord, some of the dialogue has aged real badly and more than once, Gleason speaks as if he's Buford T. Justice, meaning those words I definitely won't repeat here. I laughed AT such things as Channing wearing a bright yellow ensemble which has some frilly parts-including bizarre hat-making it an ersatz Big Bird! It is quite the feat to make a “comedy” that often misses the mark when it has the likes of Gleason, Channing, Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin, John Phillip Law, Peter Lawford, George Raft, Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney, Arnold Stang, Austin Pendleton, Slim Pickens, Richard Kiel... and even Groucho Marx in his final film role.

This does not get a bottom of the barrel rating for a few minutes. It's not completely without chuckles, after all. Plus, the 60's sets are SO of the time they were colorful delights. This is probably the only motion picture where all the end credits were sang... and it was done by Nilsson (before he became famous) who also did the score. However, the true highlight is that it shows the effect of various people trippin' balls, including Gleason. I've never partaken in LSD before so it's only hearsay I can go on; allegedly, it is somewhat accurate to what an acid trip COULD be like. Plenty of clips of Skidoo can be found on YouTube-at least as of this review being posted-such as those musical end credits but Jackie Gleason on LSD can also be seen in a video entitled: The Greatest Acid Trip in Cinema History. What a segment that is.

It is not the worst “Hollywood tries to be hip” picture of its time; I've once seen-but never reviewed here-Myra Breckenridge... it's understandable why some will love the campiness of this. Personally, it was one of my least favorite “unofficial genres” (unfunny comedy) and the moments of note can be viewed separately on YouTube.