Skidoo (film)
Encyclopedia
Skidoo is an American
comedy film
directed by Otto Preminger
, starring Jackie Gleason
and Carol Channing
, written by Doran William Cannon
and released by Paramount Pictures
on December 19, 1968. The screenplay satirizes late 1960s lifestyle and its creature comforts, technology, anti-technology, hippies, free love
and then-prevalent use of the mind-altering drug LSD
.
Along with top-billed Gleason and Channing, Skidoo also stars (alphabetically listed) Frankie Avalon
, Fred Clark
(who died on December 5, two weeks before the film's release), Michael Constantine
, Frank Gorshin
, John Phillip Law
, Peter Lawford
, Burgess Meredith
, George Raft
, Cesar Romero
, Mickey Rooney
and Groucho Marx
playing "God" (making, at age 77, his final film appearance). Singer-songwriter
Nilsson
, who wrote the score and receives credit as a member of the cast, appears in a few brief scenes with Fred Clark, as both portray prison tower guards swaying to Nilsson's music while under the influence of LSD.
figures various questions to which they invariably reply, "I refuse to answer on the grounds it may tend to incriminate me." Every few seconds, the channel showing the hearing switches to another channel which is screening Preminger's black-and-white 1965 feature, In Harm's Way
, or still other channels which have one spurious commercial after another. The initial ad depicts an attractive blonde declaring, "now you too can be beautiful and sexually desirable like me instead of being that fat, disgusting, foul-breathed, slimy, wallowing sow that you are", the second has another intensely-smiling blonde stating that "maybe we blondes do have more fun" and the third ad depicts a drunken slob swilling beer and belching, interspersed with an image of a pig with beer foam around its snout, while an unseen announcer exclaims "feel big, drink pig".
After another switch to In Harm's Way, Channing's voice is again heard, complaining, "no, Harry, I don't like films on TV. They always cut them to pieces." Additional channel changes produce more images of the beer pig, then another scene from In Harm's Way, followed by an ad for "Fat Cola", with three generously-proportioned middle-aged women, wearing bathing suits, beach hats and carrying little parasols, gyrating to the jingle
, "You'll never lose your man if you drink fat cola, you'll never have to worry about losing him", then an ad showing a boy and a girl, both about six years old, dressed like adults at a picnic setting, next to a dog resembling Our Gang
s Pete the Pup
(Pete's trademark circular ring around the eye is here drawn at a sharply oblique angle), with all three vigorously emitting smoke from long cigarettes held in their mouths, while happy young voices sing the jingle, "Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, if you want to have a girly, you must puff, puff, puff." The following ad shows a family, including small children, standing in front of their house, all holding guns, with the father (shown in closeup to be the meek, bespectacled actor Wally Cox
) declaring, "...get a gun for everyone in your family, remember, for family fun, get your gun", while the next ad, for "New Daisy Chain Deodorant", has a male voice followed a female voice singing ever more insistently, "I want my deodorant". Then a balding, mustachioed pitchman explains that if you're bothered by "dandruff, athlete's foot and the common cold, cancer, birth defects, mental illness, ringworm, poison ivy, tooth decay, acne, measles, brain tumor, smallpox, syphilis, plague, influenza, hepatitis and St. Vitus Dance, well, you're in luck, friend. Pick a pack of Peter's perfidious pink pacifying placebo pills..." At that point we see Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing and Arnold Stang
sitting in front of the TV, with Gleason and Channing grabbing the remote control from each other and switching channels. Gleason and Stang subsequently go to the kitchen and, as they come out, the TV screen shows combative 1960s TV personality Joe Pyne
commenting on the hearings: "...and, as one witness follows another, Senator Hummel is getting the same answer Senator Kefauver got in 1950 and 1951..."
), a retired mob "torpedo" (hitman
), now settled with wife Flo (Carol Channing
) and daughter Darlene (Alexandra Hay
), worries about his daughter's new hippie boyfriend Stash (John Phillip Law), and his own paternity of Darlene. Cesar Romero and Frankie Avalon appear as a father-and-son pair of mob bosses, Hechy and Angie, who bring Tony the news that top mobster "God" (Groucho Marx
) wants him to carry out one last job — liquidating his old pal, "Blue Chips" Packard (Mickey Rooney
), before Packard can testify before the US Senate's Crime Commission. Tony refuses, but upon discovering another old friend, Harry (Arnold Stang
), shot through the head, goes along with God's wishes and, now wearing a convict's striped outfit, finds himself in the island prison of Alcatraz, a futuristically high-tech institution where Packard is held under top-level protection.
In Tony's absence, Stash and his friends, who have been charged with vagrancy, are invited by Flo to stay at their house. 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 tall, supermodel-like black mistress (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 (Austin Pendleton
), an electronics wizard who has renounced technology, but makes an exception in rigging a television set to allow Banks the opportunity of cell-to-cell communication with Packard. Banks realizes he can't kill his old friend, and, as a result, will probably never leave the prison. He writes his wife with the news, on stationery borrowed from Fred, while ignoring Fred's admonition not to lick the envelope and discovering the hard way that all the stationery is soaked with LSD
... enough to send the whole prison on a bad trip. One of the inmates, Leech (Michael Constantine
who, a few months after Skidoos release would be playing a high-school principal on ABC
's 1969–74 comedy-drama, Room 222
) says, "Hey, maybe if I take some of that stuff, I wouldn't have to rape anybody anymore." Fred guides Tony through the resulting acid experience, helping him come to terms with his worries about Darlene and his past while 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 on God's hideaway at the same time. Feeling trapped, God adopts the stooped Groucho posture, skulks into a clothes closet and closes the door. As the film ends, we last see Flo and Tony as she pulls him towards a bed in one of the yacht's empty side cabins, while in the main cabin, God's Skipper (George Raft), holding open a copy of Gabriel Vahanian
's iconic 1961 book, The Death of God, performs a marriage ceremony between Angie and God's Mistress, who then proceeds to become overly affectionate with surprised best-man/father-figure Hechy, as the dismayed Angie tries to separate them. Behind them, another ceremony, performed by a hippie "minister" named Geronimo (Tom Law, brother of John Phillip Law
), using the Skipper's Death of God book, joins "this brother and this sister" (Stash and Darlene) "in holy union". The scene cuts to a medium shot, in calm waters, of a small sailboat, with sails decorated in large psychedelic
designs of the words "LOVE" and "PEACE", holding two occupants — Fred the Professor and God, both dressed in Hare Krishna
/transcendental meditation
garb. As Nilsson's voice is heard singing "I Will Take You There", they smile beatifically while sharing a lit joint
and, after taking a puff, God/Groucho murmurs, "...mmm, pumpkin".
At this point, before members of the theatrical audience can rise from their seats, the words "Stop!, we are not through yet, and before you skidoo, we'd like to introduce our cast and crew", spoken in Otto Preminger's familiar German-accented voice, are heard from the soundtrack. The entire credit sequence (all cast, crew, and copyright information) is then sung by Nilsson, with various asides ("and Luna as 'God's' Mistress, well you know-oh what I mean"... "arranged and conducted by George Tipton
, a very good friend"... "Visual consultant and titles by Sandy Dvore
and, what's more, they were executed by Pacific
... ahem, how's your popcorn?, copyright em, see, em, el, ex, vee, eye, eye, eye [MCMLXVIII] by Sigma Productions Incorporated, your seat's on fire").
published a story in the February 1981 issue of High Times magazine, relating how Groucho Marx "prepared" for his role in the 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 in it were "God-awful!"). Most of the rest of the cast and crew, though, apparently had no familiarity with the drug; in a later interview, Nilsson recounted that he simply pretended to be drunk for his role (his own subsequent LSD experience inspired The Point!
, a 1970
animated movie
Nilsson wrote and scored).
Pop culture buffs have noted that three cast members, Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), Burgess Meredith (The Penguin) and Cesar Romero (The Joker), played recurring villains in the 1966–68 Batman
television series, which broadcast its final episode in March, nine months before Skidoos release. The film's then-futuristic costume designer, Rudi Gernreich
, also made an acting appearance on Batman and, in one 1966 two-part episode, Otto Preminger, himself, portrayed another of the show's recurring villains, Mr. Freeze
(in the character's first appearance on the show, he was played by George Sanders
and, when seen for the third time, by Eli Wallach
).
After Preminger saw him perform with The Committee
, an uncredited Rob Reiner
was brought in to "write scenes for hippies".
's Museum of Modern Art
periodically exhibits a 35mm print and it also screened at the USA Film Festival
in Dallas in 1997 and had a Los Angeles
showing in 2007 at the American Cinematheque
.
On January 4–5 and July 11–12, 2008, paired with another counterculture-themed feature, 1967's The Love-Ins
, Skidoo was seen as an installment of Turner Classic Movies
' Friday night–Saturday morning TCM Underground
series. Each film features a brief appearance by then-famous/notorious chain-smoking, "tough-guy" syndicated TV talk show host Joe Pyne
, who died of lung cancer
in March 1970 at age 45.
As of 2011, the film is in rotation on Showtime. Olive Films released the film on DVD in its original aspect ratio on July 19, 2011.
by Nilsson was issued, along with a single, "I Will Take You There", but neither became a hit. Although not a hit upon its original release, the soundtrack was lauded when it was reissued on compact disc
in 2000 (in the UK) and 2003 (in the US).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
, starring Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
and Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
, written by Doran William Cannon
Doran William Cannon
Doran William Cannon was born in Toledo, Ohio, and graduated from Columbia College. While working on his M.B.A. at Columbia University, which he received in 1962, he made his first film, Going Up. Several years later he wrote, produced, and directed his first feature, The Square Root of Zero...
and released by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
on December 19, 1968. The screenplay satirizes late 1960s lifestyle and its creature comforts, technology, anti-technology, hippies, free love
Free love
The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...
and then-prevalent use of the mind-altering drug LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
.
Along with top-billed Gleason and Channing, Skidoo also stars (alphabetically listed) Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
, Fred Clark
Fred Clark
Frederick Leonard Clark was an American film character actor.-Career:Born in Lincoln, California, Clark made his film debut in 1947 in The Unsuspected. His 20-year film career included almost 70 films, and numerous television appearances...
(who died on December 5, two weeks before the film's release), Michael Constantine
Michael Constantine
Michael Constantine is a Greek American actor.He is probably now best known for his portrayal of Gus Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula Portokalos , in the 2002 surprise hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.Prior to that, he was well-known for his extensive TV work, especially...
, Frank Gorshin
Frank Gorshin
Frank John Gorshin, Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He was perhaps best known as an impressionist, with many guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show...
, John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law was an American film actor with over one hundred movie roles to his credit. He was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law .He was best known for his roles as the blind angel Pygar in the science fiction cult...
, Peter Lawford
Peter Lawford
Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...
, Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
, George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
, Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
, Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
and Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
playing "God" (making, at age 77, his final film appearance). Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
, who wrote the score and receives credit as a member of the cast, appears in a few brief scenes with Fred Clark, as both portray prison tower guards swaying to Nilsson's music while under the influence of LSD.
Initial five minutes
As a cartoon character dressed in prison stripes (and holding a peace-logo flower which turns into a tiny parasol and then a helicopter blade) executes a few dance steps to the music of Nilsson's Skidoo theme, the words "Otto Preminger" appear below him. Additional words "presents SKIDOO starring" can also be seen as the camera pulls back to reveal that this image is on a TV screen, while Carol Channing's voice is heard exclaiming, "No, Harry, not that. No, I don't wanna see that", with the channel suddenly switching to show a US Senate hearing conducted by Senator Hummel, portrayed by Peter Lawford, who asks a series of organized crimeOrganized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
figures various questions to which they invariably reply, "I refuse to answer on the grounds it may tend to incriminate me." Every few seconds, the channel showing the hearing switches to another channel which is screening Preminger's black-and-white 1965 feature, In Harm's Way
In Harm's Way
In Harm's Way is a 1965 American epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda.It was the last black-and-white...
, or still other channels which have one spurious commercial after another. The initial ad depicts an attractive blonde declaring, "now you too can be beautiful and sexually desirable like me instead of being that fat, disgusting, foul-breathed, slimy, wallowing sow that you are", the second has another intensely-smiling blonde stating that "maybe we blondes do have more fun" and the third ad depicts a drunken slob swilling beer and belching, interspersed with an image of a pig with beer foam around its snout, while an unseen announcer exclaims "feel big, drink pig".
After another switch to In Harm's Way, Channing's voice is again heard, complaining, "no, Harry, I don't like films on TV. They always cut them to pieces." Additional channel changes produce more images of the beer pig, then another scene from In Harm's Way, followed by an ad for "Fat Cola", with three generously-proportioned middle-aged women, wearing bathing suits, beach hats and carrying little parasols, gyrating to the jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
, "You'll never lose your man if you drink fat cola, you'll never have to worry about losing him", then an ad showing a boy and a girl, both about six years old, dressed like adults at a picnic setting, next to a dog resembling Our Gang
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
s Pete the Pup
Pete the Pup
Pete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
(Pete's trademark circular ring around the eye is here drawn at a sharply oblique angle), with all three vigorously emitting smoke from long cigarettes held in their mouths, while happy young voices sing the jingle, "Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, if you want to have a girly, you must puff, puff, puff." The following ad shows a family, including small children, standing in front of their house, all holding guns, with the father (shown in closeup to be the meek, bespectacled actor Wally Cox
Wally Cox
Wallace Maynard Cox was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. TV series Mr. Peepers , plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films...
) declaring, "...get a gun for everyone in your family, remember, for family fun, get your gun", while the next ad, for "New Daisy Chain Deodorant", has a male voice followed a female voice singing ever more insistently, "I want my deodorant". Then a balding, mustachioed pitchman explains that if you're bothered by "dandruff, athlete's foot and the common cold, cancer, birth defects, mental illness, ringworm, poison ivy, tooth decay, acne, measles, brain tumor, smallpox, syphilis, plague, influenza, hepatitis and St. Vitus Dance, well, you're in luck, friend. Pick a pack of Peter's perfidious pink pacifying placebo pills..." At that point we see Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing and Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
sitting in front of the TV, with Gleason and Channing grabbing the remote control from each other and switching channels. Gleason and Stang subsequently go to the kitchen and, as they come out, the TV screen shows combative 1960s TV personality Joe Pyne
Joe Pyne
Joe Pyne was an American radio and television talk show host, who pioneered the confrontational style in which the host advocates a viewpoint and argues with guests and audience members...
commenting on the hearings: "...and, as one witness follows another, Senator Hummel is getting the same answer Senator Kefauver got in 1950 and 1951..."
Plot
Tony Banks (Jackie GleasonJackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
), a retired mob "torpedo" (hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
), now settled with wife Flo (Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
) and daughter Darlene (Alexandra Hay
Alexandra Hay
Alexandra Lynn Hay was a character actress of the 1960s and 1970s. She was a native of Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Arroyo High School in El Monte....
), worries about his daughter's new hippie boyfriend Stash (John Phillip Law), and his own paternity of Darlene. Cesar Romero and Frankie Avalon appear as a father-and-son pair of mob bosses, Hechy and Angie, who bring Tony the news that top mobster "God" (Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
) wants him to carry out one last job — liquidating his old pal, "Blue Chips" Packard (Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
), before Packard can testify before the US Senate's Crime Commission. Tony refuses, but upon discovering another old friend, Harry (Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
), shot through the head, goes along with God's wishes and, now wearing a convict's striped outfit, finds himself in the island prison of Alcatraz, a futuristically high-tech institution where Packard is held under top-level protection.
In Tony's absence, Stash and his friends, who have been charged with vagrancy, are invited by Flo to stay at their house. 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 tall, supermodel-like black mistress (Luna
Donyale Luna
Donyale Luna was an American model and cover girl. She also appeared in several films, in Camp by Andy Warhol, Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? by William Klein, as Groucho Marx's companion in Otto Preminger's Skidoo, and most notably as Oenothea in Federico Fellini's Satyricon and as the title...
) to Stash, but both are frustrated in their pursuit.
One of Tony's cellmates turns out to be a draft dodger
Draft dodger
Draft evasion is a term that refers to an intentional failure to comply with the military conscription policies of the nation to which he or she is subject...
called Fred the Professor (Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton is an American film, television, and stage actor, a playwright, and a theatre director and instructor.-Life and career:...
), an electronics wizard who has renounced technology, but makes an exception in rigging a television set to allow Banks the opportunity of cell-to-cell communication with Packard. Banks realizes he can't kill his old friend, and, as a result, will probably never leave the prison. He writes his wife with the news, on stationery borrowed from Fred, while ignoring Fred's admonition not to lick the envelope and discovering the hard way that all the stationery is soaked with LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
... enough to send the whole prison on a bad trip. One of the inmates, Leech (Michael Constantine
Michael Constantine
Michael Constantine is a Greek American actor.He is probably now best known for his portrayal of Gus Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula Portokalos , in the 2002 surprise hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.Prior to that, he was well-known for his extensive TV work, especially...
who, a few months after Skidoos release would be playing a high-school principal on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's 1969–74 comedy-drama, Room 222
Room 222
Room 222 is an American comedy-drama television series produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series aired on ABC from September 17, 1969, to January 11, 1974, for 112 episodes...
) says, "Hey, maybe if I take some of that stuff, I wouldn't have to rape anybody anymore." Fred guides Tony through the resulting acid experience, helping him come to terms with his worries about Darlene and his past while 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 on God's hideaway at the same time. Feeling trapped, God adopts the stooped Groucho posture, skulks into a clothes closet and closes the door. As the film ends, we last see Flo and Tony as she pulls him towards a bed in one of the yacht's empty side cabins, while in the main cabin, God's Skipper (George Raft), holding open a copy of Gabriel Vahanian
Gabriel Vahanian
Gabriel Vahanian is a French-born Protestant Christian theologian who is most remembered for his pioneering work in the theology of the "death of God" movement within academic circles in the 1960s, and who taught for some 26 years in the U.S.-Life:...
's iconic 1961 book, The Death of God, performs a marriage ceremony between Angie and God's Mistress, who then proceeds to become overly affectionate with surprised best-man/father-figure Hechy, as the dismayed Angie tries to separate them. Behind them, another ceremony, performed by a hippie "minister" named Geronimo (Tom Law, brother of John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law
John Phillip Law was an American film actor with over one hundred movie roles to his credit. He was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law .He was best known for his roles as the blind angel Pygar in the science fiction cult...
), using the Skipper's Death of God book, joins "this brother and this sister" (Stash and Darlene) "in holy union". The scene cuts to a medium shot, in calm waters, of a small sailboat, with sails decorated in large psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
designs of the words "LOVE" and "PEACE", holding two occupants — Fred the Professor and God, both dressed in Hare Krishna
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
/transcendental meditation
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation refers to the Transcendental Meditation technique, a specific form of mantra meditation, and to the Transcendental Meditation movement, a spiritual movement...
garb. As Nilsson's voice is heard singing "I Will Take You There", they smile beatifically while sharing a lit joint
Joint (cannabis)
Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries. Modern papers are now made from a wide...
and, after taking a puff, God/Groucho murmurs, "...mmm, pumpkin".
At this point, before members of the theatrical audience can rise from their seats, the words "Stop!, we are not through yet, and before you skidoo, we'd like to introduce our cast and crew", spoken in Otto Preminger's familiar German-accented voice, are heard from the soundtrack. The entire credit sequence (all cast, crew, and copyright information) is then sung by Nilsson, with various asides ("and Luna as 'God's' Mistress, well you know-oh what I mean"... "arranged and conducted by George Tipton
George Tipton
George Aliceson Tipton, also known as George Tipton is an American composer, musical arranger and conductor.Among Tipton's works are the theme songs for the TV shows Benson, It's a Living, I'm a Big Girl Now and Empty Nest, plus incidental music for numerous shows, including The Courtship of...
, a very good friend"... "Visual consultant and titles by Sandy Dvore
Sandy Dvore
Sandy Dvore is an American artist and graphic designer.Dvore first became well known for designing the cover art for Buffalo Springfield's eponymous album...
and, what's more, they were executed by Pacific
Pacific Title and Art
Pacific Title and Art Studio, Inc. was founded in 1919 by Leon Schlesinger, where most of his business was producing title cards for silent films...
... ahem, how's your popcorn?, copyright em, see, em, el, ex, vee, eye, eye, eye [MCMLXVIII] by Sigma Productions Incorporated, your seat's on fire").
Cast
- Jackie GleasonJackie GleasonJackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
as Tony Banks - Carol ChanningCarol ChanningCarol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
as Flo - Frankie AvalonFrankie AvalonFrankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
as Angie - Fred ClarkFred ClarkFrederick Leonard Clark was an American film character actor.-Career:Born in Lincoln, California, Clark made his film debut in 1947 in The Unsuspected. His 20-year film career included almost 70 films, and numerous television appearances...
as A Tower Guard - Michael ConstantineMichael ConstantineMichael Constantine is a Greek American actor.He is probably now best known for his portrayal of Gus Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula Portokalos , in the 2002 surprise hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.Prior to that, he was well-known for his extensive TV work, especially...
as Leech - Frank GorshinFrank GorshinFrank John Gorshin, Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He was perhaps best known as an impressionist, with many guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show...
as The Man - John Phillip LawJohn Phillip LawJohn Phillip Law was an American film actor with over one hundred movie roles to his credit. He was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law .He was best known for his roles as the blind angel Pygar in the science fiction cult...
as Stash - Peter LawfordPeter LawfordPeter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...
as The Senator - Burgess MeredithBurgess MeredithOliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
as The Warden - George RaftGeorge RaftGeorge Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
as The Skipper - Cesar RomeroCesar RomeroCesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
as Hechy - Mickey RooneyMickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
as "Blue Chips" Packard - and Groucho MarxGroucho MarxJulius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
played "God"
- with Arnold StangArnold StangArnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
as Harry - Doro MerandeDoro MerandeDoro Merande was an American actress who appeared in Hollywood films, onstage and on television. A well-regarded character actress, she frequently portrayed "sour, witchy old women"...
as The Mayor - Phil ArnoldPhil ArnoldPhil Arnold was an American screen, stage, television, and vaudeville actor. He appeared in approximately 150 films and television shows between 1939 and 1968....
as Her Husband - Slim PickensSlim PickensLouis Burton Lindley, Jr. , better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr...
as The Switchboard Operator - Robert DonnerRobert DonnerRobert Donner was an American actor who made many appearances in television series and films in a career spanning more than 40 years.-Early life and career:...
as Another Switchboard Operator - Richard KielRichard KielRichard Dawson Kiel is an American actor best known for his role as the steel-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker as well as the video game Everything or Nothing, and Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore...
as Beany - Tom Law as Geronimo
- Jaik Rosenstein as "Eggs" Benedict
- Stacy KingStacy KingStacy King was a character actress of the 1960s. Red-haired and tall, King had guest-starring roles in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and The Beverly Hillbillies on television, and featured roles in movies The Sweet Ride and Skidoo.-External links:...
as The Amazon - Renny Roker as A Prison Guard
- Roman GabrielRoman GabrielRoman Ildonzo Gabriel, Jr. is a former American football player. The son of a Filipino immigrant, he was the first Asian-American to start as an NFL quarterback and is considered by many to have been one of the best players at that position during the late 1960s and early 70s.Gabriel attended and...
as A Prison Guard - NilssonHarry NilssonHarry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
as A Tower Guard - Stone Country as Themselves
- and the Orange County Ramblers played the Green Bay PackersGreen Bay PackersThe Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
- and introducing Austin PendletonAustin PendletonAustin Pendleton is an American film, television, and stage actor, a playwright, and a theatre director and instructor.-Life and career:...
as Fred (The Professor) - Alexandra HayAlexandra HayAlexandra Lynn Hay was a character actress of the 1960s and 1970s. She was a native of Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Arroyo High School in El Monte....
as Darlene - and LunaDonyale LunaDonyale Luna was an American model and cover girl. She also appeared in several films, in Camp by Andy Warhol, Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? by William Klein, as Groucho Marx's companion in Otto Preminger's Skidoo, and most notably as Oenothea in Federico Fellini's Satyricon and as the title...
as "God's" Mistress
Production
Writer Paul KrassnerPaul Krassner
Paul Krassner is an author, journalist, stand-up comedian, and the founder, editor and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine The Realist, first published in 1958...
published a story in the February 1981 issue of High Times magazine, relating how Groucho Marx "prepared" for his role in the 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 in it were "God-awful!"). Most of the rest of the cast and crew, though, apparently had no familiarity with the drug; in a later interview, Nilsson recounted that he simply pretended to be drunk for his role (his own subsequent LSD experience inspired The Point!
The Point!
- Musical play :In 1975, Esquire Jauchem, Artistic Director of the Boston Repertory Theater, approached Harry Nilsson about creating a stage musical of "The Point!" Although Nilsson said he had been asked many times and had always turned down the request, this time he granted his permission...
, a 1970
1970 in television
The year 1970 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1970.For the American TV schedule, see: 1970-71 American network television schedule.-Events:...
animated movie
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
Nilsson wrote and scored).
Pop culture buffs have noted that three cast members, Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), Burgess Meredith (The Penguin) and Cesar Romero (The Joker), played recurring villains in the 1966–68 Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
television series, which broadcast its final episode in March, nine months before Skidoos release. The film's then-futuristic costume designer, Rudi Gernreich
Rudi Gernreich
Rudi Gernreich was a Austrian-born American fashion designer and gay activist.-Biography:Born in Vienna, Gernreich fled Austria at age 16 due to Nazism, and later migrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California...
, also made an acting appearance on Batman and, in one 1966 two-part episode, Otto Preminger, himself, portrayed another of the show's recurring villains, Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze, real name Dr. Victor Fries , is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman. Created by Bob Kane, he first appeared in Batman #121 ....
(in the character's first appearance on the show, he was played by George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
and, when seen for the third time, by Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
).
After Preminger saw him perform with The Committee
The Committee (improv group)
The Committee is a San Francisco based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson . The Myersons were both alums of The Second City in Chicago. The Committee opened April 10, 1963 at 622 Broadway in a 300 seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court...
, an uncredited Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
was brought in to "write scenes for hippies".
Critical reception
Skidoo missed the mark with both critics and audiences, and bombed at the box-office.Release
The movie received some belated attention in the late 1970s when it was screened at San Francisco's Roxie Cinema and in the 1980s when seen on cable TV. New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
periodically exhibits a 35mm print and it also screened at the USA Film Festival
USA Film Festival
-History:Founded in 1971, the USA Film Festival has presented the world, national and regional premieres of thousands of studio and independent feature films and short experimental, animated, documentary and dramatic films....
in Dallas in 1997 and had a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
showing in 2007 at the American Cinematheque
American Cinematheque
The American Cinematheque is an independent, non-profit cultural organization in Los Angeles dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the Moving Image in all its forms. It is considered among the premier organizations of its kind in America....
.
On January 4–5 and July 11–12, 2008, paired with another counterculture-themed feature, 1967's The Love-Ins
The Love-Ins
The Love-Ins is a 1967 exploitation film about LSD that was directed by Arthur Dreifuss. The film is loosely based on the 1960s American figure, Timothy Leary and represents the 1960s San Francisco scene, particularly that of the Haight-Ashbury district...
, Skidoo was seen as an installment of Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
' Friday night–Saturday morning TCM Underground
TCM Underground
TCM Underground is a weekly late-night cult film showcase airing on Turner Classic Movies. Developed by TCM programmers Millie De Chirico and Eric Weber, it was originally hosted by industrial rock/heavy metal musician and independent filmmaker Rob Zombie. TCM Underground began airing Friday the...
series. Each film features a brief appearance by then-famous/notorious chain-smoking, "tough-guy" syndicated TV talk show host Joe Pyne
Joe Pyne
Joe Pyne was an American radio and television talk show host, who pioneered the confrontational style in which the host advocates a viewpoint and argues with guests and audience members...
, who died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in March 1970 at age 45.
As of 2011, the film is in rotation on Showtime. Olive Films released the film on DVD in its original aspect ratio on July 19, 2011.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack albumSkidoo (soundtrack)
Skidoo is an album by Harry Nilsson. It is the original soundtrack recording for the 1968 Otto Preminger film Skidoo. Arranged and conducted by George Tipton)....
by Nilsson was issued, along with a single, "I Will Take You There", but neither became a hit. Although not a hit upon its original release, the soundtrack was lauded when it was reissued on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
in 2000 (in the UK) and 2003 (in the US).
External links
- Skidoo' at Moviephone
- Ebert, Roger. "Skidoo" (Chicago Sun-Times, December 27, 1968)
- "Skidoo" (Variety, January 1, 1969)
- Canby, Vincent. "Screen: 'Skidoo', a Film for Preminger-Watchers" (The New York Times, March 6, 1969)
- Puchalski, Steven. (Shock Cinema, 1994)
- Renshaw, Jerry. "Skidoo". (The Austin Chronicle, August 17, 1998)
- The Ultimate Dancing Machine. "Skidoesn't" (eFilmCritic.com, May 9, 2003)
- Adams, Sam. "Screen Picks" (Philadelphia City Paper, March 3–9, 2005)
- Hall, Phil. "The Bootleg Files: 'Skidoo'” (FilmThreat.com, October 14, 2005)
- Schwartz, Dennis. "A relic for the ages that puts a punctuation mark on the times" (Ozus' World Movie Reviews, January 5, 2008)
- Von Busack, Richard. "Skidoo" (RvB's AfterImages, February 21, 2008)
- “You are a backwards step in the evolution of mankind!” (FilmFanatic.org, January 27, 2011)
- Saravia, Jerry. "Skidoo" ("Rec-arts-movies-reviews, undated)