At long last, we can all witness the greatest cinematic WTF moment of 1968, which is "Skidoo". Now finally available on DVD, you can sit in slack- jawed amazement at this notorious slice of psychedelic weirdness from director Otto Preminger. Is this movie as bad as you've heard? Yes, it is. Is it better than you imagined? Yes, it is. Is it worth seeing? Absolutely. Probably a few viewings, to fully appreciate everything that's going on, while you're wondering how in the hell did this movie ever get made?
"Skidoo" is a moment captured from the most turbulent period in American history, the Sixties. The generation gap, drugs, and the re-evaluation of social behaviors had finally reached the old guard in Hollywood, who didn't have a clue how to keep seats filled with younger audiences. Director Otto Preminger takes the "Laugh-In" route here, filling the screen with familiar faces getting a crash course in hipness via LSD. The plot here is fairly easy to follow, but the images can be difficult to process. Jackie Gleason tripping his brains out. Carol Channing doing her best Captain Crunch impersonation at the movie's climax belting out the theme song. Three villains from TV's "Batman" being directed by a fourth. Nude football players. Dancing garbage cans. Groucho Marx's head twirling around on top of a giant wood screw. Body painting. Groovy everything being thrown at you while acid- induced dialog prattles along, set to a soundtrack by Harry Nilsson (who really does sing all the credits at the film's end).
It's really up to the viewer to decide if this is a very sly comment on the emergence of the drug culture, or just a gimmick to trot out older fading "stars" and paint them in the glamor of counter- culture. Many taboos are skewered here: Stash the Hippie greets his friend Geronimo by kissing him on the mouth (real life brothers, John Phillip Law and Thomas Law), prison romances are hinted at in the freakout scenes, racially mixed romance is seen, geriatric sex, free love, and some very strange metaphysical speeches about hipness and nothingness. Also, smoking pumpkins.
"Skidoo" undoubtedly plays better now, nearly fifty years after a stunned public got a dose of it. Now, it looks like a harmless experiment in psychedelic foolishness. It's mindbending, but for all the wrong reasons. Seek it out and find yourself.
"Skidoo" is a moment captured from the most turbulent period in American history, the Sixties. The generation gap, drugs, and the re-evaluation of social behaviors had finally reached the old guard in Hollywood, who didn't have a clue how to keep seats filled with younger audiences. Director Otto Preminger takes the "Laugh-In" route here, filling the screen with familiar faces getting a crash course in hipness via LSD. The plot here is fairly easy to follow, but the images can be difficult to process. Jackie Gleason tripping his brains out. Carol Channing doing her best Captain Crunch impersonation at the movie's climax belting out the theme song. Three villains from TV's "Batman" being directed by a fourth. Nude football players. Dancing garbage cans. Groucho Marx's head twirling around on top of a giant wood screw. Body painting. Groovy everything being thrown at you while acid- induced dialog prattles along, set to a soundtrack by Harry Nilsson (who really does sing all the credits at the film's end).
It's really up to the viewer to decide if this is a very sly comment on the emergence of the drug culture, or just a gimmick to trot out older fading "stars" and paint them in the glamor of counter- culture. Many taboos are skewered here: Stash the Hippie greets his friend Geronimo by kissing him on the mouth (real life brothers, John Phillip Law and Thomas Law), prison romances are hinted at in the freakout scenes, racially mixed romance is seen, geriatric sex, free love, and some very strange metaphysical speeches about hipness and nothingness. Also, smoking pumpkins.
"Skidoo" undoubtedly plays better now, nearly fifty years after a stunned public got a dose of it. Now, it looks like a harmless experiment in psychedelic foolishness. It's mindbending, but for all the wrong reasons. Seek it out and find yourself.