Skidoo (1968)

[Merkin Muffley 24]

Last night I watched a movie called Skidoo and it was insane.

 

It's supposed to be a comedy and was directed by the great Otto Preminger.

 

It has Jackie Gleason as a retired hitman who is brought out of retirement.

 

Carol Channing as his wife, and, yes, she does a strip tease.

 

Groucho Marx is the head of a mafia syndicate and everyone calls him God, he's also afraid of germs.

 

Mickey Rooney is a prisoner in a penitentiary and has enough money the guards cater to his every whim.

 

Burgess Meredith is warden of that penitentiary and he eats the same food the inmates do and even eats in the prison cafeteria.

 

Peter Lawford plays a Senator with presidential aspirations.

 

If thats not enough to make you want to see this gem it also has hippies and plenty of acid trips.

 

The complete movie is on Youtube for anyone who wants to see it.

[sillstaw 414]

Also: The end credits are sung.

 

One of the movie's fatal flaws was that Otto Preminger was the kind of director who insisted on sticking to the script. That's fine for dramatic films, but when you're making a comedy, improvisation is not a bad thing. And it's even more fatal to stick to the script when you're making a comedy with Groucho Freaking Marx. (Also, Preminger apparently bullied around Groucho, leading Gleason to heroically... tell Preminger not to try to do the same to him.)

[Merkin Muffley 24]

I forgot about the end credits, I'd had a lot of wine by the end.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I like this trailer, fuck showing scenes from the movie! lets just use the key words kids are saying in the 1960's like "groovy" and "turn on". are any of the people in this trailer in the movie? Like sammy davis jr.?

 

You kids are going to love this movie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd6OxYZigFU

so in other words if you like doing drugs you'll love this movie? is that the marketing message, they are using.

[sillstaw 414]

I like this trailer, fuck showing scenes from the movie! lets just use the key words kids are saying in the 1960's like "groovy" and "turn on". are any of the people in this trailer in the movie? Like sammy davis jr.?

 

Groucho Marx is (and his line is funnier than anything he says in the movie). Timothy Leary and the others? I don't think so. Though now that I look at it, I think the guy in the freezeframe there is John Philip Law, who is in it.

 

You kids are going to love this movie.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd6OxYZigFU

so in other words if you like doing drugs you'll love this movie? is that the marketing message, they are using.

 

It was the 60s. That might have been effective for certain movies. It wasn't effective for this one, though, because it's pretty lame.

 

And I just love the nonsensical line in the trailer, "Anybody who don't like that, daddy, don't like chicken on Sundays." I actually used it as my signature on the forums I used to frequent.

[Merkin Muffley 24]

Seeing the trailer makes me want to watch the movie again.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Seeing the trailer makes me want to watch the movie again.

 

Really, that and eat lots of pizza and brownies for some reason. then the magic marketing of this movie is working.