Time to Skidoo? - Friday Video Distraction by Mike Norton


  An odd departure this time.
  Skidoo (1968)
  Do you have something to drink - or something else to leave you a little loopy? This may be the time for it.
  This is a reasonably nice print (especially for YouTube) of a film that's definitely not for everyone. It's very much a creature of its narrow slice in time. I couldn't bring myself to watch it all in one sitting, though I may have made the mistake of tying while sober. I'm ultimately glad I saw it through, though.
If you're not seriously North of 40, the nostalgia buttons being pushed here will likely mostly be dead circuits unless you're the spiritual child of Martin Short, or maybe addicted to Gilbert Gottfried's podcast.
The cast includes Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Arnold Stang, Ceasar Romero, Frankie Avalon, John Phillip Law, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin, Peter Lawford, Groucho Marx, Burgess Meredith, Richard Kiel, George Raft, Mickey Rooney, Slim Pickens, Harry Nilsson, among various others who will fall into the "oh! I know him, just not his name!" category for those of us steeped in '60s/early '70s television.
   An example of that last set would be character actor Fred Clark (featured in one of the faux commercials in the opening segment's battle of the tv remotes), who was a familiar face on '50s and '60s tv, who passed away a mere two weeks before this film hit theaters.  All  of this directed by Otto Preminger.
   If most of those names don't do anything for you, then the battle of interest here is likely already lost. You will be utterly bored.
   The first half of the film is an abject slog, where one needs to cling to such entertainment value as can be found in seeing all the familiar faces in one place. Maybe even just enjoying the concept that it includes multiple actors who played Batman villains within the prior two years, including the director - though Burgess Meredith's character, the prison's Warden, only appears in the back half of the film.
    Seeing Gleason, who was roughly 52, and Carol Channing, then 47, playing their roles of establishment types with backgrounds steeped in organized crime (Gleason's character had been a top hitman for organized crime before getting special permission to retire to a new, legit identity and start a family -- Channing plays his wife, who was all part of the organized crime lifestyle, too) brings a little more interest to the parts and their contact with younger people embracing the counterculture.
The "Establishment" being challenged by hippies, free love and casual drug culture, elements are heavy-handed in the first third of the film, but at least the presentation strongly favors the youth culture. This, as opposed to making them simple-minded parodies as was generally the case at the time on tv. They seem to be on a much better path than most of the adults.
   It finally starts to come together as an entertainment roughly at or just past the mid-point, once Groucho (then 78 years old, btw) starts to get scenes, and Jackie Gleason's character takes a strong dose of LSD - an unplanned trip that a majority of the players soon inadvertently follow him on.
   Many points of possible interest include:
  • While remaining uncredited, Rob Reiner was tapped to write scenes for the hippies, this after Preminger saw him perform with The Committee - a San Francisco-based improv group formed by a pair of alums of the Second City. Reiner has recounted that it was a tumultuous working relationship, with Preminger firing and rehiring him "every day."
  •  Preminger's main interest in the project began with an interest in his son Erik's description of life as a drop-out in Greenwich Village, particularly the hippie lifestyle and LSD use.
  •  God's (Groucho's) yacht was John Wayne's, borrowed by Preminger. Preminger had directed Wayne in In Harm's Way a few years earlier. Scenes from the film are repeatedly seen in the opening scene's tv channel battle.
  •  Preminger himself experimented with LSD as part of the preparation for making the film. He wasn't the only one in the cast who had the experience, as (in a separate situation) Groucho did, too. Oddly, the film seems to be much more cautious about admitting that anyone smokes marijuana, as a couple times the joints being passed around end up being pumpkin; as one of these times it's in an impromptu group appearance before a local judge, it seemed to be meant to be the truth rather than just some euphemism for pot.
  •  Harry Nilsson provided multilple songs for the film, and even sang the complete closing credits, along with playing a tower guard in the prison. It would still be a year or two before Nilsson got his nerve up to try LSD, so in his scenes he just tried to play the role drunk.
  •  Preminger wanted Bob Dylan to score the film, and went so far as to have Dylan and his wife screen it at Preminger's mansion in Hollywood. Following that screening, Dylan surprised most of the people there (many in Dylan's own entourage) by requesting a second screening, with the stipulation that it just be him and his wife this time. Preminger, thinking this was encouraging, gave the nod and let them have the place for a second screening. Dylan still turned the scoring offer down, but later admitted the only reason he'd done it was because he and his wife were impressed with Preminger's mansion and wanted a freer chance to look around for inspirations for their own home.So, here it is, offered for sampling or to pass on, as you see fit: Skidoo (1968) 98 ½ minutes. Rated R, for drug use, and some nudity, though both are extremely minor by modern standards.
 Someone won't allow this to be played OFF of YouTube, so instead of embedding it to play here, I have to settle for giving you a link to it. (That should pop out as it's own screen, so you can still toggle back to this post if you want.)
 If you make it all the way through - or either have seen it before or at least gave it a good try - let me know.
                                       -Mike N.

Shows and movies hit on in previous posts:

 Sept. 20th: Mindhunter (Netflix)
     Sept. 27th: What's The Matter With Helen, The French Connection, and Frenzy. (Early '70s R-rated movies I saw with my mom)
     Oct. 3rd:    Preacher (AMC), Stumptown (ABC), Sunnyside (NBC), The Good Place (NBC), and Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime).
     Oct. 11th:  Joker (still in theaters), and In The Tall Grass (Netflix)
     Oct. 18th:  El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)
     Oct. 25th: Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix)
     Nov. 1st:   Watchmen (HBO series), The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
     Nov. 8th:   Seconds (1966 movie, currently available as part of Amazon Prime)
     Nov. 15th: Dr. Sleep (current theatrical release, but probably not for long), Horace and Pete (2016 web-produced series, currently on Hulu)
     Nov. 22nd: NOS4A2 (AMC, now on Hulu) and Man In The High Castle (Amazon Prime)
     Nov. 29th: The Irishman (Netflix), The Mandalorian and The World According To Jeff Goldblum (both on Disney+), light touches on Watchmen (HBO) and Ray Donovan (Showtime)
  Dec, 6th: The Booth At the End (Amazon Prime), and Us (HBO).
Dec 13th:  Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime), The Feed (Amazon Prime), 6 Underground (Netflix movie).
  Dec 20th:A Christmas Carol (FX), The Expanse (Amazon Prime), Killing Eve (BBC America)
  Dec 27th: Lost In Space season 2, and first impressions of The Witcher, both on Netflix.
  Jan. 3rd: Black Mirror (Netflix) and Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Amazon Prime). 
  Jan 10th: Undone (Amazon Prime), Witcher (Netflix) and Dracula (Netflix/BBC One). 
  Jan 17th: Kidding (Showtime) 
  Jan 24th: No shows, just some movie mentions as I recall some places that no longer exist.
  Jan 31st: October Faction (Netflix) and the finale of The Good Place (NBC).
  Feb 7th: Messiah (Netflix)
  Feb 14th: Locke & Key (Netflix)


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