Skidoo (1968)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writer (WGA):

Doran William Cannon (written by)

Release Date:

19 December 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

It takes two to skidoo.

Plot:

Ex-gangster Tony Banks is called out of retirement by mob kingpin God to carry out a hit on fellow mobster "Blue Chips" Packard...

Plot Keywords:

Mobster | Yacht | Drug Abuse | Escape | Genius

Cast

Jackie Gleason	...	Tough Tony Banks
Carol Channing	...	Flo Banks
Frankie Avalon	...	Angie
Fred Clark	...	Tower Guard
Michael Constantine	...	Leech
Frank Gorshin	...	The Man
John Phillip Law	...	Stash
Peter Lawford	...	The Senator
Burgess Meredith	...	The Warden
George Raft	...	Captain Garbaldo
Cesar Romero	...	Hechy
Mickey Rooney	...	George 'Blue Chips' Packard
Groucho Marx	...	God
Arnold Stang	...	Harry
Doro Merande	...	The Mayor

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Sweden:11 | USA:M

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Otto Preminger Films

Trivia:

Groucho Marx's final movie.

Quotes:

Flo Banks: Listen, "God" sent for your father.
Darlene Banks: [wails, horrified, thinking Tony has died] Nooooo!
Angie: [a little annoyed] Not THAT God, dope.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Devil's Rejects (2005)

Soundtrack:

I Will Take You There

Embarrassing

I like a good bad movie. I can go on and on about how wonderful "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" is - and I have. And I don't need those MST3K idiots adding lame improv chatter to make a bad film more enjoyable! So I had been looking forward to "Skidoo" for years. I finally watched it last night, after procuring a copy on eBay (pretty much the only place where you can find this film, currently).

My reaction, in a nutshell: Blah. Yuck. Ho hum.

It's pointless to say more, especially when so many "Skidoo" fans have already weighed in - quite eloquently, I might add - within these comments pages. But I will say this: Usually on the IMDb, when you see so many well-written praises for a famous train wreck of a film, you get the feeling that this is something to see. Don't be snowed as I was! What most of these folks are not telling you is that "Skidoo" is meant to be a wacky comedy. But it's simply a deadening, painful-to-watch document of the twilight of many a great performer's career, where, before either dying or retreating to the safety of TV movies, the cast - some game, some barely even trying (I'm looking at you, Groucho Marx) - flounder in this pathetic attempt by the dinosaurs of 1950's Hollywood to try to stay relevant by making a "hippie movie."

This film is flat, boring, pretentious and hopelessly uncampy. It has the distinctively ugly look of late 60's studio cinema, and like many of those other strident, unfunny all-star comedies of the era ("The Great Race," "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" et al), it's just plain awful.