Skidoo (1968)

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:

Several writers were brought in to "fix" this while Otto Preminger was shooting Doran William Cannon's original script. These "rescue writers" included Elliott Baker and Stanley Ralph Ross. By the time Ross was called in, the picture was nearly half done and the scenes that Ross suggested be cut had already been shot and roughly edited. Preminger never cheated on wages and paid Ross, Baker and several other writers in a vain attempt to add jokes. However, Preminger steadfastly refused to alter the structure of the story.

Quotes:

TV Commercial: For family fun, get your gun!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Flashing on the Sixties: A Tribal Document (1990) (V)

Soundtrack:

Living in a Garbage Can

A TOTAL CATASTROPHE- End of Discussion

Reading the myriad raves of the users in this forum........trying to legitimize one of the most calamitous disasters in the history of mainstream American cinema......is alternately nauseating and shameful. Preminger's moronic, loud and incoherent stab at late sixties hipness may provide occasional shocks in how desperate he became, but this is squaresville squared. I guess using, and I mean USING every one of Otto's devoted ensemble cast of his "glory" years of the late fifties to about the Cardinal in '63 (Lawford, Meredith,etc.)provided some kind of buffer to what he must have known was a million to one stab at phantasmagoric swill, but he sacrificed them anyway. And, for once, the film was justifiably buried after its premiere and surfaces occasionally to remind any thinking human it needed to remain buried. This makes his racist trash (although not without camp value) Hurry Sundown in '67 and the following smarmy pseudo-liberalism of "Tell me that you love me, Junie Moon" in'70 outstanding by comparison. Take my word for it and understand why it is one of the lowest rating film on this board. I have actually seen it recently and it is worthless and even worse...damaging. I couldn't wait to see this dream cast in a film I would have guaranteed was awaiting rediscovery. Just forget about it and move on with your lives..........