Phillim Prison convict Jackie Gleason on acid, guided by cell-mate Austin Pendleton, sees mob boss God (Groucho Marx). Prison Guard Fred Clark on acid sees prisoners in the yard as Green Bay Packers, naked. Carol Channing, sober, wears mod Rudy Gernreich, gets sexy with Frankie Avalon, sings inane Nilsson refrain through your skull. All that and Micky Rooney! And Frank Gorshin! And Richard 'Jaws' Kiel! Hippy king John Phillip Law and his real-life brother Tom (whose hair is real) walk about shirtless and sincere. Director Otto Preminger seeks 'new reality' through humiliation and forced awkwardness of cultural icons.See this on a double-bill with 'Myra Breckenridge'.

jm10701 I'm glad to see that stoners appreciate Skidoo, since their discriminating taste makes it hard for them to find anything to amuse themselves. That Preminger made a movie enjoyed half a century later by both stoners and people who use their brains for thinking is testimony to his genius. It's a fantastic movie, much smarter and more successful than most viewers realize.People who think it's stupid, who mock its clueless depiction of the 60s counterculture, should first look in a mirror to see what stupid looks like and then make their snarky comments. If Preminger had wanted to document what hippies were like he could have done that, but Skidoo is a farce, not a documentary. Gleason's acid trip isn't supposed to show what acid is really like, it's supposed to be corny and funny.THIS MOVIE IS A FARCE, folks! The Banks family isn't supposed to be like a real family, the gangsters like real gangsters, the hippies like real hippies, or the acid trip like a real acid trip. Skidoo is supposed to be freewheeling and totally off the wall, and it is.People take this fascinating movie either too seriously or not seriously enough, and it's because they don't understand what it is. It's unlike any other movie made in the 1960s or any other time, and it can't be evaluated in terms of anything but itself. It's a delightfully zany movie, and it holds up extremely well. Since it IS a farce, not a documentary, it isn't dated at all. It's fresh and alive.Gleason is fantastic, showing wide-ranging sensitivity and subtlety people who know him only as Ralph Kramden never saw. Rooney is great too, especially in the scene where he's talking to Gleason on the radio. But this is really an ensemble movie, and Preminger orchestrated his large and diverse cast marvelously. It's neat to see a veteran like Gleason working so well with a newcomer like Pendleton.Skidoo isn't a laughable failure; it's great fun, and it's smarter than its critics are.

amosduncan_2000 Yes, it's a must for bad film fans and fans of the truly odd, but even with the amazing cast it's basically a chore to sit through. Harry Nilsson singing the end credits is perhaps the movies one moment of real charm, but by then everyone had gone home. Groucho is touching at 78, trying harder than he did in "Love Happy," and for a fleeting moment lifts the car out of the ditch. Everyone seems to note how "weird" this was, but in context, I would say not so much. It's an attempt to imitate Terry Southern's hipster humor, which only worked when applied by directors like Kubrick and Richardson with a light, even handed touch. Then again, the jokes are far more obvious than Southern, and the basic situation too absurd. Sad to see so many great stars near the end, but the real question is, how did Harry Nilsson survive this ?

bkoganbing After watching Skidoo tonight all I can ask is what was Otto Preminger thinking when he did this film? Better yet what were all these talented people thinking when they signed on?The plot has Jackie Gleason, once the mob's number one hit-man, but now retired and living with wife Carol Channing and daughter Alexandra Hay who has taken up with the hippie lifestyle and some hippies, much to the consternation of Gleason and Channing. Those two alone as parents might make anyone want to join a commune.Cesar Romero and Frankie Avalon bring a message from God or at least that's what syndicate boss Groucho Marx. Groucho wants mob informer Mickey Rooney killed, but Mickey's in prison. Never mind the mob can do anything, bust Gleason into prison and bust him right out once the job is done. But Rooney won't let people near him, but since Gleason's an old friend he'll be vulnerable to him. Which is what Groucho is thinking.Since Gleason balks, Groucho captures Alexandra Hay and brings her on his yacht from where he runs things. At that point with Marx having him by the short hairs, Gleason agrees to the contract.The big idea is to get the entire prison tripping on LSD so no one will interfere. But of course things do go wrong as you'll see if you care to watch the film.No matter how many big names were packed into Skidoo, nothing could get this picture off the ground. Otto Preminger packed the film with a whole lot of people he had used in previous films like Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Slim Pickens, but all to no avail. The jokes fell flat as a punctured soufflé, the situations were just not funny, in fact even Groucho apparently wasn't in the mood to ad-lib any of his patented humor.In fact Groucho playing a character called God WAS the funniest thing in the film. It has serious theological implications for those of us who thought George Burns or Morgan Freeman was God.In its own way Skidoo was as big a disaster, even bigger than Plan Nine From Outer Space. And Preminger had a much bigger budget to work from.