NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

bear1955 If you dig Firesign Theater's late 60's - early 70s' comedy LP's, you may really like this. It would be familiar except for name stars in this movie. (Artistically) they didn't need to put Skidoo on film. Maybe it would be more highly regarded if it remained a work of sound - it could have remained theater of the mind! The cast generally has VERY distinctive voices and I really do mean that this story would be fine as longform comedy LP, requiring a narrator and some excellent foley work. The "Skidoo" story also would have made for a fun off-off Broadway happening! The Firesign Theater connection I notice means I'll need to take another look at Skidoo from DVR'ing on TCM, though there is nothing easily found to show any connection in the making of Skidoo of any Firesign principals; some of their aural devices and trippy plot devices may have been influenced by this movie and the 1968 movie "Head" additionally. "Head" is its' visuals. "Skidoo" is an idea that becomes shortchanged, enhanced, loved and notorious in parts by it's sets, props and the look of the actors. Anyway, I would say if you like either "Skiddoo" or "Head", see the other one!

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 ?

winner55 One reviewer noted that 'some people reported that Preminger experimented with acid while making this movie.' That's historically imprecise: it was Preminger himself who said, in a number of interviews, that he was ON acid while making this film (meaning he took it through-out the production. At first he said this rather proudly, apparently hoping it would sell the film to the 'youth' market, but by the early '70s he was using this as an excuse for the films evident failure, artistic and financial. (His career never fully recovered.) In fact, the film did damage to the careers of almost everyone involved - Gleason, Marx, Lawford, Burgess, Channing - all suffered from the fiasco.I had the unpleasant experience seeing this when it first came out - my Mother wanted to see 'a Jackie Gleason movie,' and was too stubborn to walk out after she had paid for the tickets. Even in my immaturity I could see this was a MESS. The characters were unlikeable, the images were flat, the story meandering about unbelievably, and the jokes - the only way you could tell it was a comedy is because the actors were laughing. I hope I never see it again.Yet I do admit one thing, which is why I write this review so many years later. For some reason the design of the film is unforgettable, as is the casual hipsters' party attitude that permeates the script and the acting. And that's NOT a good thing.So, unless you want acid-flashbacks without ever dropping any cubes, avoid this movie like the plague, or it will infect your mind with horrible memories of bad cinema.

Bill Slocum Jackie Gleason goes on an acid trip, Carol Channing does a strip tease, and Groucho Marx comes on to a teenager in "Skidoo", a movie that amazes by playing even worse than that reads.It's director Otto Preminger's attempt at a subversive comedy, celebrating the hippie lifestyle as a positive contrast to middle-class American morality. While Gleason's Tough Tony Banks is sent to prison by his former mob boss "God" (Groucho) to ice a stoolie, his wife Flo (Channing) welcomes some 40 hippies to their California mansion, it being a year before the Manson Family showed why this might not be a good idea. When Gleason decides to buck "God's" plan and not do the murder, Flo and the hippies must save the day."Who's your tailor, Sitting Bull?" Tony says when meeting head hippie Stash (John Phillip Law), establishing early on this is going to be another of those grouchy character roles for The Great One. That and the culture clash will be presented in the simple "Billy Jack" style of old squares objecting to the way kids wear their hair.I'm not a fan of Jackie Gleason's film work; his largeness in manner and rough tone tended to make him hard to laugh with on the big screen. Not surprisingly, his best known cinematic turns were in dramatic or serio-comic roles. Here, he is equipped with a Norton like sidekick who gets murdered 15 minutes in, as nothing says laughter like Arnold Stang dead in a car wash. Gleason isn't as obnoxious here as he was in "Don't Drink The Water" the following year, keeping his trademark mugging to a minimum. At least until he licks the wrong envelope and takes that LSD trip.Channing on the other hand mugs up a storm, really throwing herself into her role as she grooves out to a rock song and leads the hippies to save Tony dressed as George Washington but looking more like Captain Crunch. Every line is delivered with that trademark whine and Botox grin long emulated by female impersonators everywhere."Skidoo" doesn't really work the hippie angle and the mob angle so much as plop them next to each other, suggesting that all a gang of hardened criminals needs is a few merry vibes to be won over. As a comedy, the film's idea of laughs is a prison break where all the guards are dosed with acid, making them see naked football players and flop drunkenly to the floor. Or else Groucho as "God", living on a yacht in self-imposed quarantine, like Howard Hughes in fear of germs, trying to get Stash's help in a drug-distribution deal and being flummoxed when the kid tells him business bores him.About the only thing "Skidoo" has working for it, other than an inanely cheerful mood that lends it camp appeal, are some fine musical moments from Harry Nilsson, including singing the entire end credits right up to the copyright: "MCMLXVIII". His tuneful whimsy cuts through otherwise unendurable scenes; though even his title track can't be saved when performed by Channing in her cutsey "peekaboo" manner."You are going on a trip," Tony is told after taking LSD. "If you fight it, it can be a bad trip. If you ride with the waves, it will be a good trip." Fight it or not, there's no question what kind of trip "Skidoo" is.