At long last, we can all witness the greatest cinematic WTF moment of 1968, which is "Skidoo". Now finally available on DVD, you can sit in slack- jawed amazement at this notorious slice of psychedelic weirdness from director Otto Preminger. Is this movie as bad as you've heard? Yes, it is. Is it better than you imagined? Yes, it is. Is it worth seeing? Absolutely. Probably a few viewings, to fully appreciate everything that's going on, while you're wondering how in the hell did this movie ever get made? "Skidoo" is a moment captured from the most turbulent period in American history, the Sixties. The generation gap, drugs, and the re-evaluation of social behaviors had finally reached the old guard in Hollywood, who didn't have a clue how to keep seats filled with younger audiences. Director Otto Preminger takes the "Laugh-In" route here, filling the screen with familiar faces getting a crash course in hipness via LSD. The plot here is fairly easy to follow, but the images can be difficult to process. Jackie Gleason tripping his brains out. Carol Channing doing her best Captain Crunch impersonation at the movie's climax belting out the theme song. Three villains from TV's "Batman" being directed by a fourth. Nude football players. Dancing garbage cans. Groucho Marx's head twirling around on top of a giant wood screw. Body painting. Groovy everything being thrown at you while acid- induced dialog prattles along, set to a soundtrack by Harry Nilsson (who really does sing all the credits at the film's end).It's really up to the viewer to decide if this is a very sly comment on the emergence of the drug culture, or just a gimmick to trot out older fading "stars" and paint them in the glamor of counter- culture. Many taboos are skewered here: Stash the Hippie greets his friend Geronimo by kissing him on the mouth (real life brothers, John Phillip Law and Thomas Law), prison romances are hinted at in the freakout scenes, racially mixed romance is seen, geriatric sex, free love, and some very strange metaphysical speeches about hipness and nothingness. Also, smoking pumpkins. "Skidoo" undoubtedly plays better now, nearly fifty years after a stunned public got a dose of it. Now, it looks like a harmless experiment in psychedelic foolishness. It's mindbending, but for all the wrong reasons. Seek it out and find yourself.

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!

I'm 43 and I had fun seeing all these old A-list actors in this severely screwed-up film. I'm not sure I could say the same for my cousins in their 20s however. There are some great sets and costumes, as well as music. The film is far from a cult classic and it is pretty amateurish at parts, especially some terribly done slapstick split-screen at the start, but the general plot is interesting and twisted, the combination of actors is bizarre, and the weird plot that takes Jackie Gleason through a prison acid-trip on his way to confront an old mafia boss is often amusing. Not long after, the entire prison starts tripping, including Burgess Meredith, Peter Lawford, Slim Pickens, and Jack Lord? You really get the sense that these guys were partying as much as anyone. I cant believe a studio released money for this, although the quality of the film and the lighting at times make it clear the budget was low or a fine director like Premminger was not matched by his director of photography. It's shot like a TV show, but I'm probably seeing a 4x duped print. I bet the originals are long gone.Its a historical artifact if nothing else, and there are some truly innovative psychedelic film sequences. The film starts terribly in establishing its preposterous plot, but seems to smooth out more over time towards the end. There's a certain loose sexuality coming through from the time period 1968, and I think this movie was trying to be Candy if nothing else. It's definitely a B-movie, but with the surprising A-listers from Jackie Gleason to Frankie Avalon and Burgess Meredith, and the historic aspect, I think its as good as lots of time-wasting indie movies. At least its not gratuitously morose. Its gratuitously asinine. I'd totally own it on DVD.

OK, I knew what this was going to be like before I saw it after reading the reviews here on IMDb. The first sentence out of my mouth was 'I can't believe Paramount green lighted this!' And yet I know why. A huge part of the movie going audience was under 25 and Otto Preminger was trying to make sense of the whole hippie/free love/drug scene by making an over the top, absolutely outrageous kook fest with some of the biggest stars in the movies and on TV. I have always wanted to see this movie, mostly because it is Groucho Marx's last film. He is obviously reading his lines from cue cards, but hey, he was almost 80 years old when he made this movie, so I have to cut him some slack. Otto Preminger apparently 'forced' him to blacken his hair, wear a bad toupee and wear the old Groucho Greasepaint mustache..it was pretty tacky, and very ugly in Groucho's closeups. The thought of Groucho dropping acid and trying pot in real life has my mind reeling! I hope somebody had a tape recorder rolling during that acid trip! There IS a book about this supposed LSD trip with Groucho out there...An unbelievable roll call of big stars and character actors: Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Carol Channing, Robert Donner, Slim Pickens, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin. Richard Keil, Peter Lawford, Fred Clark, Frankie Avalon (this film was SILLY like his beach party films, except rated PG!),Arnold Stang,George Raft,Cesar Romero, who went on to star as a villain in tons of Disney flicks in the 1970's. Before this, he was of course the Joker on Batman on TV and before that he had had a career as a Latin lover in movies in the 1940's. If you don't know who a lot of these old time movie actors are, look them up here on IMDb. I'm amazed at who pops up in this movie. I can't forget a then-young Austin Pendleton, who is now a highly regarded actor on stage and screen. This film is yet another made when the big change came to the U.S. M.P.A.A. movie rating system around 1968 that had been in place since 1933. Brief flashes of nudity, a few 'dirty' words and more 'sex'! It had to have been quite shocking to many American film goers in the late sixties and early 70's. Whoo Hoo! Jackie Gleason's 'acid trip' is crazy! Yet another reason to just say NO to dope! HA HA!The multitude of stars reminds me of the now classic 'It's A Mad, Mad Mad, Mad World'. 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World's' director Stanley Kramer is number two in line when it comes to the cameo roles in films. What I mean by that is he didn't 'invent' the movie cameo role. 'Around The World In 80 Days' in 1956 is credited with 'inventing' the cameo appearance by having a large roster of famous actors and actresses in small roles in the movies.This is a film that tried to cash in on the late 1960's youth revolution. I agree that there are MUCH better 'establishment' vs. 'hippie' films out there, namely 'I Love You Alice B. Toklas'& 'The Party', both starring Peter Sellers. There so many films that are way better than this one, but I like the cheesy, kooky, pop culture aspects, and I collect some of the 'worst' movies (for example, all of the 'beach party series' and many of the horror flicks released by American International Pictures) ever made as well as 'cult' films, mostly stuff released before 1975.You gotta LOVE Carol Channing singing the movie's hippie theme song at the end! WOW! I can tell she probably loved it! She has always seemed very enthusiastic as a performer in everything I have seen her in. She is just plain GREAT! Harry Nilsson wrote the film's score!To sum up, I have to say that this is another movie in the annals of film history that goes into the WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING? file.