jadedalex This movie earns a 'two' vote only due to its utter strangeness. This is like 'The Oscar' on mescaline. Throw in five million familiar faces, forget a script, and let a young Harry Nilsson do the music score.It's hard to imagine that the same talented director who made the excellent 'Anatomy of a Murder' was behind this strange acid-trip mixture of hippies, gangsters and prisons. But this film was directed by Otto Preminger.Oddest casting: Carol Channing as Jackie Gleason's wife. A look at Ms. Channing and you may question whether there are but two sexes on this planet. We are indeed treated to the vision of Ms. Channing in see-through bra and brief panties. It is almost an acid trip in itself.But that's really only the beginning. The casting features a very lovely Alexandra Hay, who I believe was a Playboy centerfold (I could be wrong, or dreaming). Luna is gorgeous as Groucho Marx's (who plays 'God', years before George Burns) mistress. I love her in that green thing she's almost wearing.Let's throw in seasoned character actors like Slim Pickens, Fred Clark and Mickey Rooney, too. If that isn't enough, somehow Frankie Avalon appears in the mix. This movie's thorough stupidity made me nostalgic for those brain dead beach flicks!The list goes on. The world's best 'Password' player, Peter Lawford. From the 'Batman' TV show, we throw in Frank Gorshin and Cesar Romero. Thankfully, the unfunny Arnold Stang is bumped off early in the movie.And who do we have as star? None other than comic genius Jackie Gleason. This may be the saddest part of the affair. Gleason was excellent in 'Requiem for a Heavyweight'. This should have been a spring board for Jackie to do serious acting, but his filmography is filled with duds. This has to be the most embarrassing attempt at comedy by a real master. Reginald van Gleason on acid is just not funny. Most of the people behind the scenes must have been stoned while making this.Someone referred to this film as a 'psychedelic gem'. I do agree people need to sit down and watch this film. Drink it in, as they say. This was Hollywood on its last legs. Most of these personalities needed jobs, and they settled for this garbage. Surely someone had to have smelled this movie. Take the money and run.I'm a big fan of Nilsson, and it is amusing to see his take as the 'tower guard' who is tripping on acid. The best part of the movie is the final credits, which are jocularly all sung by Harry. His song 'Skidoo', however, is a real 'stinkeroo', and in yet another odd turn, the title song is sung by Carol Channing in George Washington drag. Read that sentence again.Aside from Harry's song about garbage cans, and the spectacle of neon strobe lit garbage cans with people inside them dancing, I found no other highlights in this piece of cinema.Oh, I forgot, George Raft plays 'The Skipper'.Now if anyone thinks this movie is 'good' in any way...you are deluding yourself. As strange Hollywood cinema, 'Skidoo' is worse than 'The Oscar' and possibly just as strange as Ed Wood's 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'.But there's a big difference between an artless, wannabe director with a very limited budget and a respected Hollywood director with a roster of some talented personalities and millions to spend. Frankly, I prefer the quaint ineptness of Ed Wood to the nonsensical treacle that Preminger has created here.Having said nothing much good about this film, I do agree. You sit down. You watch this movie. I dare you to make it all the way through. I did, with a couple of cigarette breaks. This may be one of the worst Hollywood productions of all time.

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.

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!

solszew-1 The cast alone is worth the price of this movie. Carol Channing almost walks away with this movie, delivering a charming, madcap performance, and nailing the Skidoo theme song (oddly placed at the end of the film). Jackie Gleason more than holds his own, though, and I loved the acid trip his character took, in prison no less! The handling of contemporary issues in the movie is sweetly off-kilter, but the continued focus on "the generation gap" and women's power really worked for me. The plot is a glorious mess, but Preminger's direction holds it all together somehow. This is not a good movie, but for some (like me) who are sick of the same old plots, and who enjoy a sharp poke at the establishment, it is a GREAT movie. Not for serious minded snobby types.