Skidoo (1968)

(On Cable TV, June 2022) Some movies end in elation, others in disappointment, many more without making much of an impact and a few in flabbergasted perplexity. Skidoo goes straight in that last category, because the most likely response to making it to this film’s end credits is an awed “…what?”  It’s blindingly from 1968 – calling it “dated” is like dismissing a calendar of previous years, so clearly does it present a (satirical) picture of what the late 1960s must have felt like to older adults at the time. Directed by renowned iconoclast Otto Preminger, the film sets up an old-Hollywood archetype in the form of ultraconservative gangsters, set against the then-weirdness of the hippie youth lifestyle. Drugs prominently feature in the storyline, and so do about a dozen well-known comedians: If you want to see Groucho Marx’s last film role, it’s right here alongside such notables as Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Burgess Meredith, Peter Lawford, Cesar Romero, Slim Pickens and Mickey Rooney – some of these actors in featured roles, others in cameos. This is a big-budget comedy from beginning to end, with decent production values and an end-credit sequence that is not only illustrated, but sung through (!) with relevant lyrics. Alas, comedy isn’t universal, and there’s a reason why Skidoo is often regarded as the worst in Preminger’s filmography: it’s awkward and reactionary, two words that seldom applied to Preminger’s earlier films. But let’s face it: he wasn’t much of a comedian, and he was definitely too old (in his mid-sixties) to reflect anything but bemusement at youth culture and the promotion of LSD as world-peace instrument. The result, ironically, doesn’t reflex late-1960s youth culture as much as it feels like a contemporary parody of the late 1960s. Yes, I would argue that Skidoo has aged rather well in this regard: it’s probably funnier now with ironic distance than it was upon release. That doesn’t make it a great movie still – but I can think of a few good reasons why it’s worth a look for anyone even remotely aware and interested in late-1960s Hollywood and how it was trying to figure out the social changes that were underway. The result? Unique.