Otto Preminger was known for his weighty films, which often rose above their simple premises to become legendary. By the late 1960's, however, he saw how filmmaking was seemingly leaving him behind. Despite the socially progressive topics he covered in his films, younger moviegoers were tuning them out in favor of 'today' pictures.
Fate seemingly intervened in the form of a son he never knew he had. Decades before, Mr. Preminger had a torrid affair with famed burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee. Unbeknownst to him, the affair resulted in an out of wedlock son. Ms. Lee tried to keep Otto in the dark for as long as she could, placing another man's name on the birth certificate.
Va Va Va Voom!
In the 1960's, Ms. Lee was forced to reveal to both Otto and her son the truth. Otto embraced his new son and wanted to impress him. Figuring that the college aged young man could help him make 'today' pictures, he hired him to work at his production company.
He's 'hip'. He's 'with it'. Dukka, dukka, dukka, dukka, dukka, dukka, dukka. Huahhhh...
So Otto looked around for a suitable project that would appeal to the young people and impress his son. Otto thought he found that project in Skidoo.
Jackie Gleason & Carol Channing 'rap' with the youth of the day.
Preminger lined up a cast more suited for a rest home than a mod film- Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Mickey Rooney, Groucho Marx and many more washed up stars.
Groucho's head on a screw? Why not?
In the film, Jackie Gleason plays a mobster who has retired from the business. (Is that even possible?) He has taken up a legit life with his wife, Carol Channing, and a hippy daughter who does nothing but shriek and wail about how comfortable her life is. He is blackmailed back into the business and is supposed to get himself imprisoned so that he can murder a stoolie played by Mickey Rooney. Several LSD trips later, the film ends with Ms. Channing leading a hippie brigade to confront her husband's mob boss with a 'love-in.'
This scene makes even less sense if you stay awake long enough to see it in the film.
Needless to say, the 62 year old Otto was not up to the challenge of making a film for the hippie generation. His heart may have been in the right place, but the film turned into a ridiculous mess. Appealing to neither fans of its geriatric cast nor the younger generation, Skidoo was a colossal bomb. Embarrassed by the film, Otto buried it. After satisfying his contractural obligations, Otto put the film in the vault, never to be seen again. His family continued hiding the film, never authorizing videocassette or DVD releases- until 2011 when the film finally became available on DVD.
