Otto Preminger's - SKIDOO (1968)

...MojoTV's first feature presentation is...

Skidoo, a 1968 comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures. It satirizes the modern world and its creature comforts, technology, anti-technology, hippies and free love, and features the use of LSD.

The movie featured a cast of stars and veteran character actors, including Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Cesar Romero, Frankie Avalon, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin, Richard Kiel, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, Slim Pickens, George Raft, Mickey Rooney, Arnold Stang, and Groucho Marx in his final movie role. It has a score by singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, who also appeared briefly in the movie.

* Groucho Marx's final movie.

* Faye Dunaway, under contract to Otto Preminger at the time, refused to appear in the film after her unexpected success in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and was promptly sued by Preminger. The matter was settled out of court.

* Several writers were brought in to "fix" this while Preminger was shooting Doran William Cannon's original script. These "rescue writers" included Elliott Baker and Stanley Ralph Ross. By the time Ross was called in, the picture was nearly half done and the scenes that Ross suggested be cut had already been shot and roughly edited. Preminger never cheated on wages and paid Ross, Baker and several other writers in a vain attempt to add jokes. However, Preminger steadfastly refused to alter the structure of the story.

* Otto Preminger experimented with LSD to prepare for this film. It is rumored that Groucho Marx also experimented with Timothy Leary.

* Even though Groucho Marx was 78 years old and well past his Marx Bros. prime, Otto Preminger browbeat Groucho into wearing his old greasepaint-moustache get-up for the movie. He also berated Groucho on the set, causing his co-star Jackie Gleason to physically threaten Preminger to never try the same bullying behavior with him.

* In the film's TV-viewing opening, Preminger's film In Harm's Way (1965) is featured. Preminger always complained about having his films cut to pieces on TV. Thus, Carol Channing's character says, "No, I never watch films on TV... they always cut them to pieces."

* Towards the end, when George Raft marries Frankie Avalon and Luna, Raft's wedding-service manual is clearly seen as "The Death of God".

* Groucho Marx's LSD trip is the subject of the article "My Acid Trip with Groucho" by Paul Krassner, Yippie founder and editor/publisher of famed satirical magazine The Realist.

* God's yacht in the film was actually borrowed from John Wayne. Director Otto Preminger had directed Wayne in In Harm's Way (1965) and Wayne donated the yacht for use in the film.

* Otto Preminger became so fascinated with his son Erik's description of life as a drop-out in New York's Greenwich Village that when a mere writing sample from Doran William Cannon passed his desk, he wanted to shoot the writing sample as opposed to the actual script, because the sample explored the hippie existence and LSD-tripping.

* Otto Preminger originally wanted Bob Dylan to score the movie. He invited Dylan and his wife to screening a rough cut of the movie in his own Hollywood mansion. After the screening, Dylan surprised everybody from his entourage, who thought the film was a disaster, by requesting a second screening but at one condition: he wanted to be left alone with his wife in the house during it. Preminger happily obliged, convinced that Dylan would accept the job. However, Dylan showed no further interest in the movie. He acknowledged later that he and his wife weren't interested at all by 'Skidoo' but they had loved so much the mansion style that they had requested this second screening to freely explore the mansion, write down what they liked and take inspiration for their own house.

...mungo says - why are you reading this, WATCH THE MOVIE!!! LISTEN to that SOUNDTRACK! (the end credit song is worth the price of admission alone!) ENJOY...