Sigma Productions, 1968
starring: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Alexandra Hay and Groucho Marx
directed by: Otto Preminger

the plot: Members of the mob are being dragged before Congress, and it looks like high-level mafia boss George “Blue Chips” Packard (Mickey Rooney) is about to rat out his old friends. And so former mafia assassin turned carwash impresario Tony Banks (Gleason) is called out of retirement by the head of mafia himself, God (Marx) and sent to kill Blue Chips. The only problem: Packard’s in prison, and Tony must first make it behind bars before he can complete his assignment. He’s got good incentive to do so: God has threatened the lives of Tony’s wife, Flo (Channing), and his daughter, Darlene (Hay). But things get complicated when Tony accidentally takes a wicked dose of LSD and goes on a mind-bending trip while in the clink. Meanwhile, Flo and Darlene, along with a gaggle of Darlene’s newfound hippie friends, must make their way to God’s plush yacht and beg him to let Tony return home.

why it’s good: Operating firmly under the idea that, if you can’t beat ’em, make a lame attempt to join ’em, Otto Preminger’s “Skidoo” is an embarrassing mash-up of Hollywood’s old guard with some vague clichés about hippies, the counterculture and whatever else those crazy longhaired kids were up to in the late 1960s. One need only take a quick glance at the cast to see that Preminger’s game plan for sending up hippiedom, the mob and upper middleclass life, is wildly askew. Jackie Gleason and Groucho Marx are cool and all, but thinking they’re the comedic actors best qualified to riff on smoking pot and dropping acid is a bit of a leap. It’s a leap Preminger makes wholeheartedly, though, and thus we’re treated to scenes of a tripping Gleason, whacked out of his mind and locked in a prison cell, watching as an animated Groucho head attached to a screw swirls down a drain. That first acid trip is but a mere prologue to an extended sequence in which the whole prison is slipped some LSD, leading to old school stars like Burgess Meredith, Peter Lawford and Slim Pickens all acting like drunk idiots. If you’re a fan of classic Hollywood stars, “Skidoo” is a veritable who’s-who of legends. Both Preminger and Marx reportedly experimented with LSD in preparation for “Skidoo,” and if you plan to watch it, you may want to consider a similar strategy. It won’t make any sense, but it might at least be a little funnier.

why you should own it: Due to its poor commercial and critical reception, “Skidoo” never made it onto home video. The film remains locked up in the vaults of the Preminger estate and showings are rarely allowed. Cable channel TCM is known to air “Skidoo” at odd hours (it last showed up on the channel in 2008), though you can find bootlegs on the Internet. It’s worth watching at least once, but repeated viewings of “Skidoo” may fry your brain.