Skidoo
Skidoo is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark (who died on December 5, two weeks before the film's release), Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin, John Phillip Law, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, George Raft, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney and Groucho Marx playing a top mobster named "God". It was written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures on December 19, 1968. The screenplay satirizes late-1960s counterculture lifestyle and its creature comforts, technology, anti-technology, hippies, free love and then-topical use of the drug LSD.
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| Produced by | Otto Preminger
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 screenplay by
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story by
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based on
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narrated by
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| Edited by | George Rohrs
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animation by
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layouts by
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backgrounds by
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color process
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production company
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| Running time | 97 minutes
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| Country | United States
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| Language | English
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budget
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box office
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- Final film of Groucho Marx.
- Faye Dunaway, under contract to Otto Preminger at the time, refused to appear in the film after her unexpected success in Bonnie and Clyde and was promptly sued by Preminger. The matter was settled out of court.
- Several writers were brought in to "fix" this while Otto 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-mustache 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.
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