HomeVideodrome: Jackie Gleason, Steven Seagal, ‘Boyz’ and ‘Amelie’

Here it is, fans of Jackie “The Great One” Gleason, the wait is finally over: Otto Preminger’s weirdo comedy curiosity item Skidoo is now available on DVD.  While it came out before counter-culture exploded into mainstream cinema with Easy Rider, Skidoo was an attempt to tap into the hippie audience of the late sixties, even going so far as to feature a soundtrack by Harry Nilsson, as well as a script by Brewster McCloud scribe Doran William Cannon.  The cast of the movie is easily one of the daffiest ever assembled, including not only Gleason, but names like Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, Cesar Romero, John Phillip Law, Mickey Rooney, Carol Channing, Richard “Jaws” Kiel, Fred Clark, and Slim Pickens.  Oh, and Groucho Marx appears here in his final screen role, playing God, a casting decision that somehow seems more absurd than George Burns, and yet infinitely more palatable.

Skidoo has been seen as something of an oddity in Preminger’s body of work, a director primarily known for heavier films like Laura, Exodus, and The Man With the Golden Arm.  The film was largely panned upon release as a cynical attempt to pander to a hip crowd, Preminger even brought in a young Rob Reiner to do uncredited rewrites on the script, reportedly telling him to “write scenes for the hippies.”  This DVD release marks the first time that this movie has even gotten a home video release, it’s current advent to video being probably due to the cult appeal it’s gained playing late nights on Turner Classic Movies’ TCM Underground, where bizarre not-quite-classics of yesteryear find their modern audience.

The DVD details on this one are virtually non-existent, though I can happily report it’s being released in it’s original anamorphic widescreen, and not a cropped frame.  Other than that though, we get no special features to speak of.  Given that this is the first and only release of Skidoo available to date, those of us wanting to own it will have to as our current President commands of we his subjects: shut up and eat our (Preminger) peas.  Though, really, this movie had me at Jackie Gleason and Harry Nilsson.  Sold.

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