Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Skidoo

There's a lot I could be posting about, I suppose, but this rises to the top of the heap immediately. I just received my DVD copy of SKIDOO, the truly astounding Otto Preminger movie starring Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Groucho Marx and a host o' others. If you haven't seen this, I don't really know how to prepare you. It's sort of flat-affect surrealism, done so ham-handedly it's difficult to know what anyone -- actors, director, writer -- were trying to achieve in any particular moment. I'm no expert on DVD prints, but this does seem sharper and more colorful than the Skidoo that ran on TCM a year or so ago. I eagerly await the blu-ray.

I just watched the scene where Jackie Gleason, in jail, drops acid and sees Groucho Marx's head float by, attached to a metal screw. If you're not tearing a twenty out of your wallet right now for your own copy, you obviously don't understand great cinema...

1 comment:

David said...

Hi Mark,

"I laughed my head off."
Unique movie! Amazing cast.

Enjoyed talking with you at Paley. Thanks!

David
CinematicMusic1@gmail.com