Join us for a Psychedelic 1968 San Francisco Night! A Double Feature of Skidoo & Psych Out hosted by Skidoo Expert Christian Divine
The name conjures an old 1920's expression, a line of snowmobiles, or an infamous 1968 film directed by Otto Preminger. Out of a large body of myriad, memorable and often controversial work that includes LAURA (1944); PORGY AND BESS (1959); THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (1955); ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959); EXODUS (1960) and others, SKIDOO remains Preminger's most unique film, produced by Paramount Pictures at the height of the peace and love revolution, and featuring an all-star cast reminiscent of IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD -- except on LSD. The film gained instant notoriety upon its limited release in December of 1968 (usually on a double bill with the obscure UP-TIGHT) and has achieved a truly sub-cultural iconic status, chiefly to Jackie Gleason's incredible seven minute acid trip and the film's unavailability outside of popular bootlegs. Today, SKIDOO stands as a fascinating 1960's cinematic artifact, the missing link between the end of the Old Hollywood and the start of the New Hollywood. Unlike other big studio misfires of the decade such as CANDY (1968), MODESTY BLAISE (1966) and MYRA BRECKENRIDGE (1970), SKIDOO is always entertaining, there are some terrific performances, and the tonal shifts are almost kinetic as each scene manages the impossible feat of being more bizarre than the previous one. Just when you think SKIDOO can't get any stranger, it does, all the way until the transcendent final shot, one of the greatest in Hollywood history. Preminger frames the hippie happenings in his typical "widescreen tolerance" as Andrew Sarris noted in his perceptive review and thus, SKIDOO also has the distinction of being one of the few films of the turbulent 60's to posit a happy ending for the hippies and hope for the generation gap.
Jenny Davis (Susan Strasberg) is a deaf young woman who has run away from home to search for her missing brother. Arriving in the hippie-filled Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, Jenny befriends a rock group with heavy psychedelic leanings, becoming close to band member Stoney (Jack Nicholson). Aided by Dave (Dean Stockwell), who used to be in the ensemble, Stoney and Jenny come closer to tracking down her sibling, and venture into trippy territory while on hallucinogens.