She Blogged By Night

If you missed "Skidoo" the last time TCM showed it, you are in luck. TCM is showing "Skidoo" again on their Underground series this week. It will air at 2:00 AM Saturday July 11th Eastern time (that's late the night of Friday the 10th for all you fellow insomniacs.)

Shame on you if you haven't seen it yet. The print isn't great, but film buffs are startlingly lucky to have a chance to see it at all. Preminger's estate isn't keen on lending the film out -- seems it's a bit of an embarrassment -- so for years this was only available in horrible copies from some 1980s cable showing.

"Skidoo" is a strange amalgam of talent, humor, social commentary, frankly awful scriptwriting, misguided counterculturalism, and conservative studio filmmaking. Yet the more I see this film, the more enchanted I am by it.

There are so many actors in this film that I adore: Austin Pendleton (I'm probably the only one who thought that Holly Hunter wasn't desperate in "Home for the Holidays" when she kissed Pendleton), Fred Clark, and Carol Channing especially. Several of the actors do some very good work. George Raft kills me as the captain of God's yacht, and the recently departed John Phillip Law manages to add some dignity to a role that seems almost designed to humiliate. Law's brother Tom plays the part of "Geronimo", a fellow hippie with very long straight hair. Look for him accidentally walking in front of the camera during the hair-washing scene!

For those of you who did see the film but are left wanting more, here is a list of links:

Roger Ebert's review of "Skidoo"

Classic Television Showbiz - includes a photo of the 33 1/3 RPM album I used to listen to as a kid! Oh, and it's a great blog, too.

For the Love of Harry shares the trailer for "Skidoo"

Bad Movie Night's summary

Shock Cinema Magazine

EDIT: Looks like TCM confused me again! I had the dates wrong for when "Skidoo" was airing so I've corrected it. I flipped to TCM and it's showing "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", which is pretty much the anti-Skidoo. Oh, and since I'm already blathering, I thought I should mention that I notice the glittery title screen of the word "Morgan's" invokes the glittery and very phallic disco ball that knocked the sense out of Trudy Kockenlocker on that fateful night. Guess we know what the "miracle" is. Heh.