Skidoo (1968) on Netflix
Retired hitman Tony Banks is told by mob kingpin God to kill his old friend "Blue Chips" Packard. When Tony refuses, God has his daughter Darlene kidnapped and held on his yacht.
- Netflix2.2/5
- IMDb4.7/102,076 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes42%
Trailer
Plot summary
Tony Banks lives in retirement with his wife Flo and their daughter Darlene, uneasy about Darlene's hippie boyfriend Stash. The mob bosses Hechy and Angie bring word from God, the top man in the organization: God wants Tony to kill his old friend "Blue Chips" Packard, who is due to testify before a Senate crime commission. Tony turns the job down. After another old friend, Harry, is found shot, Tony agrees to the job and enters Rock Island Federal Penitentiary, dressed as a convict, to reach Packard, held under heavy guard. With Tony away, Flo takes in Stash and his friends, who face vagrancy charges. She asks Angie to get the job called off or to take her to God aboard his yacht. Angie refuses Flo but agrees to take Darlene, who brings Stash.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Skidoo (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To prepare for his role as the mob boss God, Groucho Marx took a dose of LSD in the company of writer Paul Krassner and had a largely pleasant experience; in his 1976 book The Groucho Phile he called both the movie and his performance "God-awful!"
- The scenes aboard the mob boss God's yacht were shot on John Wayne's yacht, Wild Goose, a former US Navy minesweeper that had been USS YMS-328; the film used its exterior, wheel house, cabins, engine room and decks.
- After director Otto Preminger saw him perform with the comedy group The Committee, an uncredited Rob Reiner was brought in to write scenes for hippies in the film.
- The entire end-credit sequence is sung by Harry Nilsson, who performs all the cast, crew and copyright information, with asides such as "how's your popcorn?" and a note that "your seat's on fire".
- After flopping, Skidoo drew belated attention: it screened at San Francisco's Roxie Cinema in the late 1970s and on 1980s cable TV, and New York's Museum of Modern Art periodically exhibits a 35mm print. It also played the USA Film Festival in Dallas in 1997.
