Skidoo!!!

Last night was truly an entertainment jackpot. After the concerts, we came back to find that Turner Classic Movies "Underground" was showing the 1968 Otto Preminger gem "Skiddo"! This was a rare treat because the film isn't available on home video and it's rarely (if ever?) shown on television. So you really have to get lucky to score a viewing.

Of course, mind you, there is a good reason why the thing is so scarce: this star-studded classic is a bouillabaisse of bad. A random jumble of barely connected elements (mobsters! hippies! mobsters on acid! Jackie Gleason!) which tries to portray gangsters as bumbling goofballs who are easily turned away from their life of crime by hippy wisdom (and more acid). The best (?) part is the spot-the-star (is that really him?) cast, including Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Peter Lawford, Richard Kiel, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, George Raft, Cesar Romero, Slim Pickens,Austin Pendleton (AWESOME in this!), Kirk Douglas and an older Groucho Marx as God (as per TCM, this was his final film role). Though it's very tough to choose - is the key highlight watching every one of those stars debase themselves in what TCM's own reviewers calls a "garish clusterf*ck"? Or is it the psychedelic hot-air balloon escape from Alcatraz? Or is it the dancing garbage cans? How can I choose?

If you get a chance to catch it in the future, maybe you can help me with this trivia question: I want to figure out whether the role of Gleason's daughter, Darlene, was played by Leigh Taylor-Young, the female lead in my other favorite 1968 hippy comedy, "I Love You Alice B. Toklas!" Does anyone know? The voice is similar; but all hippies sounds alike. IMDB doesn't credit the role and even TCM's very detailed background story of the film doesn't mention who played Darlene.

Edited to add: Oh my word -- how did I miss this? TCM's Underground website has been kind enough to post a series of awesome clips here -- come watch Jackie Gleason's acid trip!! You will *not* regret this and will be thanking me for years to come . . .

Also: found this Wikipedia article which credits the role of Darlene to Alexandra Hay -- remember her? She actually had her first television role in an episode of The Monkees. Yup -- I think that's probably right.

Rain of Madness

Yes -- I know -- three posts in one day. Too much?

Not when you see what I have. How can I pass up a clip that mixes two of my favorite things -- "Apocalypse Now" and Steve Coogan?

You already know that there is a comedy feature due out this summer called "Tropic Thunder" wherein the actors making a big budget war movie become involved in a real life conflict. Frankly, that didn't interest me terribly until I saw that they had gone to the trouble of making a promotional clip for another movie which is supposedly about the making of "Tropic Thunder", but which in style imitates "Heart of Darkness" -- the film about the making of "Apocalypse Now." It's called "Rain of Madness" and here's the trailer:



And why I am not at all surprised to see Coogan featured? Since it is, as with so much his best work, a parody of a send up twice removed. I can't help but love.

So is this an actual separate movie? Here's hoping it's true since I had no interest in seeing "Tropic Thunder", but would definitely see "Rain of Madness". Seems too good to be true, though, so I am betting against.

Which really only makes it funnier.