Otto Preminger's Skidoo (1968) with Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx

Michael Constantine and Jackie Gleason

This is a bizarre comedy that must be seen to be believed; it's so strange and trippy. And features some legendary performers you wouldn't expect to see in a movie with pot-smoking hippies and tripping on LSD.

Actors such as Mickey Rooney, George Raft, Frankie Avalon, Carol Channing, and Jackie Gleason. Gleason was memorable as Minnesota Fats in The Hustler and from his image from 1950s television, but in this movie he goes on a full-on acid trip, which is actually pretty funny. Groucho Marx is part of the trip too.

Not on DVD, not on video. I don't really even hear this film called a "cult classic", so it seems like a forgotten film.

It showed in Chicago in September 2007 at the Music Box theater (Part of a Otto Preminger series) and everyone in the theater seemed to enjoy it. A very unusual film from Preminger, who usually made more serious films.

Centennial Summer (1946)

Centennial Summer is a sweet, Technicolor period musical (set in 1876) starring Jeanne Crain and Linda Darnell, who play sisters vying for the affection of Cornel Wilde's character, a Frenchman visiting Philadelphia during the World's Fair.

Dorothy Gish plays the mother of Jeanne & Linda; her character has most of the comical moments in the film. Walter Brennan plays her husband, a railroad worker who dreams of new inventions and loves to argue politics and rip on Republicans. Dorothy has funny lines to say such as "put your pants on!" to a pajama-clad Brennan walking around the house. Unfortunately, Ms. Gish's screen time is limited, and she often has to compete with Constance Bennett who plays her socialite sister and tends to be a scene-stealer, saying things like "I'm simply livid with envy over your heavenly family!".  But Dorothy brings the most to her matriarch character, and is very down-to-earth and supportive.

In one of the best scenes in the film, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant comes to Philadelphia and speaks to a large crowd. Dorothy Gish and her family are all way in the back of the crowd where nobody can can hear a thing (no microphones yet!). It was one of the moments that remind you of the setting and time.

This film is the most lighthearted film I've ever seen by director Otto Preminger, primarily known for his edgy films. The "edgiest" moments in gleeful Centennial Summer  include a single woman visiting an obstetrician and a scene where characters call each other "stupid asses".

In the 1946 New York Times review of the film, the reviewer said this film was "an obvious attempt to copy "Meet Me in St. Louis"" and that it "limps along heavily and slowly ".

I wont't be that harsh on the movie, but I did think it could have used a bit more of Dorothy Gish, and a bit more comedy, too.

But the costumes and music are good, including the Oscar-nominated song "All Through The Day" (by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein). Another song, "I Woke Up with the Lark This Morning", is the sunniest, happiest, pie-in-the-sky song you may ever hear. Another snappy musical number - "Cinderella Sue", performed by a black family led by Cotton Club singer Avon Long - is one of the film's highlights.

Recommended! Available to watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NSxrXh4vNg

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This post is a contribution to The Gish Sisters Blogathon
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