Faye Dunaway, under contract to Otto Preminger at the time, refused to appear in Skidoo after she scored a huge success in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). She was sued by Preminger but it was settled out of court.

Skidoo screenwriter Doran William Cannon was first hired for the Preminger film Too Far To Walk. Cannon's agent was a former secretary for Preminger and had sent him the Skidoo screenplay as a writing sample to get Cannon hired for Too Far To Walk.

The director admired the anti-establishment tone of the Skidoo script and the fact that Cannon pitted the hippies against the mafia so Cannon asked, "Why not just make Skidoo?" And since Preminger thought he would be able to make it cheaply, he agreed to do it.

Preminger had already done research on the drug scene for Too Far To Walk.

Cannon and Preminger butted heads over how the Mafia would be portrayed in Skidoo. Cannon wanted them to be realistic and played straight; Preminger wanted them to be cartoonish with the comedy played broadly. Cannon remembers, "I told Otto from the start that if he directed Skidoo the way he directed In Harm's Way [1965], it would be funny." Preminger also thought the mafia members should be violent – a suggestion that Cannon was vehemently against, as he claimed his screenplay was about "the powers of nonviolence".

Preminger initially asked Mel Brooks to help with the rewrite, although he told Cannon later, "I am not going to hire [Brooks]. Between you and him I would go crazy." Instead Cannon suggested Elliott Baker (author of A Fine Madness).

TV screenwriter Stanley Ralph Ross (The Monkees, Batman) was also brought in to rescue the script, although by the time Ross was called in Skidoo was halfway done and all the scenes Ross suggested be cut were already shot and edited into the film. Preminger still paid Ross anyway.

Cannon's friend Austin Pendleton (the Professor) tried out for the film by taking a drive with Preminger around San Francisco. They didn't speak of the movie at all during their drive and instead discussed politics. Right as he dropped him off at the airport, Preminger told Pendleton, "I like talking to you; you don't need to do the test because the part is yours." Pendleton sensed that the movie would probably fail and had initially turned him down. After offering him a little more money, Pendleton reluctantly agreed to do Skidoo.

After Pendleton's first scene (the jail scene in which the new recruits are asked to strip down naked and answer questions about their lives on a computer), he begged his agent to be released from Skidoo, although Preminger liked Pendleton immensely and wanted to expand his part. Soon after on set, Pendleton missed his marks and Preminger exploded, calling him "an amateur" and claimed he "didn't know how to behave on camera". Pendleton agreed with the director and asked, "Mr. Preminger, can you help me?" and Preminger melted. From that point on he gave Pendleton more coaching than anyone else on set.

Jackie Gleason and Preminger reportedly didn't communicate at all on set, and Pendleton observed that Gleason was "not hostile but depressed". Gleason never wanted to rehearse and had no humor offstage. Pendleton said he was a "prima donna who made his wardrobe man kneel down to tie his shoes."

Cannon initially wanted Preminger to play the God character but he refused, so instead Cannon suggested Groucho Marx. Preminger claimed Marx was too old but hired him anyway.

Reportedly when Groucho showed up on the set, he asked Preminger if he was drunk. Preminger resented the comment and would yell at Marx continuously through the shoot. A person on set claimed that there were "many tense moments with Groucho, who was gross, uncouth, and extremely unpleasant to everyone." Preminger reported picked on Groucho so much during the filming that Gleason physically threatened Preminger to never try the same bully stuff with him.

Preminger forced Groucho to wear his trademark mustache for the film.

Carol Channing claimed Preminger, "was a wonderful producer but I didn't like working with him. He enjoyed beating me up in front of the company."

Preminger's film In Harm's Way is seen during the opening sequence where Tony and Flo are watching television. Preminger always complained that his films were edited after being shown on television, and in the sequence Flo is heard saying, "I never watch films on TV...they always cut them to pieces."

Preminger reportedly wanted Bob Dylan to score Skidoo. He invited Dylan and his wife to a screening of the movie in his mansion. After the screening Dylan wanted to see the film again (much to everyone's surprise in the room, who had thought it was terrible) but under one condition: he wanted to see it alone with his wife in the house while it was playing. Dylan ended up not scoring the movie and later admitted the only reason he requested a private second screening was because he was fascinated by the décor in Preminger's house and wanted to use some of the ideas for his own house.

The Skidoo wrap party was at The Factory, a hip disco in Los Angeles. Preminger wore a Nehru suit and was seen having a great time.

Director Peter Bogdanovich was present when Preminger screened Skidoo for Paramount executives (including head Robert Evans). Bogdanovich said, "There wasn't one laugh or titter the entire film."

Preminger arranged for the Skidoo premiere to be in Miami as a fundraiser for the not-yet-built Miami Arts Center. Pendleton recalls it being, "...beautifully orchestrated...a feeling of a big, important premiere – you'd have thought it was the Atlanta opening of Gone with the Wind [1939]...but twenty minutes after the film started there began an ever gathering parade of rich people exiting. I knew then that we were in trouble."

Skidoo opened in Los Angeles on December 18th, 1968, to qualify for Academy Award consideration.

Skidoo opened in New York on March 5th, 1969.

Groucho Marx, who reportedly took LSD at the time of Skidoo, was profiled in an article by Yippie founder and publisher of The Realist, Paul Krassner. It was titled "My Acid Trip With Groucho".

Compiled by Millie de Chirico

Sources:
www.imdb.com
www.allmovie.com
The Cinema of Otto Preminger by Gerald Pratlow
Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King by Foster Hirsch
The Worst Movies Of All Time or What Were They Thinking? by Michael Sauter
Psychotronic Magazine Number 12
www.rogerebert.com
www.variety.com
www.filmthreat.com
www.channel4.com
www.shockcinemamagazine.com
www.citypaper.net