Highly unlikely that anyone will be able to top Harry Nilsson‘s tuneful approach to presenting the end credits of Otto Preminger‘s long-forgotten 1968 film, Skidoo:
“Cast and Crew”
Nilsson (1968)
“Cast and Crew” is the first track on Nilsson’s Skidoo soundtrack LP, an album that went largely unnoticed at the time but enjoyed a great critical reception when reissued on CD in 2000 (UK) and 2003 (UK).
Skidoo, sadly, would be Groucho Marx’s swansong.
According to IMDB, the Internet Movie Database, Otto Preminger, in response to the disastrous failure of Skidoo – was quoted as saying, “I don’t think many people adore it. Except my wife, who adores all my pictures, because that’s what you get married for.”
In 2011, Skidoo was finally made available on home video for the first time since its original cinematic release — the DVD version, as the New York Times points out, keeps the “original wide-screen image and strategically garish Technicolor intact.”
Otto Preminger Pays to Be on TV’s Batman:
For his appearance on Batman in 1966, Otto Preminger was paid $2,500, the standard fee for actors who appeared on the series after asking for a role. The Screen Actors Guild got wind of this, and ordered that none of their members were to work for Preminger unless he paid the SAG dues for his appearance on Batman, and various other monies he owed them dating back to his acting career. As a result, Preminger ended up $7,600 out of pocket from his turn as Mr. Freeze.
