A Cold War Classic

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2008)

The cold war may have ended years ago now but this film seems both as funny and as dark as ever, with a great cast that includes Peter Sellers playing three different characters; RAF Group Captain Mandrake who is on attachment to the US Air Force, President Merkin Muffley and the eponymous Dr Strangelove, a former Nazi scientist now working for the US government.
The action starts when General Jack D. Ripper orders the B-52s under his command to attack the Soviet Union, he does this because he believes that "the evil commie plot of water fluoridation" caused his impotence.
Once the authorities learn what he has done they assemble in the War Room to discuss how to prevent the planes dropping their nuclear payload on Russia. This includes both attacking Gen Ripper's airbase in an attempt to force him to give the recall codes and inviting the Soviet ambassador to the War Room to warn the Soviets and assist them in shooting down the planes.
When the Russians are called we learn that they have just built the ultimate deterrent; a doomsday machine that will automatically detonate if Russia is attacked, unfortunately they have neglected to tell the world as they wanted to make a surprise announcement at a party conference in a few days.
The other location in the film is one of the B-52s flying into Russia, it is captained by Major T.J. "King" Kong, played by Slim Pickens in wonderfully over the top form.
The plot doesn't sound likely material for comedy but it works wonderfully as almost all the characters appear to be slightly insane yet somehow it is possible to imagine that people like that could rise to positions of power as their insanity only shows after the attack has been launched. This is particularly true of General "Buck" Turgidson played by George C. Scott who is more worried about the "Commies" seeing the war room than at the prospect of global Armageddon.
While the film is almost constantly amusing the ending will send a chill down the spine of most people as we see the nuclear detonations while Vera Lynn sings "We'll Meet Again". These detonations aren't special effects but real footage of explosions which as the film is in black and white look almost as if they were done for the film.