mandrake was the weakest of the 3 sellers personae

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2003)

my only criticism of this otherwise perfect masterpiece from kubrick is that i felt that the mandrake character played by sellers could have been a bit better. what i mean is that i felt his scenes with the insane general jack ripper were really designed as a "staging" ground for the audience to hear from and learn about the general's psychosis with bodily fluids.
however, the scenes could have been a lot better if **in addition** to learning about the general's theories we also were to see mandrake trying to wrest the key from the general, or trying to get to a phone,
trying to kill the general, trying to jump out the window. in this manner mandrake would have been an interesting contrast to president muffley's calm handling of the crisis or scotts eagerness to go to war.
instead, most of the time is spent just listening to the general and waiting for the soldiers to come. witness for example how wonderful the mandrake character becomes when he tries to interact with the "bat guano" lieutenant trying to convince him to get some change for a phone call to the president. more of that kind of silly "nervous tension" would have pushed mandrake's character over the top i think, and put it in league with the other dr. strangelove and president muffley personae played by sellers.