4 Star comedy & logic. If a ''nuclear deterrent'' destroys all life on Earth, what is deterred?

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2009)

The screenplay was written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George was based on the novel by Peter George named "Red Alert." You'll notice in the opening credits there is a typo where they accidentally left off the "d" so it reads ""Base on the book Red Alert by Peter George." An early version of the script started with extra terrestrials observing earth in the wake of a nuclear holocaust, at that time the film was to be called THE DELICATE BALANCE OF TERROR. In 1964, with the Cuban Missile Crisis fresh in viewers' minds happening just 15 months earlier, the Cold War was at its frostiest, and the hydrogen bomb relatively new and frightening, Stanley Kubrick dared to make a film about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button – the result  DR. STRANGELOVE - is widely regarded as the screen's greatest satire, a film that superbly encapsulates the fear and paranoia of the Cold War. There is not a sequence in the film in which the dialogue is not quotable. But what really captured audiences was its depiction, however comic it may have been, of what many considered an entirely plausible scenario it could happen! As an inside joke Kubrick started his own production company and named it Hawk Films! Peter Sellers, our star or should I say three of our stars tonight. After serving in the Royal Air-Force in WWII he was only able to get a job in radio when after several failed auditions, when he struck upon the idea of calling a BBC producer, posing as one of the network's top actors. So Sellers gave Sellers an enthusiastic recommendation, and he got the job on the Goon Show! In 1964, his best year, he appeared in this film, THE WORLD OF HARRY ORIENT, THE PINK PANTHER & A SHOT IN THE DARK (a sequel to the Pink Panther.) Sellers was paid 1 million dollars to make DR. STRANGELOVE which was more than half of the films budget, he plays Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove. Sellers actually improvised much of his dialogue as he developed each character. Major King Kong was intended to be Sellers' fourth role, but he was uncertain about the cowboy accent. Slim Pickens, a character actor from westerns, was brought in by Kubrick, who reportedly didn't tell him the film was a comedy. Pickens' patriotic speeches to his crew (and his promises of promotion and medals) are counterpoint to the desperate American efforts to recall the flight. Pickens was never shown the script nor told it was a black comedy; ordered by Kubrick to play it straight, he played the role as if it were a serious drama - with amusing results. "Nuclear combat! Toe to toe with the Russkies!" ''Dr. Strangelove's'' humor is generated by a basic comic principle: People trying to be funny are never as funny as people trying to be serious and failing. The premiere of Strangelove was moved from November of 1963 after JFK was assassinated and one line of the film had to be re-dubbed when Slim Pickens says, "Heck a fella could have a good time in Dallas – you hear his voice say Vegas – but his lips still say Dallas. George C. Scott was reputedly annoyed by the fact that Stanley Kubrick was pushing him into an overacting performance, even though his work on the film is now regarded as some of his best work on-screen. Although he vowed never to work with Kubrick again, Scott himself came to regard this as one of his favorite performances. Paying special attention to the tics and twitches, the grimaces and eyebrow arching, the sardonic smiles and gum-chewing it's an amazing performance. Scott was an ex-marine, ex-fighter, big drinker, troublemaker so Kubrick invited him to play chess while the crew was setting up Scott got beat every time and learned to respect Kubrick and his strategy. Sterling Hayden plays Gen. Jack D. Ripper. Kubrick asked for the War Room's giant round table to be covered with green felt, Kubrick wanted the actors to "feel like they were playing high stakes poker." The only female seen in the film Tracy Reed is the stepdaughter of director Carol Reed and cousin of actor Oliver Reed. She plays Scotts secretary and can also be seen as the centerfold in the Playboy magazine the crew is looking at on board the B-52. And if you look quick you'll see she's covered by a copy of a book titled, "Foreign Affairs." The original ending was supposed to be a huge pie fight but after they filmed it Kubrick admitted it did not work so another ending was made using actual pictures of above ground tests, no mushroom clouds were created by special effects. Just a note about the character names used in the film (Ambassador de Sadesky, Col. Bat Guano, Premier Kissoff, Lt. Lothar Zogg) almost all of them have a double meaning and sexual connotation. Even the opening and closing shots of this film have sexual over tones, but what the heck we are all adults here and we know if we ever allow WWIII to happen we are all (fill in the blank!) Kubrick made what is arguably the best political satire of the century, a film that pulled the rug out from under the Cold War by arguing that if a ''nuclear deterrent'' destroys all life on Earth, it is hard to say exactly what it has deterred.