Posted on 10/09/2004 6:51:06 PM PDT by neverdem
"Dr. Strangelove" is one of my two favorite funny movies of all time.*
The leads--Sellers as Mandrake, Muffley, and Strangelove; Hayden as Ripper; and Scott as Turgidson--are all perfect, just perfect. The script is brilliant--so many quotable lines!
This is one of those few movies I can watch many times and still laugh out loud each time.
About a decade ago, I went into one of my favorite watering holes on Pennsylvania, late at night. The owner, a friend of mine, brought me to the back and introduced me to the cast of the Folger, who'd just gotten off from a Shakespeare play.
Somehow, the conversation turned to Dr. Strangelove, and we turned to doing scenes from that movie from memory. For almost two hours we drank beer and did scenes from that movie, until the owner of the bar took a switch to us and pushed us out the door. That evening was magic of the highest order.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "America Fails the 'Global Test' "
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Billybob
Those are two good choices, but the pace of those moves is so slow, they are underrated by modern audiences.
Billybob
CREDIBILITY ALERT: The author, Fred Kaplan, was one of the so-called elite media representatives who met with JF'nK in Al Frankenstein's apartment to conduct a strategy session last March. To see the depths to which Kaplan's scurrilous "reporting" can descend, see his archives on Slate (but wear a supersized barf bag if you do). Just consider the source, and the timing of this article (dovetails nicely with BreckBoy's TCM appearance, no?). And to think that I used to value his opinions back when he wrote for The Absolute Sound! Independent press? HA!! These guys have their script totally coordinated....
Mark
There are so many great lines in that flick. I was so glad to get the DVD version.
Thanks for the pic and the "mineshaft gap" quote.
Dr. Strangeglove was blessed by the performance of five superb character actors -- Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, George C. Scott and Peter Sellers. Each was so skilled that they could go "over the top"...and succeed.
No comments about Merkin Muffley?
Strangelove Trivia:
Sellers was cast in four major roles, all of which underwent considerable changes before filming ended. He was originally going to play U.S. President Merkin Muffley, B-52 pilot Major "King" Kong, Colonel Lionel Mandrake, and the mysterious Dr. Strangelove.
When Sellers objected to taking on one of his four scheduled roles, that of Major "King" Kong, he came under much pressure from Kubrick to follow through with the role. But Sellers could not master the Texas dialect that the role called for, and he was intimidated by the Texas drawl that co-star Sterling Hayden and screenwriter Terry Southern spoke only naturally. But there is evidence that the dialect problem was only part of the reason why Sellers decided to forego the Major Kong role. Sellers' long-time driver and valet Bert Mortimer claimed that Sellers was terrified at the thought of shooting the climactic drop out of the B-52's bomb bay doors. The shooting of this scene necessitated placing the actor three meters off the studio floor, a considerable distance for someone who feared heights.
Kong was eventually recast with an entirely different performer. Starting the search, Kubrick reasoned that a mere actor would not do in the case of Major Kong. As reported in a biography by author John Baxter, Kubrick said, "We can't replace him with another actor...we've got to get an authentic character from life, someone whose acting is secondary--a real-life cowboy." Enter Slim Pickens, who Kubrick remembered from an open casting call for an earlier project. Pickens was a Texas cowhand who competed on the rodeo circuit and eventually drifted into movie stunt work, like many rodeo stars had before. Kubrick took full advantage of Pickens' unique personality, instructing him to play Kong "as straight as you can."
Thanks for the link, but I already read it. Keep up the good work. I'm waiting for the next one.
Trivia alert: One of the movie's original final scenes was supposed to be a huge pie fight in the War Room, with President Muffley getting hit in the face and one of the characters exclaiming "The President has been cut down in his prime!" The scene was cut because it was considered insensitive, JFK having been assassinated only months earlier.
"Dr. Strangelove" was ahead of its time in the way it dealt with its subject matter. It was the perfect counterwieght to "Fail Safe," the year's "Serious" nuclear war movie (Also an excellent film.) Sellers was, of course, brilliant in all three roles, but I escpeically liked him as Mandrake, the lone voice of reason in the film.
Also, when Strangelove's arm tries to strangle him, you can see the guy who plays the Soviet ambassador breaking up in the background.
Have you seen a picture of a lunatic (say a terrorist or a war criminal) and noticed -- I don't know how else to describe it -- their eyes kind of look dead? Kind of glassy? Hayden somehow captured the expression in a way that I found rather frightening. I didn't know the story that he was half-drunk at the time. I guess that explains the glassy-eyed look, LOL!
Kubrick actually wanted to do 'Dr. Strangelove' as a straight drama, dr_who_2.
Within a week, Kubrick saw the futility of the drama, opposite the much inferior 'Fail Safe' and went the comedy route.
Thank God that he did!
Jack.
Kubrick spent 2 weeks filmimg the pie fight scene, too bad it was never seen. :-(
Merkin Muffley was a splendid lampoon of uber liberal of the time, Adlai Stevenson, razorback-bert.
His call to Dimitri is a classic that still brings belly laughs: "He went a.... little funny in the head."
Jack.
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