Dr. Strangelove released 50 years ago today

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Released: January 29, 1964 Studio: Columbia Genre: black comedy Box Office (numbers in millions) Domestic: 9.44 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 88.00 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Stanley Kubrick Screenwriting: Peter George, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens Review: “Perhaps Kubrick’s most perfectly realized film,” T95 Dr. Strangelove is a “classic, cynical Cold War, satirical black comedy.” FS The “sparkling script” T95 by Terry Southern was based on Red Alert, a novel by Peter George. “Blasted and praised when it was released,” TV the movie “remains unchallenged as cinema’s most devastating attack on the military mind.” TV It is “far more effective in its portrait of insanity and call for disarmament than any number of worthy anti-nuke documentaries.” T95 The “scathing humor” FS “is hyperbolic but dead-on accurate about the various species of crazed extremists who handled the Bomb.” ML The movie “contains some of the funniest scenes ever filmed,” VD including “the memorable bucking bronco image of Major Kong (Pickens) riding the fatal bomb,” FS “Sellers’ phone conversation with Soviet premier is classic,” LM and lines like, “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.” A07 There are “timeless performances” FS helmed by a “brilliant cast…headed by an inspired Peter Sellers playing three roles – the eggheaded U.S. president, a stiff-upper-lip RAF captain and the wheelchair-bound,” TV “twisted, black-gloved German rocket scientist, Dr. Strangelove.” FS Sterling Hayden is “a crazed, psychotic US general Jack D. Ripper [who]…sparks a nuclear crisis with a pre-emptive strike against ‘the Commies’” FS and George C. Scott is “gung ho military brass Gen. Buck Turgidson.” FS The movie “nearly ended in a pie fight between the Americans and the Russians. That's why there’s a massive food table in The War Room. But…Kubrick felt it ‘too farcical,’ detracting from the satire. The pie scene found its way to a screening at London’s National Film Theatre in 1999. MSN Sources: A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century” ML Movieline (Dec. 1995). “100 Best Movies Ever Made” by Virginia Campbell and Edward Margulies MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud T95 Time Out (1995). “Centenary Top One Hundred Films” TV TV Guide (August 8-14, 1998 issue). “50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 0 Nominations: 4 – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Sellers), Best Adapted Screenplay Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Roger Ebert Leslie Halliwell/John Walker Leonard Maltin First posted 8/15/2019; last updated 6/5/2023.