Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
- 1964 film
Dark comic satire about the Cold War and mutually-assured nuclear destruction between the USA and USSR. Stars Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens and more.
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb trivia
The second unit tasked with filming aerial footage to act as background around the B52 were intercepted by the real US military when they unwittingly flew over a real US military base somewhere near Greenland. The team eventually clocked up 28,000 miles in the air.
Despite playing three lead characters, little of Peter Sellers's contributions were scripted. Instead, he developed each with director Stanley Kubrick in a semi-improvisational manner whilst on set.
Peter Sellers was originally cast to play a fourth role, that of Maj. T.J. 'King' Kong. Kubrick and Sellers argued ferociously in the B52 cockpit set, which was suspended around 15 feet from the studio floor, resulting in Sellers falling out and breaking a leg. No longer able to access the set, the role had to be quickly recast. Sellers had in fact been reticent about taking on this fourth role in the first place, struggling to get the character's Texan accent right and worrying about the additional pressure of shooting four rather than three parts.
'King' Kong actor Slim Pickens had never left the US prior to being cast, and had to hurriedly be issued with a passport in order to make it to England for filming. He played the character no different to his real-life personality, demeanour, accent and mannerisms, according to co-stars.
The first preview screening of the film in the US was scheduled to take place on 22nd November 1963. It was cancelled when the country's president, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated earlier on the same day. The event also caused a line of 'King' Kong's to be dubbed to refer to Las Vegas instead of Dallas, where the assassination took place.
Kubrick bought the rights to adapt Welsh author Peter George's novel Two Hours To Doom - published in the US as Red Alert - for just $3,500. Developing a screenplay with his producing partner James B. Harris, it was - like the novel - initially intended to be a straight drama of Cold War intrigue, but Kubrick eventually decided that the themes were so important that the only way to sufficiently convey its warnings would be through comedy.