#peter george

[creepynostalgy]

Slim Pickens on set of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964)

[gregorygalloway]

Fail Safe was released on 7 October 1964.

The film was based on the 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, and when Stanley Kubrick learned that it was being adapted for the screen, he became concerned that the movie would compete with his Dr. Strangelove (which was in production when development of Fail Safe began at the same studio). Kubrick became increasingly worried when Sidney Lumet was hired as director, Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau as stars.

Kubrick and Peter George (one of the screenwriters on Dr. Strangelove) filed a lawsuit claiming that Burdick and Wheeler had violated copywright on George's 1958 novel Red Alert (released as Two Hours to Doom in the UK), with the two novels sharing a basic plot. The lawsuit was settled, with Columbia pictures agreeing to release Dr. Strangelove first. Kubrick's film was released in January, to critical acclaim and disappointing box office sales.

While Dr. Strangelove was grim and darkly funny (some critics called it "bufoonery"), Fail Safe was earnest and serious (both novels were serious explorations of "accidental" nuclear war). It received critical acclaim, but like its predecessor, failed to find an audience at the box office.

Fail Safe was adapted for a live television performance in 2000, directed by Stephen Frears and starring George Clooney and Richard Dreyfuss.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, is a film so permanent you don’t even know how much influence it's had until you've seen it. This satirical take on the Cold War is both hilarious and terrifying thanks to an impeccable attention to detail, terrific performances, and more than one scene that will stick with you forever.

United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has done the unthinkable and single-handedly declared nuclear war against the USSR. With foolproof safety precautions preventing further orders from reaching the planes approaching enemy territory, his executive officer Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) desperately searches for a way to recall the attack. Meanwhile, the President of the United States (played by Sellers again) attempts to prevent the incoming catastrophe with the help of his advisors and the mysterious Dr. Strangelove (Sellers one more time).

The film begins with an assurance that what takes place here could never happen in real life. This statement is about as convincing and reassuring as a friendly dinner invitation from Hannibal Lecter. No detail is spared when showing us the codes, secret envelopes, radio signals, and equipment that form this air-tight mechanism designed to prevent wrong orders from reaching the planes. These planes - always in the air and always ready to strike - ensure that if the Soviet Union decides to strike "the free world" retaliation will be swift. But what happens when a jingoistic lunatic decides that counterattacking isn’t good enough? It could mean a long-lasting nuclear winter that’ll wipe out all humanity. If not, it could be the much-needed catalyst to usher us into an era of global peace. That’s, of course, if General Ripper can be prevented from damning us all.

So thorough is this exploration of mutually-assured nuclear destruction that only repeat viewings will allow you to appreciate the humorous side of this scenario. Like so many boneheaded attempts by the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. to one-up each other during the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove is funny in hindsight but in the moment it makes you sweat buckets. The suspense is intensified by how many people fail to realize how close they are to complete annihilation. That, in turn, is what makes it so funny. Seeing Captain Mandrake sit back and try to remain calm while he’s listening to General Ripper’s rambling logic, General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) trying and spin the scenario into something positive for the President, witnessing the clearly insane Dr. Strangelove (who isn’t actually in the film all that much) propose a solution in case war does break out makes you want to jump into a straightjacket… until you realize your side of the screen is perfectly safe.

There are so many memorable elements in this film. Dr. Strangelove and his Alien Hand Syndrome (a syndrome often called Dr. Strangelove Syndrome), Ripper yammering about “precious bodily fluids” or the U.S. President’s interactions with the Russian President, the introduction credits, the music, the design of the Pentagon’s War Room, the screenplay, the cinematography (gorgeous and chilling black-and-white) and the performances. Every aspect of filmmaking is firing on all cylinders. It’s a movie you want to come back to again and again to catch all of the little details. There’s no way you can get everything Dr. Strangelove has to offer on a single viewing because unless you know ahead of time, there’s no way you’d recognize Sellers in his three roles. And that ending! This is a must-see. (On Blu-ray, October 20, 2017)

[introvertedpedant]

A bit of Peter George for Thirsty Thursday. The thought of academic SD certainly makes me thirsty!

[conformi]

Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964 VS Adalberto Libera, Palazzo del Littorio, Rome, Italy, 1934 (competition project)

[astanleykubrick]

“I know how it is, baby. Tell you what you do: you just start your countdown...”

THREE!

[never before seen photos from the making of Dr. Strangelove courtesy of Martin Pope]

[genevieveetguy]

- I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler. - Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American People than with your image in the history books.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Stanley Kubrick (1964)

[es-tro]

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb