Dr. Strangelove
1964 U.K. Black /White 93 Minutes
This week 24 years ago Peter Bull (Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky) died (aged 72)
May 20, 1984
This week 22 years ago Sterling Hayden (Jack D. Ripper) died (aged 70)
May 23, 1986
Release date: January 29, 1964
Oscar nominations:
Best Actor -> Peter Sellers
Best Director -> Stanley Kubrick
Best Picture ->Stanley Kubrick
Best Writing -> Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern
Peter Sellers was also going to play Major Kong, but the actor broke his leg and was replaced by Slim Pickens.
The movie is based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George (1925-1966). Source / More (Book)
Stanley Kubrick originally wanted to make a tense thriller about the possibility of accidental nuclear war. While writing the script he realized that many scenes he had written were quite funny, so he turned the film into a comedy.
Arthur H. Fellig (1899-1968), alias Weegee was the stills photographer on the film. His voice was high pitched yet muffled and his accent an amalgam of New Yorkerese and German. This was the inspiration for the voice Peter Sellers created for Dr Strangelove. Source / More (Book)
This week 28 years ago The shining premiered (May 23, 1980)
March 7, 1999
Stanley was born in New York City (USA). As a child he was encouraged by his father to take up still photography as a hobby. He entered the field by selling amateur photos to New York's Look magazine. Together with a friend, Kubrick planned a move into film, and so he sank his savings into making the documentary Day of the Fight (1951).
Kubrick's first real film of note was Killer's Kiss (1955) followed by the dark picture The Killing (1956). His breakthrough came with the antiwar movie Paths of Glory (1957) and so Stanley was asked to replace Anthony Mann as the director of the high-budget multistar epic Spartacus (1960). But Kubrick was at odds with both the cast (especially Kirk Douglas) and the crew. The experience was so unpleasant that he forsook Hollywood altogether and moved to London (UK), where he was based ever since.
He made a series of classic films: the sexualized and uproariously comic Lolita (1962), the black comedy Dr. Strangelove (1964), the science-fiction classic 2001: A space odyssey (1968), and the violent A clockwork orange (1971). After Barry Lyndon (1975), Kubrick's filmmaking pace slowed extremely. He made only three more films in the next twenty-five years. Kubrick died shortly after completing his final film, Eyes Wide Shut