Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [1964]

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1964
Running Times: 93 mins
Format: black and white 35mm
Ratio: 1.66:1 1.85:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Columbia Pictures Corporation presents a Stanley Kubrick production (opening credits)  Made at Shepperton Studios, England by Hawk Films Ltd. (closing credits)
Copyright: © MCMLXIII Hawk Films Ltd
Executive Producer: Leon Minoff [uncredited]
Produced by: Stanley Kubrick
Associate Producer: Victor Lyndon
Production Manager: Clifton Brandon
Unit Manager: Leon Mintoff [uncredited]

SCRIPT
Screenplay by: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern & Peter George
Base (sic) on the Book Red Alert by Peter George

DIRECTION
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Assistant Director: Eric Rattray

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Gilbert Taylor
Camera Operator: Kelvin Pike
Camera Assistant: Bernard Ford
Stills: Bob Penn [uncredited]

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Anthony Harvey
Assistant Editor: Ray Lovejoy
Assembly Editor: Geoffrey Fry

MUSIC
Music: Laurie Johnson

SOUND
Recordist: Richard Bird
Sound Supervisor: John Cox
Dubbing Mixer: John Aldred
Sound Editor: Leslie Hodgson
Westrex Recording System

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Wardrobe: Bridget Sellers
Make-up: Stewart Freeborn
Hairdresser: Barbara Ritchie

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Wally Veevers; Alan Bryce [uncredited]
Special Effects Advisors: Arthur 'Weegee' Fellig [uncredited], Brian Gamby [uncredited], Garth Inns [uncredited], Mike Shaw [uncredited]

VISUAL EFFECTS
Travelling Matte: Vic Margutti
Main Titles: Pablo Ferro

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Ken Adam
Art Director: Peter Murton

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Pamela Carlton
Aviation Advisor: Captain John Crewdson

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The producers gratefully acknowledge the assistance of: Solartron Electronics; Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Telephone Manufacturing; British Oxygen

LOCATIONS
Made at Shepperton Studios, England by Hawk Films Ltd.

CAST
Starring
Peter Sellers [Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr Strangelove]
George C. Scott [General 'Buck' Turgidson]

Co-Starring
Sterling Hayden [General Jack D. Ripper]
Keenan Wynn [Colonel 'Bat' Guano]
Slim Pickens [Major T.J. 'King' Kong]

With
Peter Bull [Ambassador de Sadesky]
Tracy Reed [Miss Scott]
James Earl Jones [Lt Lothar Zogg, bombadier]
Jack Creley [Staines]

And
Frank Berry [Lt H.R. Dietrich, D.S.O.]
Glen Beck [Lt W.D. Kivel, navigator]
Shane Rimmer [Captain G.A. 'Ace' Owens, co-pilot]
Paul Tamarin [Lt B. Goldberg, radio operator]
Gordon Tanner [General Faceman]
Robert O'Neil
Roy Stephens [Frank]
Hal Galili [Burpelson base defender]
Laurence Herder [Burpelson base defender]
John McCarthy [Burpelson base defender]

Deranged USAF General Jack Ripper dispatches a flight of bombers to the Soviet Union armed with nuclear weapons, convinced that communists are sapping the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans. The Soviets threaten to detonate a Doomsday Device if they are attacked and the President of the United States and his team of advisors have to find a way to recall the bombers before it's too late.

The spectre of nuclear obliteration may seem an odd choice of subject for a comedy and perhaps only a cinematic visionary of Kubrick's standing could have pulled it off. Perhaps his decision to switch the emphasis of his film from the straight drama that it had originally been planned as, to the broad black comedy we now know it for had some effect on its quality. Either way it's an alternatively chilling and hilarious masterpiece that's retains its power to provoke shudders and laughs even now. Performances are uniformly excellent, the set design is remarkable and the set pieces memorable. A genuinely great piece of cinema.

Germany
DVD Distributor: Columbia/Tristar [10035; includes - stills; poster art work]

UK
DVD Distributor: Columbia/Tristar [CDR 90035; includes - poster gallery; photo gallery]

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar
Laserdisc Distributors: Columbia/Tristar [79316]; Criterion [CC 1280L; includes - Transferring Dr Strangelove to Video documentary; film and photo archive about nuclear weapons and civil defense; theatrical trailer; cast and crew filmographies; early pressings included an early draft of the screenplay but Kubrick objected and it was removed]; RCA/Columbia [VLD 3134]
DVD Distributors: Warner Home Video [29831]; Columbia/Tristar [01729]; Columbia/Tristar [01725]; Columbia/Tristar [04093]; Columbia/Tristar [06187 - Special Edition; includes - The Art of Stanley Kubrick: From Short Films to Strangelove documentary; Inside the Making of Dr Strangelove documentary; split-screen interview with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott; advertising gallery]

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Argentina
Rating: Atp

Australia
Rating: PG

Finland
Rating: K-16

France
Rating: U [re-release]

Iceland
Rating: unrated

Netherlands
Rating: AL

Norway
Rating: 11

Sweden
Rating: 11

UK
Rating: PG

USA
Rating: PG [MPAA: 20469]

West Germany
Rating: 16

1964
Bodil Awards
Bedste amerikanske film [Stanley Kubrick] - winner [note: the film was awarded "Best American Film", though it's actually British!]

New York Film Critics Circle Awards, USA
Best Director [Stanley Kubrick] - winner

1965
Academy Awards, USA
Best Actor in a Leading Role [Peter Sellers] - nominated
Best Director [Stanley Kubrick] - nominated
Best Picture [Stanley Kubrick] - nominated
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium [Peter George, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern] - nominated

British Academy Awards
Best British Art Direction [black and white] [Ken Adam] - winner
Best British Film - winner
Best Film from any Source - winner
UN Award - winner
Best British Actor [Peter Sellers] - nominated
Best British Screenplay [Peter George, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern] - nominated
Best Foreign Actor [Sterling Hayden] - nominated

Hugo Awards
Best Dramatic Presentation - winner

Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists
Silver Ribbon - Regista del Miglior Film Straniero [Stanley Kubrick] - winner

Writers Guild of America, USA
Best Written American Comedy [Peter George, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern] - winner

1989
National Film Preservation Board, USA
Added to the National Film Registry

1963
January
Day Unknown: UK - filming begins

July
Day Unknown: UK - filming ends

1964
January
29: USA - theatrical release

April
10: West Germany - theatrical release
13: Sweden - theatrical release

May
22: Finland - theatrical release

1974
June
28: UK - television broadcast [on ITV]

1980
July
24: UK - television broadcast [on ITV]

1986
December
27: UK - television broadcast [on BBC1]

1989
January
21: UK - television broadcast [on BBC2]

1990
July
21: UK - television broadcast [on BBC2]

1992
March
22: UK - television broadcast [on Channel 4]

June
24: USA - laserdisc distributor [Criterion [CC 1280L]]

1994
April
27: USA - laserdisc release [Columbia/Tristar [79316]]

1995
February
18: UK - television broadcast [on BBC2]

1997
January
2: UK - television broadcast [on Channel 4]

September
3: USA - DVD release [Columbia/Tristar [01729]; Columbia/Tristar [01725]]

1998
December
4: UK - television broadcast [on BBC1]

1999
March
27: UK - television broadcast [on BBC2]

June
29: USA - DVD release [Warner Home Video [29831]; Columbia/Tristar [04093]]

August
2: Germany - DVD release [Columbia/Tristar [10035]]

September
6: UK - DVD release [Columbia/Tristar CDR 90035]

2000
November
24: Norway - theatrical re-release

2001
January
28: Czech Republic - theatrical release

February
27: USA - DVD release [Columbia/Tristar [06187 - Special Edition]]

December
19: France - theatrical re-release

2007
February
6: UK - television broadcast [on TCM]

The hot-line suspense comedy

Dr Strangelove
Dr Seltsam oder Wie ich lernte, die Bombe zu lieben - German title

SEE ALSO
Fail-Safe [1964]

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
100 Years at the Movies [1994]
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies [2000]
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies [1998]
The Lady with the Torch [1999]
Revisiting Fail-Safe [2000]
The Spirit of America [2001]
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures [2001]
When Billy Broke His Head... and Other Tales of Wonder [1995]

MAGAZINES

Entertainment Weekly no.585 [2 March 2001] p.49 [USA]
review [New To DVD: Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (B-) by Anna Holmes]

Film und Fernsehen no.8 [1988] pp.41-45 [Germany]
illustrated article

Films and Filming February 1964 p.26
review [by Bryan Forbes]

Films in Review February 1964 pp.113-114
review [by Henry Hart]

Journal of Popular Film vol.5 no.1 [1976] pp.57-67 [USA]
article [Dr Strangelove, Red Alert, and Patterns of Paranoia in the 1950s by Gary K. Wolfe]

The Listener vol.121 no.3097 [19 January 1989] p.59 [UK]
review

The Listener vol.124 no.3174 [19 July 1990] p.32 [UK]
review

Monthly Film Bulletin February 1964 pp.19-20
credits, review [by P.H.]

Sight and Sound vol.3 no.12 [December 1993] pp.16-21 [UK]
illustrated article [by J. Hoberman]

Wide Angle vol.6 no.1 [1983] pp.34-41 [USA]
article

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.112
credits, review

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

book into film, nuclear war, end of the world, aircraft, military, paranoia, satire, insanity, bombers, nuclear weapons, communism, cowboys, nazis, suicide, wheelchairs, disabilities

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007