It’s tricky to pull off comedy movies, and even trickier to make a comedy that’s still just as hysterical today as it was back then.
Making a movie with a sense of humor this pitch-black that resonates with as many moviegoers as Dr. Strangelove did isn’t easy. So, here are 10 fascinating details from the making of Dr. Strangelove.
Kubrick Originally Planned The Movie As A Straight Drama
Originally, when Stanley Kubrick was planning a movie adaptation of Peter George’s Red Alert, he was going to make it as a straight drama.
However, as development went on and he realized how absurd and over-the-top the story situations were, he decided that the movie would work better as a dark comedy. Lo and behold, it’s now ed as possibly the greatest dark comedy ever to hit the big screen.
Peter Sellers’ Salary Took Up More Than Half Of The Budget
Peter Sellers was paid $1 million for his three performances in Dr. Strangelove — as President Merkin Muffley, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, and of course, Dr. Strangelove — and this amounted to 55% of the film’s overall budget.
Since Sellers played multiple characters, one might said that Kubrick got three actors for the price of one, but the director famously joked, “I got three for the price of six.”
George C. Scott’s Trip In The War Room Was A Genuine Accident
During one of the War Room scenes, General Turgidson trips and falls, then quickly jumps back up and carries on his dialogue like it didn’t happen. This wasn’t a scripted gag, or even an improvised one.
George C. Scott’s fall was a genuine accident, but he played it off so well that Stanley Kubrick assumed he was in character the whole time and decided to leave it in the movie.
John Wayne Ignored The Producers’ Offer To Play Major Kong
John Wayne was apparently sent an offer by the producers of Dr. Strangelove to play the role of Major Kong, but he never even replied to it.
The exact reason for this was never specified, but Wayne famously held extremely right-wing political views and Dr. Strangelove has a left-wing perspective, so that might’ve been why.
Dr. Strangelove Led To Real U.S. Policy Changes
When he was researching ahead of shooting Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick reportedly read 50 books about nuclear war to ensure that the movie would be as realistic as possible.
The farcical elements of the story were apparently so politically accurate that the movie led to real changes in U.S. policy to prevent the events of the film from ever happening.
The War Room’s Tablecloth Was Green, So It Would Feel Like A Poker Table
Since Dr. Strangelove was being shot in black-and-white and the colors of the set didn’t matter too much, Stanley Kubrick made the tablecloth in the War Room green.
This was so that the actors sitting around it would feel like they were sitting at a poker table, playing a game of poker that would decide the fate of the world.
The Second Unit Accidentally Caught A Secret U.S. Military Base On Camera
While the second unit camera crew for Dr. Strangelove was capturing aerial footage over Greenland, they accidentally captured footage of a secret U.S. military base.
The base grounded their plane and brought in the camera crew, suspecting them of being Soviet spies.
There Were A Ton Of Alternative Titles
After Stanley Kubrick decided that he didn’t want to use the source novel’s title, Red Alert, for his film adaptation, it took him and the producers a long time to land on Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Before figuring out the final title, a wide range of alternatives were considered: Wonderful Bomb, The Edge of Doom, The Delicate Balance of Terror, Dr. Doomsday or: How to Start World War III Without Even Trying, and Dr. Strangelove’s Secret Uses of Uranus.
Peter Sellers Ad-Libbed A Lot Of Dialogue
Stanley Kubrick was a very meticulous filmmaker, planning every single shot to the last detail and filming dozens of takes of each one — sometimes breaking records for doing so — so he rarely allowed his actors to deviate from their scripted dialogue.
However, he made exceptions for a couple of performers, like real-life drill sergeant R. Lee Ermey’s authentic portrayal of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. The director also wisely allowed comic legend Peter Sellers to get lost in his scenes and improvise a lot of his lines in Dr. Strangelove.
The Movie Originally Ended With A Pie Fight
There was also an early draft of the script for Dr. Strangelove in which aliens could be seen observing the film’s events from outer space. Also, the original ending saw the characters breaking out into a large-scale pie fight, but Kubrick found this to be a little too absurd and slapstick-y, so he decided to cut it.
Still, the scene was shot and the footage exists. It’s only ever been screened publicly once: at the National Film Theater in London, after Kubrick died.
