History Trivia / DrStrangelove

** A slight variant with Creator/GeorgeCScott. Kubrick wanted his character to be completely ridiculous, but Scott wasn't comfortable playing the role that way and wanted the character to be a tragic character instead...in a ''comedy''. Kubrick got what he knew the film needed by telling Scott to [[LargeHam ham it up]] for "practice takes" before the "real" takes, and used all the "practice" takes in the final film. Scott was not happy, and vowed never to work with Creator/StanleyKubrick again. He did, however, [[ActuallyPrettyFunny consider it cleverly done]].

* ActingForTwo: Creator/PeterSellers as Captain Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove, and it was meant to be 4 but a strong aversion to playing the fourth role and a supposedly/conveniently sprained ankle prevented him from getting into and out of the B-52 set, so Slim Pickens was added to the cast to play "King" Kong.

** Much of Creator/PeterSellers' dialogue was improvised (Kubrick had three cameras on Sellers at all times to take full advantage of this), including the hotline telephone conversation; similarly, Strangelove's EvilHand's rampage at the end was largely improvisation (it was also Sellers' idea that it should be gloved). Keep in mind that Kubrick was the most insane [[ControlFreak perfectionist]] in the history of filmmaking. And Sellers got to ad-lib.

* ActingForTwo: Creator/PeterSellers as Captain Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove, and it was meant to be 4 but a sprained ankle prevented him from getting into and out of the B-52 set, so Slim Pickens was added to the cast to play "King" Kong.

** Slim Pickens was not told that the movie was a comedy during filming and played his part straight. And he's still hilarious, because Slim Pickens is ''just that funny.''
** A slight variant with Creator/GeorgeCScott: he was told to [[LargeHam ham it up]] for a "practice take" before the real takes, but used all the "practice" takes instead. Scott was not happy, and vowed never to work with Creator/StanleyKubrick again. He did, however, [[ActuallyPrettyFunny consider it cleverly done]].
* ActorInspiredElement: Dr. Strangelove's glove is from Creator/StanleyKubrick's personal collection. Creator/PeterSellers had seen Kubrick wearing them to handle hot lights on the set, and thought they looked sinister. He wore one on his right hand (the one not under his control) to add to Strangelove's eeriness.

* FakeNationality: Played straight with British-born Creator/PeterSellers as the American President Merkin Muffley, and with British-born [[ActingforTwo Peter Sellers]] as the eponymous German scientist. Averted, however, with British-born [[RuleofThree Peter Sellers]] as the British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.

* ReferencedBy:
** Dr. Scott from ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' is a CaptainErsatz of Dr. Strangelove. Due to the actor not wanting to return, the sequel ''Film/ShockTreatment'' had a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Strangelove expy called Bert Schnick.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'';
*** ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E11HomerTheVigilante Homer The Vigilante]]'': At an army store, Homer climbs onto a bomb and has an ImagineSpot where he's RidingTheBomb in order to kill hippies. The owner then points to a sign telling customers not to do that.
*** The CouchGag for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E11WildBartsCantBeBroken Wild Bart's Can't Be Broken]]" has the family riding the couch as it's dropped from a plane.
*** There's an episode called, ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E10Springfield $pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)]]''.
** The war room in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' is almost identical to the one in this movie.
** The war room in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens'' is also modelled on the Strangelove war room, and Stephen Colbert's President seems to be a hybrid of Colbert, Pres. Muffley and Strangelove himself; there are also one or two gags regarding an easily-triggered Doomsday Machine protocol whose giant button happens to look just like that of the coffeemaker just on the right of it; and General Powers does a Major Kong shout-out while riding his own plane.
** The music video for Music/{{Rush}}'s [[Music/GraceUnderPressure "Distant Early Warning"]] has the band playing in a set designed after the war room and a boy riding a missile similar to Major Kong riding the bomb.
** The titles for Music/TalkingHeads' ConcertFilm ''Film/StopMakingSense'' have titles done by Pablo Ferro, who designed the titles for this film, in the same handwritten manner.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Movies: #26
** AFIS100Years100Laughs: #3
** AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes:
*** #64, "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"
** AFIS100Years100Movies10THAnniversaryEdition: #39

* AFIS100YearsSeries:

* SelfPlagiarism: It is well-known that Peter Sellers improvised much of his dialogue through the film, under Kubrick's supervision. During his one-sided, strangely mindless telephone conversation with Premier Kissoff, he seemed to have dipped into his memory of dialogue originally scripted by SpikeMilligan for an episode of ''TheGoonShow'' in which they both appeared at the start of their careers: [[http://thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s06e03_the_lost_emperor "The Lost Emperor"]], in their respective roles as the gormless idiot Eccles (Milligan) and neurotic boy scout Bluebottle (Sellers). Sellers' conversation with Kissoff begins:

** The war room in ''MonstersVsAliens'' is also modelled on the Strangelove war room, and Stephen Colbert's President seems to be a hybrid of Colbert, Pres. Muffley and Strangelove himself; there are also one or two gags regarding an easily-triggered Doomsday Machine protocol whose giant button happens to look just like that of the coffeemaker just on the right of it.

* FakeNationality: British-born Creator/PeterSellers plays the American President and the eponymous German scientist, as well as the British Group Captain.

* LoopingLines: There is a noticable scene where Major Kong is saying "Dallas" but you hear "Vegas", in order to prevent a FunnyAneurysmMoment based on the recent assassination of JFK in Dallas.

** A slight variant with Creator/GeorgeCScott: he was told to [[LargeHam ham it up]] for a "practice take" before the real takes. Guess which takes wound up in the actual movie? Scott was not happy, and vowed never to work with Creator/StanleyKubrick again. He did, however, [[ActuallyPrettyFunny consider it cleverly done]].

** The original ending was to have everyone in the war room end up in a pie fight (don't ask). The President would be knocked down from the impact of the pie [[PieInTheFace hitting him]], with Gen. Turgidson saying "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" Despite it being filmed before the assassination... wow. Just wow. (That wasn't why the scene was deleted, though -- they just [[{{Corpsing}} couldn't film it with the necessary "gravity."]])
* DuelingMovies: ''Film/FailSafe'', a dead serious take on this FailsafeFailure premise, was also released in 1964 (and by [[Creator/ColumbiaPictures the same studio]] to boot). The straight film is good (though it performed poorly at the box-office), but Kubrick's film has become iconic.

** On the other hand, Creator/GeorgeCScott wanted to play General Turgidson as a dignified WellIntentionedExtremist, so Kubrick tricked him by telling him to do a few over the top takes as "practice" and that [[BlatantLies they would never be put into the real movie]]. ''[[LeftItIn Kubrick used all of them.]]'' Scott eventually admitted it was better that way and that [[ActuallyPrettyFunny he couldn't help but admire Kubrick's audacity]], but nonetheless he vowed never to work with the director again.

-->''After Dr. Strangelove, the roles, the dressing rooms, and the checks all started gettin' bigger.''
* StillbornFranchise: In 1995, Creator/StanleyKubrick enlisted Terry Southern to script a sequel titled ''Son of Strangelove''. Kubrick had Creator/TerryGilliam in mind to direct. The script was never completed, but index cards laying out the story's basic structure were found among Southern's papers after his October 1995 death; it was set largely in underground bunkers, where Dr. Strangelove had taken refuge with a group of women.
** In 2013 Gilliam commented, "I was told after Kubrick died-by someone who had been dealing with him-that he had been interested in trying to do another Strangelove with me directing. I never knew about that until after he died but I would have loved to."

** Merkin Muffley originally had a bad cold and a slightly effeminate manner. Peter Sellers played this up so hilariously that the cast kept cracking up during filming. Stanley Kubrick decided to make him a foil for everyone else's craziness instead, and re-shot the scenes with Sellers now playing the role straight, serving as an oasis of reason amidst all the madness.

** On the other hand, Creator/GeorgeCScott wanted to play General Turgidson as a dignified WellIntentionedExtremist, so Kubrick tricked him by telling him to do a few over the top takes as "practice" and that [[BlatantLies they would never be put into the real movie]]. ''[[LeftItIn Kubrick used all of them.]]'' Scott eventually admitted it was better that way, but nonetheless he vowed never to work with Kubrick again.

* TooSoon: The release date was slightly delayed after JFK's assassination due to the story involving a fictional president:
** In the scene where Major Kong reads the description of a survival kit's contents out loud, he originally says "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in ''Dallas'' with all that stuff!" ''Dallas'' was redubbed to ''Vegas'' because of the connotations carried by ''Dallas'' in a post JFK-assassination America. It actually worked out well, as ''Vegas'' makes more sense in this context, especially today -- no-one would think of Dallas as a "party destination" any more, but Vegas is still the king of "What happens here stays here".
** The original ending was to have everyone in the war room end up in a pie fight (don't ask). The President would be knocked down from the impact of the pie [[PieInTheFace hitting him]], with Gen. Turgidson saying "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" Despite it being filmed before the assassination... wow. Just wow. (That wasn't why the scene was deleted, though -- they just [[{{Corpsing}} couldn't film it with the necessary "gravity."]])

** A slight variant with Creator/GeorgeCScott: he was told to [[LargeHam ham it up]] for a "practice take" before the real takes. Guess which takes wound up in the actual movie? Scott was not happy, and vowed never to work with Creator/StanleyKubrick again. He did, however, consider it cleverly done.

** A slight variant with Creator/GeorgeCScott: he was told to [[LargeHam ham it up]] for a "practice take" before the real takes. Guess which takes wound up in the actual movie. Scott was not happy, and vowed never to work with Creator/StanleyKubrick again. He did, however, consider it cleverly done.

** Creator/JohnWayne was considered for the part of Major Kong, but never replied.

* DuelingMovies: ''Film/FailSafe'', a dead serious take on this FailsafeFailure premise, was also released in 1964. The straight film is good (though it performed poorly at the box-office), but Kubrick's film has become iconic.

* StarMakingRole: For Sellers, who had the good fortune of preceding this with ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963'', which merely set the springboard for him.

** Slim Pickens was unaware that the film was a comedy. This is possibly because previous actors, including John Wayne, had turned the part down because they saw the film as "pinko." That said, Pickens didn't have any problem with the film, especially since he became so famous for it, though this may be because Kubrick only gave him his parts of the script.
** Also, Creator/GeorgeCScott was unwilling to go over the top in his portrayal of General Turgidson, so Kubrick tricked him by telling him to do a few over the top takes as "practice" and that they would never be put into the real movie. Kubrick lied, creating one of the best {{Large Ham}}s ever but also causing Scott to swear he'd never work with Kubrick again. Scott did end up admiring Kubrick's genius behind all that deception.

** Creator/PeterSellers originally was also asked to play Maj. T.J. "King" Kong, and practiced intensely with the American screenwriter to get the UsefulNotes/{{American Accent|s}} right. After the first day of shooting, he sprained his ankle, and could no longer work in the cramped airplane set. So they recast the role with Slim Pickens.
*** According to some accounts, Sellers was also invited to play the part of General Buck Turgidson, but turned it down because it was too physically demanding.
** Creator/JohnWayne was considered for the part of Major Kong as well.