Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books including “The Tunnels” “Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady” and “The Campaign of the Century” and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free:
Before we get to the good “Dr.”—just a tip of the hat for second season of “Mo” returning to Netflix on Thursday night. Terrific spinoff of “Ramy” is back, trailer here:
Also on Thursday: most of the leading streaming services will be showing live the massive L.A. fundraiser for fire victims, from two venues. One starting at 6 pm Pacific time skews a little older (Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Steve Stills, Dave Matthews etc.) while one starting a little later goes quite a bit younger (Billie Eilish et al but also Stevie Wonder).
Next, a couple of cartoons:
But let’s get to our main story:
Today we celebrate the 61st birthday of “Dr. Strangelove,” which debuted on January 29, 1964. The first preview screening had been set for Nov. 22, 1963, but....well, you know. The premiere was then pushed back a bit. Fortunately, Kubrick's president, the balding Merkin Muffley (one of three roles for Peter Sellers), was more Ike than JFK. If you don’t know: a theatrical version (thanks to Armando Iannucci) recently played in London with Steve Coogan handling the Sellers roles.
And now we have Elon Musk with the Nazi salute, causing a “fuhrer.”
As a callow youth, I saw “Strangelove” in the theater and it instantly became my all-time favorite movie, and retained that position for many years. I would also say that it probably had the most influence on my career, since I went on to serve as editor of Nuclear Times, spent a month in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wrote about The Bomb for dozens of leading publications and then in three books and now two films. So that’s…a lot.
So here are a few “Strangelove”-related highlights, including a couple of parodies.
Here's the original trailer which was killed and not seen for decades.
A Lego version of one scene:
Homer Simpson rides The Bomb, a la Slim Pickens. Sellers was originally supposed to play that role as well.
The “Mein Fuhrer, I can walk” climax:
Bobby Kennedy Jr, call your office: Parody trailer for a fun Oliver Stone re-make titled “Fluoridation.”
Peter Sellers covers The Beatles “She Loves You” in his Dr. S voice. Genius at work. “Yah, yah, she loves you.”
Kubrick on making the film, the script, Terry Southern, directing…. ”I was very pleased with the film.”
Gen. Turgidson calls for all-out attack to catch Russkies “with their pants down.” Don’t show this to Pete Hegseth.
Gen. Ripper informs Mandrake about those “precious bodily fluids.”
On the famously deleted final scene, the pie fight in the War Room. Probably a good thing that it was cut. Now we have Trump throwing ketchup on the wall.
And a 45-minute “the making of” featurette.
Finally, yes, Johnny Cash covered the movie’s final number, the Vera Lynn classic, “We’ll Meet Again.”
Wow. Thanks. My favorite movie, too. You’re going to answer to the Coca Cola company for this!
How come he hasn’t been appointed to a White House job yet?