Jan. 29, 1964 - Opening today is “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” a political satire and black comedy directed, co-written and produced by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellers in three roles, including the title character. The film also stars George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens. The film, which satirizes Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and the U.S., is loosely based on the thriller novel “Red Alert” (1958) by Peter George, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Kubrick and Terry Southern. The story concerns an unhinged United States Air Force general who orders a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. It separately follows the President of the United States, his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Royal Air Force exchange officer as they attempt to prevent the crew of a B-52 (following orders from the general) from bombing the Soviet Union and starting a nuclear war.
A first test screening of the film was scheduled for November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination of President Kennedy. The film was just weeks from its scheduled premiere, but because of the assassination, the release was delayed until late January 1964, as it was felt that the public was in no mood for such a film any sooner. During post-production, one line spoken by Slim Pickens — “A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff” — was dubbed to change “Dallas” to “Vegas,” since Dallas was where President Kennedy was killed.
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