DR STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING..

   Full title: Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Film (1963). Hawk/Columbia. Prod and dir Stanley KUBRICK, starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens. Screenplay Kubrick, Terry Southern (1924-), Peter GEORGE, based on Two Hours to Doom (1958; vt Red Alert US) by Peter Bryant (pseudonym of Peter George). 94 mins. B/w.

   This, the first of Kubrick's three sf films, has worn well, with its curious blend of black comedy, documentary realism and almost poetic homage to the very machines (B-52s and their nuclear cargo) that he shows as destroying the world. The original novel was a serious story about an insane US general who launches a pre-emptive attack on Russia without presidential authority, but Kubrick opted for a grotesquely satirical and very funny treatment, helped by a strong cast including Peter Sellers, who plays three roles: one is Dr Strangelove, a sinister ex-Nazi, generally seen as burlesquing a distinguished real-life SCIENTIST. The appalling point of the film is the way the vision of Armageddon attracts the very protagonists whose job it is to prevent it: Strangelove is sexually aroused by the idea of cleansing HOLOCAUST, and it excites the lunatic general and even the bomber pilot (Pickens), who rides his own bomb down with Texan whoops of triumph. At the end of the movie Vera Lynn's voice rises plangently into "We'll Meet Again" as the screen is covered with mushroom clouds. The novelization is Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb * (1963) by Peter George.The film received the 1965 HUGO for Best Dramatic Presentation.

   PN/JB

   See also: CINEMA; PARANOIA.