or Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Movie Review

It's the end of the world as we know it in Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy that is undimmed by the collapse of the “evil empire.” Sterling Hayden stars as cigar-chomping General Jack Ripper, who is convinced of a Communist conspiracy to sap “our precious bodily fluids” and orders American bombers to attack Russia. George C. Scott is in his element as military hawk General Buck Turgidson, but it's Peter Sellers’ show all the way. In a bravura triple role, he portrays the befuddled American president Merkin Muffley, British officer Mandrake, and the wheelchair-bound former Nazi Dr. Strangelove. Aboard the plane racing toward its target are James Earl Jones and Slim Pickens as gung-ho pilot Major Kong. Keenan Wynn is Colonel “Bat” Guano, who has a memorable Coke machine encounter with “prevert” Sellers. Not to be missed. Pickens riding down the bomb to oblivion is one of the movies’ most indelible images. Kubrick wisely decided to delete a climactic pie fight. As Muffley admonishes at one point, “Gentleman, you can't fight in here. This is the war room.”

1964 93m/B GB Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones, Peter Bull; D: Stanley Kubrick; W: Terry Southern, Peter George, Stanley Kubrick; M: Laurie Johnson. British Academy Awards ‘64: Best Film; New York Film Critics Awards ‘64: Best Director (Kubrick); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘64: Best Actor (Sellers), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director (Kubrick), Best Picture. VHS, Beta, LV, 8mm COL, HMV