Rating:

Look on this movie, ye mighty, and despair! This is the comedy of comedies, the absolute ne plus ultra of humor. Every other movie with laughs on the agenda—whether it’s a “comedy with a message” like this one or a straight-ahead comedy like Airplane!—wishes it could be this good. All others are mere pretenders to the throne; Dr. Strangelove will reign forever as the king of comedies.

What makes it so good is that it has just about every type of joke there is. By the nature of the story, most of the comedy is satire, but that’s not all Dr. Strangelove has to offer. There’s slapstick, there’s non-sequitur humor, there’s funny accents, there’s poop humor, and there’s a subtle (or not-so-subtle) dick joke or sexual innuendo just about every time you turn around. Strictly in terms of the comedic content, the movie has absolutely everything you could want.

The story centers on a B-52 that’s been given erroneous orders to nuke the Soviet Union by the insane General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden). While efforts are made to subdue the rogue officer and obtain the code necessary to recall the bomber, the best parts of the movie take place in the War Room of U.S. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers). Assembled here are a crop of hysterical characters—George C. Scott as Air Force General Buck Turgidson, Peter Bull as Alexei de Sadesky, the Soviet Ambassador, and Sellers again as Dr. Strangelove, the mysterious ex-Nazi scientist now at work for the U.S. Government. Their discussions and arguments in the War Room about what to do to stop the B-52 from delivering its payload or what to do if it succeeds are the highlight of not just this movie but of cinema in general. In particular, I direct you to the largely improvised telephone conversation between President Muffley and Soviet Premier Dmitri Kissoff. That one sequence is funnier than any ten so-called comedies cranked out today and stands as evidence that Peter Sellers was perhaps the world’s single greatest comedic talents.

Not to mention his hilarious performance as the titular Dr. Strangelove. Every time Dr. Strangelove is on screen, something hilarious is going on, whether it’s the black-gloved hand with a mind of it’s own, the character’s sheer delight at the idea of slaughtering animals or his frequent lapses back into the jargon of his former loyalties (you can take the mad scientist out of Nazi Germany, but you can’t take the Nazi out of the mad scientist). Scott’s turn as General Turgidson is equally hilarious, with the audience never quite able to guess when he’s going to pause, place emphasis, wink, champ meaningfully on his gum or even fall down on the floor.

Every performance is wonderful. The set design of Ken Adam (of James Bond fame) is absolutely staggering. Stanley Kubrick’s direction is the best of his career, masterful and innovative without falling into the heavy-handed “Look at me, I’m Stanley Kubrick” trap as did some of his later films. Every aspect of the film comes together beautifully, but the standout star is the script itself. The movie’s take on Cold War paranoia, mutually assured destruction, and right-wing warmongering is the most skillfully executed satire there’s ever been. All the jokes are exquisitely constructed and perfectly delivered. (“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”) (“One of our base commanders…he ordered his planes to attack your country…well, let me finish, Dmitri.”) Despite being an extremely talky picture, the script is such that the movie never once lags or leaves you glancing at your watch; the viewer hangs on every hilarious word.

I couldn’t endorse this movie more strongly. It’s one of those rare things in the world of filmmaking, a comedy whose jokes never become stale no matter how many times you hear them and a movie tied very definitely to the period in which it was made that hasn’t become at all dated even after more than forty years. The Russians may no longer be THE ENEMY, but the issues of paranoia and simple-minded warhawks in decision making positions ring just as true today and make the movie just as valuable. Watch it today.

And again tomorrow.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Yankee Doodle Dandy
• Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• 2001: A Space Odyssey