Create a black comedy with cold war panic

"Dr. Strange Love" originally originated from Kubrick's vague idea. He wanted to make a film about a nuclear accident based on the prevailing Cold War panic at the time. With the gradual deepening of research, Kubrick realized that the "balance of fear" that exists among nuclear powers is very delicate and fragile. At Kubrick’s request, Alistair Buchan, the founder of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, recommended Peter George’s thriller "Red Alert", which was deeply attracted by the novel Kubrick immediately bought the right to film the adaptation and began to work with George to adapt the script. During the adaptation process, the two got the guidance of many experts. Kubrick wanted to make the novel story into a serious drama, but when he started the first draft of the script, Kubrick remembered the principle of "common destruction." "This is a nuclear war strategy that aims to die together, and a black comedy came into being.

When Stanley Kubrick was seeking investors, Columbia Pictures put forward a ridiculous and arrogant condition that Peter Sellers must play at least four main roles in the film, because they firmly believe that Kubu The success of "Lolita" directed by Rick in 1962 is entirely due to the performance of Peter Sellers. In addition, Sellers once played the role of a triangle in "Noisy Rats" in 1959. Although Kubrick felt too much, he accepted it, because it has long been commonplace in the film business.

But in the end, Sellers only played three of the four roles. When the film first started, he should also play the role of the bomber captain who rode a nuclear bomb from the sky at the end of the film, but Sellers thought that his workload was too heavy. And also can't do well with the character's Texas accent. Kubrick repeatedly begged Sellers to accept the role and asked screenwriter Terry Sozen, who grew up in Texas, to record the captain's lines for Sellers to learn from. But while shooting the scene in the cabin, Sellers accidentally sprained his ankle and had to give up the role.

Among the three roles of Mandrek, Maverick and Dr. Strange Ai, Sellers thinks it is the easiest to play Mandrek because he served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. In shaping President Muffry, Sellers changed his pure British accent and took on the American Midwest accent, and he used to be the former governor of Illinois and Adela Steven, who had lost two presidential elections. Sen (Adlai Stevenson) got inspiration. In the first few shots, Sellers pretended to have cold symptoms in order to exaggerate the character’s weakness and incompetence, which caused frequent laughter from the crew on the scene. Kubrick believed that Mafrey was a serious character and should not be shown. Comedy effect. Although Sellers returned to normal in the subsequent performances, the president suffering from a cold still appeared in some scenes.

As the president’s scientific adviser, Dr. Qi Ai is the strategist Herman Kahn (Herman Kahn) of the RAND Corporation, John von Neumann, the head of the Manhattan project, and the German rocket expert Werner von Neumann. Braun (Wernher von Braun) and the "father of hydrogen bomb" Edward Teller (Edward Teller) a collection. During the shooting, Sellers imitated the accent of the photographer Vega, who was a special effects consultant for the film, and improvised Dr. Qi Ai mistakenly performed the Nazi salute and borrowed a black leather glove that Kubrick used to prevent scalding.

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