This scene is just a comic diversion in Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, but it's telling as it still manages to further the theme of the relationship of high-stakes nuclear brinksmanship and sex. The survival kit provided to the B-52 crews have the essentials—money, guns (but no lawyers), rations, medical supplies, even the money is useful. But things start to go awry with the combination "Rooshan" phrase book and bible, and the pack starts to veer someplace else—nylons, lipsticks, all good bribing material...but, to what end?
Peter Sellers has a part to play in every ring of the circus of this nuclear nightmare, but he was also supposed to play Major Kong, the pilot of the bomber the audience follows throughout the movie. For some reason—and there is conflicting conjecture why—Sellers refused to play Kong, citing his inability to play a convincing Texas accent (the voice of the Sellers' American President, Merkin Muffly, is actually a fair approximation of director Stanley Kubrick's voice). Kubrick managed to convince Sellers that he's give him every help he could give the actor, including sending a tape of screenwriter Terry Southern, a native Texan, reading Kong's lines. Sellers relented, but showed up for the first day of shooting those scenes with a noticeable limp, claiming he'd fallen the night before at an Indian restaurant. A fall on the set that day resulted in a sprained ankle, causing him to be rushed to the hospital, and Kubrick conceded, deciding to recast the part.He'd remembered an actor he'd met when he was set to direct the Marlon Brando western One Eyed Jacks (before Brando decided to direct himself). Although he was from California, Slim Pickens (the stage name of Louis Burton Lindley, Jr.) was less an actor than he was a cowboy and rodeo-rider, and spent most of his early career as a rodeo-clown, and was what you would call "a personality." His performance as Kong is a comic masterpiece. Kubrick tried to lure Pickens back to play Dick Halloran (the part played by Scatman Crothers) in his version of The Shining, but Pickens wrote that he'd only do it if he didn't have to do any "takes" that went up to the 100's (as the famous "riding the nuke" scene required).
Another thing about this scene—the last line was re-dubbed. The original line was "A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all this stuff." The first screening for the film was scheduled on November 22, 1963, which was the day President Kennedy was assassinated...in Dallas. The screening was canceled, and the line re-dubbed to "Vegas" as the mention of that city's name at that particular time would be too distracting.
What I find funny about the line is that Kong assumes there would BE a Vegas after his mission.
The Story: The 843rd SAC Wing out of Burpelson Air Force Base has been dispatched on their daily patrol off Russia when they receive orders for Wing Attack Plan R, which calls for them to attack specific Russian targets in the event that the American government has been taken out by nuclear attack. On their way to their destinations there is time to crack open the contents of their survival kit in the unfortunate event they have to ditch.
Action!
Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Words by Peter George, Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern
Pictures by Gilbert Taylor and Stanley Kubrick
Dr. Strangelove is available on DVD and Blu-Ray on Sony Home Video and The Criterion Collection.
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