None were gum-chewings idiots, women chasers, etc. as you have so boldly portrayed the nation's fighting men

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is generally considered one of Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces (along with 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971)). The film, which was co-written, produced and directed by Kubrick, is a satirical comedy about the Cold War. The plot involves a mad, paranoid American general who orders an unauthorised nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. Subsequently, the U.S. president, his advisors and other high-ranking officials, all having gathered in the War Room, desperately try to stop the attack in order to prevent a nuclear war. (For the full plot of the film, go here.)

Dr. Strangelove received numerous accolades, including four Oscar nominations (i.e. for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Peter Sellers) and Best Adapted Screenplay). The film was praised by the majority of critics and also proved a big hit at the box-office. However, not everybody was charmed by Strangelove when it first came out. In June 1964, Stanley Kubrick received the following letter from a Mrs Dobbs from Florida, "a conscientious American", who found the film "despicable" and warned her fellow Americans not to watch it. Dobb's letter was one of several letters displayed at the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition in Barcelona in late 2018/ early 2019. It was one of the many letters Kubrick had kept. In fact, Kubrick had kept almost all of his fan letters (or in Dobbs' case, a non-fan letter), yet only seldom responded.

Source: Photo taken by me at the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition, 24 October 2018 — 31 March 2019, CCCB Barcelona / Original source: (presumably) Stanley Kubrick Archive, University of the Arts London

Transcript:

13 Flamingo Drive

St. Augustine, Florida

June 9, 1964

Mr. Stanley Kubrick

Producer-Director, Dr. Strangelove

Columbia Pictures Release

Hollywood, California

Dear Mr. Kubrick:

Doubtless, you have heard from many Americans who are proud of this country, proud of its heritage, and proud of the Armed Forces who are daily on the alert and ready to fight any and all enemies of this country. I am referring to letters that if you did not receive, you should have, in deep protest, utter dismay and complete disgust after viewing the despicable movie made by you and shown at our local theatre last week. 

Mr. Kubrick, I have known many officers of the Army and Navy in my lifetime, having worked at the State Headquarters for Selective Service in the '40's. I found the Generals, Colonels, etc. to be of the highest caliber. None were gum-chewing idiots, women chasers, etc. as you have so boldly portrayed the nation's fighting men. You have insulted the intelligence of my husband and myself. We found it impossible to view even an hour of the filth and boring dialogue such as was the case in "Dr. Strangelove."

Mr. Kubrick, I am reading now, the following, "When a film downgrading America or our will to resist the communist challenge is shown, withhold your dollars from the box office and encourage your friends to do likewise. Let the theatre managers and owners know why you're staying away." "We can begin by exercising our rights and duties as good Christians and good Americans whenever a film peddling a strong immoral or unpatriotic message is shown locally. If it's grossly immoral, warn your friends -- especially those with young children -- not to attend." I am following the above taken from a Life Line program and warning my friends in all letters I write.

As a conscientious American, I can do no less.

Most sincerely,

Mrs. F.J. Dobbs

Clockwise: Stanley Kubrick with Peter Sellers on the set of Dr. Strangelove, the latter playing three roles, i.e. RAF officer Mandrake (my favourite of the three), U.S. President Muffley and Dr. Strangelove, nuclear war expert and former Nazi; George C. Scott as the gum-chewing General Turgidson; and Sterling Hayden as the mad, cigar-smoking General Ripper. All three actors are great in their roles.

Dear Mr. Kubrick

A few days ago, my sister and I went to see the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition here in our hometown Barcelona. The exhibition has visited several cities worldwide since 2004 (including Los Angeles, Mexico City, Seoul and Paris) before coming to Barcelona with some added material. (I saw that the exhibition was also held in Amsterdam in 2012 when I still lived there, but I somehow missed it then.) While I am not a Kubrick fan --I do like his earlier work though, e.g. The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957)-- I enjoyed the exhibition a lot. It was very well laid out, each of Kubrick's films having its own dedicated space, with on display original props, costumes, storyboards, photos and lots of documents, including production documents, screenplays and correspondence. Attention was also paid to Kubrick's early days when he worked as a photographer and also his unrealised projects were presented in detail.

(Photo by me)

Of course I was glad to see a number of letters displayed at the exhibition. For this post I chose one letter concerning Kubrick's unrealised film about Napoleon Bonaparte. Kubrick was fascinated by Napoleon and had researched his subject meticulously, putting together a massive archive of research material. In 1969, Kubrick completed his script and also drew up a detailed shooting plan. In the end, the film was never made since no studio was willing to take on the exorbitant production costs. (More about Kubrick's Napoleon can be found in the 2009 voluminous book by Alison Castle Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made.)

Lots of photos were on display at the exhibit, including this one of Kubrick and Kirk Douglas on the set of Paths of Glory. (Photo by me)

Kubrick's preferred choice for the role of Joséphine, Napoleon's first wife, had been Audrey Hepburn. Audrey, in semi-retirement at the time, wrote to Kubrick in November 1968, kindly declining his offer while asking him to keep her in mind for future assignments. (Whether Kubrick ever asked her again, I don't know.) The image shown below is a photo taken by me of a fascimile on display at the exhibit, the original letter being part of the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London.

Source: Stanley Kubrick Archive

Transcript:

Sunday 
17 Nov '68

Dear Mr. Kubrick

Thank you for the kind letter you wrote me - I am flattered and happy you would like me to work with you. 

I still don't want to work for a while so cannot commit or involve myself in any project at this time. 

I hope you understand this..... and will think of me again someday?

Thank you again

Warmest wishes

Audrey Hepburn

NOTE: The Stanley Kubrick Exhibition in Barcelona will have its final day tomorrow. From 26 April until 15 September 2019, the exhibit can be visited at the Design Museum in London (more info here).

It could be a very important and constructive film

After reading the Cold War novel Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II, Kirk Douglas knew it could be made into a great film. He bought the rights to the novel through his production company Joel Productions, teamed up with director John Frankenheimer and put together a cast of wonderful actors like Burt Lancaster and Fredric March (Douglas himself was to play an important role in the film too). Eventually released in 1964, the result was an excellent political thriller, which is still considered one of the best of its kind.

Having heard about Douglas' plans to picturise Seven Days in May, director Stanley Kubrick wrote Douglas a letter on 8 February 1963. Kubrick had been interested in filming the story himself, but now that Douglas was going to film it, Kubrick decided to offer him some unsolicited advice. Douglas wrote back 11 days later, saying he appreciated Kubrick's suggestions and also asked if they could make another movie together ("How about a comedy? I think I'm pretty funny, don't you?"). The two men had previously worked together on Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960) and reportedly had a difficult working relationship. Despite Douglas' suggestion that they work together again, in the end they never did.

Kirk Douglas and Stanley Kubrick on the set of their second and last film together, Spartacus (1960). 

source

Transcript:

Mr. Kirk Douglas

707 North Canon Drive

Beverly Hills,

California

February 8th, 1963.

Dear Kirk,

I thought I would be presumptuous enough to drop you a line about your forthcomimg film SEVEN DAYS IN MAY which, as you may know, I had some interest in myself.

I think it's a marvellous story and could be a very important and constructive film. There were a couple of things about it which, in my opinion, detracted from its potential meaning. The most important, I think, is the complete cop-out at the end when the President confronts the Air Force Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and gets him to admit that if the responsibility were his, he would have done things just in the same way. This is extremely unlikely and takes away from the most important theme in the book, namely the conflict in the Government between intelligent civilian management of the affairs of state versus the driving force of the military-industrial complex. Have you ever seen Eisenhower's famous last speech as President where he warned the country, in a manner extremely untypical for him, of the growing threat of the military-industrial complex - that was his expression.

I think it would be very good if you could dramatise the difficulty a President would have in agreeing to some form of sensible disarmament scheme and how the semi-paranoiac extremists can make great political trouble for him. This is very nicely touched on in the book when the President's Popularity Poll reaches a new low, but I think it's greatly dissipated by the ending. 

I should also prefer to see less physical action undertaken by Senators and high Government officials. There's a bit too much creeping and crawling and slugging and gun-play involving these characters and I think it would be much more realistic if this could be delegated to lower echelon characters.

I hope that John and Rod and Eddie don't resent this letter and I leave it to you to present any of these ideas, if you consider them worthy, in your own charming and inimitable manner. 

In any event, I wish you the best of luck with the film and give my regards to Eddie and Ann.

Best regards,

(signed "Stanley")

Stanley Kubrick

source

Transcript:

February 19, 1963

Dear Stanley,

How nice to hear from you again, and I certainly appreciate your suggestions -- but then you know how we geniuses work. You will be pleased to know that we have been thinking about all the points you mentioned. Your letter has served to give us more confidence about the work we must do in these areas. I think we should have an interesting picture and a pretty good cast.

By the way, what's cooking with your project-- what's happening with your lawsuit versus "Failsafe". If there's any way that I can help I wish you'd call on me. 

In the meantime, my sincere  wishes for the success of your picture. 

Also, I think it's about time we did another picture together. How about a comedy? I think I'm very funny, don't you? 

Let's keep in touch.

Sincerely,

(signed "Kirk")

Kirk Douglas

Mr. Stanley Kubrick

Shepperton Studios

Shepperton, Middlesex

England

Source: Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Note: During the filming of his Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove (1964), Kubrick learnt that Fail-Safe (1964), directed by Sidney Lumet, was being produced at the same time. Fail-Safe's plot was so similar to Red Alert (the novel by Peter George on which Dr. Strangelove was based) that George filed a lawsuit for plagiarism and later settled out of court. As both films were being produced by the same studio (Columbia Pictures), Kubrick insisted that his film was released first. He got his wish-- Fail-Safe opened eight months later than Dr. Strangelove and as a result performed poorly at the box-office. 

Burt Lancaster, Fredric March and Kirk Douglas-- powerhouse acting in Seven Days in May.