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60 years ago today …. Dr. Strangelove

I can't imagine the thoughts on that movie when it came out, such a different concept and topic! Quite a few awesome scenes in that movie, I'll usually watch it at any point I come into it when it's on, loved George C. Scott's character, quite a bit different than Patton.
 
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Began playing in U.S. theaters. A true classic because it made fun of both political hawks and doves. My favorite line: “you can’t fight in here, this is the War room!”
That is a great line, also:

Gp Capt. Mandrake: Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there.
Col. Guano: That's private property.
Gp Capt. Mandrake: Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the United States? Can you imagine? Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit!
Col. Guano: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?
Gp Capt. Mandrake: What?
Col. Guano: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.
 
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That is a great line, also:

Gp Capt. Mandrake: Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there.
Col. Guano: That's private property.
Gp Capt. Mandrake: Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the United States? Can you imagine? Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit!
Col. Guano: Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?
Gp Capt. Mandrake: What?
Col. Guano: You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.
😂😂 Yes indeed — and they said those lines with such deadpan seriousness. I often wonder if off camera they didn’t break out in bend-over laughter during some of those scenes.
 
😂😂 Yes indeed — and they said those lines with such deadpan seriousness. I often wonder if off camera they didn’t break out in bend-over laughter during some of those scenes.
I think Sterling Hayden (General Ripper) is one of the great unappreciated actors. He was the police captain in The Godfather. In 2 Stanley Kubrick movies, this one and The Killing. Won a Silver Star in WWII. 6ft5in tall. Dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and took a job as mate on a schooner. Hayden bought a canal barge in the Netherlands in 1969, eventually moving it to the heart of Paris and living on it part of the time.

"I'll go back to Hollywood to pick up a dollar, but that's all", he said. "Everything is wrong with that city."


330px-Sterling_Hayden_1953.jpg
 
I think Sterling Hayden (General Ripper) is one of the great unappreciated actors. He was the police captain in The Godfather. In 2 Stanley Kubrick movies, this one and The Killing. Won a Silver Star in WWII. 6ft5in tall. Dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and took a job as mate on a schooner. Hayden bought a canal barge in the Netherlands in 1969, eventually moving it to the heart of Paris and living on it part of the time.

"I'll go back to Hollywood to pick up a dollar, but that's all", he said. "Everything is wrong with that city."


330px-Sterling_Hayden_1953.jpg
And Asphalt Jungle!
 
I was not around back then. To me, the movie business has been a waste, for the most part, in the past 25 years. That does not mean you are wrong.
Even if not around back then, you can watch movies from the 40s like Casablanca, the Maltese Falcon, Gaslight, the Philadelphia Story, Citizen Kane, etc.
 
Even if not around back then, you can watch movies from the 40s like Casablanca, the Maltese Falcon, Gaslight, the Philadelphia Story, Citizen Kane, etc.
Yep, top 5 channels in my house is TCM. It's hard for me to watch any of the more modern computerized movies!
 
Yep, top 5 channels in my house is TCM. It's hard for me to watch any of the more modern computerized movies!
While I'm not a fan of the modern era of movies, there have been some that I have enjoyed....Charlie Wilson's War, Oppenheimer, Bridge of Spies, Marley & Me, A Dog's Journey, Julie & Julia.... to name some.
 
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Even if not around back then, you can watch movies from the 40s like Casablanca, the Maltese Falcon, Gaslight, the Philadelphia Story, Citizen Kane, etc.
I don't disagree with you that the 1940s are considered the best. That era is just not my "cup of tea". When I was a senior at Carolina, I took an elective course in "Film". One of the movies I saw in that course was "Citizen Kane". Many consider it the best movie ever (and groundbreaking). It was good. I just have a preference for movies from the 1960-1999 period. But, that's me.
 
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I think Sterling Hayden (General Ripper) is one of the great unappreciated actors. He was the police captain in The Godfather. In 2 Stanley Kubrick movies, this one and The Killing. Won a Silver Star in WWII. 6ft5in tall. Dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and took a job as mate on a schooner. Hayden bought a canal barge in the Netherlands in 1969, eventually moving it to the heart of Paris and living on it part of the time.

"I'll go back to Hollywood to pick up a dollar, but that's all", he said. "Everything is wrong with that city."


330px-Sterling_Hayden_1953.jpg
A good actor. He was in a couple of movies I liked: "The Godfather", obviously and "9 to 5".
 
I don't disagree with you that the 1940s are considered the best. That era is just not my "cup of tea". When I was a senior at Carolina, I took an elective course in "Film". One of the movies I saw in that course was "Citizen Kane". Many consider it the best movie ever (and groundbreaking). It was good. I just have a preference for movies from the 1960-1999 period. But, that's me.
Citizen Kane doesn't impress people today, because the techniques it pioneered are in virtually every movie now. But they were ground breaking then. It isn't fair to compare a ten year period to a forty year period. Pick either the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s and it would be hard for any of those decades to match the 1940s. The biggest reason being TV. Entertainment investments, studio resources, actors, directors, etc that would have been doing movies were drained away to d 30 minute and hour long TV shows.
 
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Citizen Kane doesn't impress people today, because the techniques it pioneered are in virtually every movie now. But they were ground breaking then. It isn't fair to compare a ten year period to a forty year period. Pick either the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s and it would be hard for any of those decades to match the 1940s. The biggest reason being TV. Entertainment investments, studio resources, actors, directors, etc that would have been doing movies were drained away to d 30 minute and hour long TV shows.
I am not sure you are understanding what I wrote previously (or maybe I did a poor job of communication), when I wrote "That does not mean you are wrong". And then later I wrote, "I don't disagree with you that the 1940s are considered the best."

But as I stated, 1940s movies are not my preference.....or as I put it, "my cup of tea". Some prefer blonds; some prefer brunettes while others prefer redheads. Some are "breast men" while others are "leg men".
 
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A lot of movie budgets $$$ today are going into special effects at the expense of writing, plots, character development, etc


I think about this often because I love old movies - 40s, 50s- even late 30s.

But - even great movies like Marathon Man, or Kramer v. Kramer - they don't make those anymore.
 
I think about this often because I love old movies - 40s, 50s- even late 30s.

But - even great movies like Marathon Man, or Kramer v. Kramer - they don't make those anymore.
One reason is a sequel to a Batman movie just has a guaranteed audience, where you have to take risks to produce something new and of quality. So we get Spiderman 17 or whatever, instead of funding something more risky. Certainly Strangelove was a risky movie. There was no guarantee audiences would appreciate the absurdity.
 
Citizen Kane doesn't impress people today, because the techniques it pioneered are in virtually every movie now. But they were ground breaking then. It isn't fair to compare a ten year period to a forty year period. Pick either the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s and it would be hard for any of those decades to match the 1940s. The biggest reason being TV. Entertainment investments, studio resources, actors, directors, etc that would have been doing movies were drained away to d 30 minute and hour long TV shows.
I don’t remember it that way. TV actor were looked down on by Hollywood actors. It took a long time for Hollywood to embrace TV. Right off the top of my heart I cannot remember specifics but they made a big deal about so and so’s first TV appearance. You did not see many TV stars on the big screen. I am not sure there were any until the late 60’s. I can’t remember any silver screeners staring on TV. Maybe there were a few.
 
I don’t remember it that way. TV actor were looked down on by Hollywood actors. It took a long time for Hollywood to embrace TV. Right off the top of my heart I cannot remember specifics but they made a big deal about so and so’s first TV appearance. You did not see many TV stars on the big screen. I am not sure there were any until the late 60’s. I can’t remember any silver screeners staring on TV. Maybe there were a few.
There were a few. Raymond Burr stared in Godzilla then became Perry Mason. The Doris Day Show ran from 1968 - 1973. I remember Andy Griffith was in No Time For Sargeants before the Mayberry days. I'm sure there are more but that's off the top of my head.
 
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There were a few. Raymond Burr stared in Godzilla then became Perry Mason. The Doris Day Show ran from 1968 - 1973. I remember Andy Griffith was in No Time For Sargeants before the Mayberry days. I'm sure there are more but that's off the top of my head.
Henry Fonda in the late 60s. And I THINK Jimmy Stewart.
 
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I don’t remember it that way. TV actor were looked down on by Hollywood actors. It took a long time for Hollywood to embrace TV. Right off the top of my heart I cannot remember specifics but they made a big deal about so and so’s first TV appearance. You did not see many TV stars on the big screen. I am not sure there were any until the late 60’s. I can’t remember any silver screeners staring on TV. Maybe there were a few.

There were a few. Raymond Burr stared in Godzilla then became Perry Mason. The Doris Day Show ran from 1968 - 1973. I remember Andy Griffith was in No Time For Sargeants before the Mayberry days. I'm sure there are more but that's off the top of my head.
Not exactly stars. Andy Griffith was in a movie before he went to TV. He was well know as a stand up, country bumpkin preacher. he was on records. (Wax) Wasn’t Godzilla a Japanese movie with dubbed in English, except where the actors were English? I don’t think Mayberry started until the ‘60’s. There were also some B movie stars in westerns like Gene and Roy, who had some TV shows. But, they were not in movies that competed with Citizen Kane. I think I am right but I remember lots of radio personalities drifting into TV.
 
It went both ways usually movie stars who were aging a little moved to TV, Babara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray come to mind. Movie stars who go there start in TV, James Garner and Steve McQueen come to mind. If you go back and look at some of the old Western TV shows there were a ton of movie stars that came in for a guest appearance, that was very common.
 
It went both ways usually movie stars who were aging a little moved to TV, Babara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray come to mind. Movie stars who go there start in TV, James Garner and Steve McQueen come to mind. If you go back and look at some of the old Western TV shows there were a ton of movie stars that came in for a guest appearance, that was very common.
I was referring to the fifties and 60’s. Those you mentioned above came over to TV later. Early TV had lots of Hollywood actors,but few were well known and most needed the work. TV was a huge threat to Hollywood. The actors mentioned above were small in the movies and became known because of TV. But TV was not being supplied actors from Hollywood because it was the place to be. They went to TV when they did not get the success they wanted in the movies. My point is that in the forties and fifties not very many crossed over who were successful where they were. But, many actors came from the same place, Broadway, and still do. Big Hollywood stars did not do TV. Many lesser known Hollywood actors became TV stars In the sixties.
 
I don’t remember it that way. TV actor were looked down on by Hollywood actors. It took a long time for Hollywood to embrace TV. Right off the top of my heart I cannot remember specifics but they made a big deal about so and so’s first TV appearance. You did not see many TV stars on the big screen. I am not sure there were any until the late 60’s. I can’t remember any silver screeners staring on TV. Maybe there were a few.
Lucille Ball, Gale Storm, and Donna Reed were in 1940s and 1950s movies before doing 1950s TV. But those instances are rare indeed.
 
I was referring to the fifties and 60’s. Those you mentioned above came over to TV later. Early TV had lots of Hollywood actors,but few were well known and most needed the work. TV was a huge threat to Hollywood. The actors mentioned above were small in the movies and became known because of TV. But TV was not being supplied actors from Hollywood because it was the place to be. They went to TV when they did not get the success they wanted in the movies. My point is that in the forties and fifties not very many crossed over who were successful where they were. But, many actors came from the same place, Broadway, and still do. Big Hollywood stars did not do TV. Many lesser known Hollywood actors became TV stars In the sixties.
Maverick, My Three Sons and Dead or Alive were all 60's shows, no one had ever heard of James Garner and Steve McQueen before those shows
 
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Maverick, My Three Sons and Dead or Alive were all 60's shows, no one had ever heard of James Garner and Steve McQueen before those shows
James Garner was one of my all-time favorite actors. I grew up watching Maverick. He was very entertaining throughout his career. I remember James Garner with a smile.
 
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James Garner was one of my all-time favorite actors. I grew up watching Maverick. He was very entertaining throughout his career. I remember James Garner with a smile.
Yeah, he was very underrated, played a lot of different roles, but always the nice guy. Definitely seemed like your average guy you could go out and have a beer with.
 
Maverick, My Three Sons and Dead or Alive were all 60's shows, no one had ever heard of James Garner and Steve McQueen before those shows
I remember seeing Steve McQueen in the original version of “The Blob” back in the late 1950s. I was a child back then and the movie was quite frightening.
 
Yeah, he was very underrated, played a lot of different roles, but always the nice guy. Definitely seemed like your average guy you could go out and have a beer with.
"The Notebook" was one of Garner's last roles. Much of it was filmed in the Charleston area. His co-star Gena Rowlands said that Garner had long planned for a round of golf at one of the courses in that area. As he was walking with his golf clubs to a waiting car, a tourist bus was driving by. Some of the tourists recognized him and got the driver to stop the bus. Practically the entire bus of passengers got out and surrounded Garner, wanting to get his autograph, to ask him questions, etc. Garner took the time to do all that. Consequently, he missed his "tee time". Rowlands said she witnessed that and got a good laugh over it. What a guy. I'm not sure there are many like him, anywhere, in any occupation.
 
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