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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)/ The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck (1967)

What better way for Broken Projector to open the Double Bill-a-thon 2007 than by putting together a Double Bill of septic black comedies. This genre has long been reserved to the intellectual audience who while trying hard to steady their monocles have penetrated through several layers of undercurrents to grab hold of the seed and express it with a highly sophisticated har-har-har! The seed is where the matter lies and the rest of the story is just spun around this little thing so much so that often the point is missed to the untrained eye.

The 1960s and the 1970s were a special time for the rise of mainstream black comedies with everything from the cold war to the next door neighbour’s poodle inspired otherwise serious directors to tell tales of innuendo and sarcasm as they sat back and watched how the rest of the world considerably missed a few undercurrents and as a result let them get away with making a few unacceptable statements. Perhaps none did it better than Stanley Kubrick with Dr.Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Together with a dream team of Peter Sellers (all three of them), George C. Scott and Slim Pickens, he created what is arguable one of the funniest films of all time. Filled with mockery of the then bomb scare, paranoia about the security of precious bodily fluids and dozens of high profile fools trying to save the world, Dr.Strangelove is undoubtedly among the finest of Kubrick’s filmography.

Unlike the taken-for-granted quality of most comedies of the 1980s to the present day, the black comedies of the 60s and 70s were very well made films in their own right. The perfect companion film that I feel would do justice to ‘Dr.Strangelove’ is Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Set against the backdrop of the rising tide of horror, Polanski pulled off a wicked comedy that was hailed as one his best films.

DR.STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)

Forty three years on and the film still holds strong on the various controversial political conflicts among nations with nuclear powers. The film was released in a time where everyone was sure of the inevitability of a third world war, they said: the nuclear war. Kubrick had based his screenplay on the high-tension novel ‘Red Alert’ by Peter George but his surprising decision to convert it into an epic black comedy was met with initial resistance. Kubrick, in the end managed to convince the producers at Columbia Pictures to provide financial backing for the film but they had an unusual condition to the contract. They insisted that they would produce the film on the grounds that Peter Sellers plays at least four major roles in the film.

Sellers eventually ended up playing three of the four required roles, dropping out of the fourth on account of a leg injury. Sellers portrayed the characters of Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President of the United States Merkin Muffley and finally the title role of Dr.Strangelove, a wheelchair bound scientist with sudden bursts of Nazi pride. The fourth role was that of Air Force Major T.J. ‘King’ Kong, a role that eventually went to Slim Pickens on grounds of authenticity. The other major performances were delivered by Sterling Hayden in the role of General Jack D. Ripper, who became somewhat of an iconic character for his excessive paranoia over the loss of his precious bodily fluids to the commies. George C. Scott brings out an incredible performance as General Turgidson whose strategic bombing advice is as close to a nuclear holocaust as a proton is to a neutron.

The entire film takes place in essentially three locations: in a cockpit of a nuclear warplane, inside the fictitious war room of the Pentagon and a military base that is handled by General Ripper. What follows is a series of inter-cuts of high tension as General Ripper orders a patrolling nuclear bomber to attack a strategic point in Russia and sealing off his base telling his men that they are amidst a full blown attack from the Russians. The story continues inside the bomber as they prepare to strike their primary target only to realise that they might not have enough fuel to make it back to base. Then we’re taken into an almost mythological war room inside the Pentagon where President Muffley realizes that they cannot undo the orders sent forward by General Ripper and is forced to warn his Russian counterpart. Here, a sensational plethora of comical characters including the Russian Ambassador, Dr.Strangelove and General Turgidson work out the various possibilities of survival after the bomb hits Russia and as a result trigger a global nuclear wipe out.

Even today, Dr.Strangelove remains one of the best loved and easily the funniest films ever made.

THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (1967)

Roman Polanski writes, directs and stars in this hilarious comedy about a Vampire killer and his dimwit assistant who travel to the heart of Transylvania in search of vampires. I remember watching this film on Turner’s TNT channel when I was in my early teens and I vividly recall how funny I thought the film was. It was one of the very few films that are built on intellectual humour but are actually straightforward enough to be enjoyed by a viewer of any age.

One of the funniest scenes in the film is a part where Alfred (Polanski) is confronted by Count Von Krolock at one corner of a rectangular corridor. Alfred cleverly turns around and starts running all around the corridor only to come back to the Count who had not moved an inch. Another hilarious incident happens when the party of vampires in the ballroom discover that Alfred and Professor Abronsius are not vampires when they clearly form a reflection in the large mirror, Alfred runs to the entrance and pulls out a large sword from an Iron knight statue standing there. The vampires all laugh out loud. Then Professor Abronsius pulls out another sword and forms a cross with Alfred’s sword to which the vampires are instantly petrified.

The label of Black comedy is questionable to a film like The Fearless Vampire Killers but then you can’t call it a horror-comedy either. The aim of the film was simply not horror but to take a highly recognizable subject of horror and laugh the hell out of it- a phenomena which is vital to the qualification of being a Black comedy.