Secret uses of Uranus

April 6, 2012 11:20 PM

From one of Stanley Kubrick's notebooks comes a list of potential titles for the 1964 movie that was eventually named, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Interestingly, that particular title doesn't feature on this page.
posted by jadayne (25 comments total)

Before clicking to comment, I made a bet with myself that I absolutely KNEW what this post title was going to be.

I won.
posted by ShutterBun at 11:23 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith listens in to the Turner Classic Movies Festival interview with Special Photographic Effects Supervisor, Douglas Trumbull, about his experiences working on 2001: A Space Odyssey
posted by Artw at 11:29 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I like this kind of thing. Did you know that the original title of Citizen Kane was Guy Obsessed with a Sled? Orson Welles felt that the title was a little too on the nose, so he changed it. And the rest is history.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:30 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Closing Italics Tag is a lesser known film, with a definite slant to the right.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:33 PM on April 6, 2012

I'm not sure I could be obsessed with Starbeast and Starbeasts, let alone Starbeast Vs Hunter.
posted by Artw at 11:33 PM on April 6, 2012

War: What is it Good For?
posted by ShutterBun at 11:33 PM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

MetaFilter or: How to be Afraid 24 hrs a Day
posted by mediated self at 11:37 PM on April 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

'The Bomb of Bombs' as a film title seems like pressing your luck.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:40 PM on April 6, 2012

Any discussion of alternative versions of Dr. Strangelove has to mention the pie fight.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:45 PM on April 6, 2012

pie fight
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:46 PM on April 6, 2012

Dr. Strangelove's Secret Uses of Uranus

We have a winnah!
posted by Splunge at 11:50 PM on April 6, 2012

It's always such a relief to see that really great things came out of so much trial and error. Just one clunker after another, until it's not.
posted by goodglovin77 at 11:52 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Dr. Strangelove, or: Someone Set Up Us The Bomb
posted by ShutterBun at 11:54 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I remain disappointed that it wasn't called "Fountain Syrup"
posted by Pinback at 11:56 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Where's the goddamn pie fight? It happens right after this scene in the movie, as usually edited. But the original ending for Dr. Strangelove involved a massive pie fight, and I want to see it. Wikipedia says that the reasoning for cutting the pie fight out was that the John F. Kennedy assassination had just occurred, and the scene showed the President was being hit by a pie but I think we're ready for that now. Where is the pie scene?
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:56 PM on April 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

ShutterBun: "Dr. Strangelove, or: Someone Set Up Us The Bomb"

"Take off every 'ZIG."

::chunck::

::bomb drops::

Wahooooooo!!!
posted by Splunge at 12:32 AM on April 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

'Where's the goddamn pie fight? It happens right after this scene in the movie, as usually edited. But the original ending for Dr. Strangelove involved a massive pie fight, and I want to see it. Wikipedia says that the reasoning for cutting the pie fight out was that the John F. Kennedy assassination had just occurred, and the scene showed the President was being hit by a pie but I think we're ready for that now. Where is the pie scene?'

I've heard that the British Film Institute have the footage in storage and will privately screen this material for VIP applicants, very doubtful that it will ever reach us common proles on a future DVD / Blu-Ray release though.....
posted by Mintyblonde at 12:36 AM on April 7, 2012

"Closing Italics" is a lesser known gritty british drama about the closing of a typesetters in 1968.
posted by marienbad at 3:03 AM on April 7, 2012

Also, the fantastic Ron Rosenbaum has a new paperback out soon.
posted by marienbad at 3:10 AM on April 7, 2012

I like Ron Rosenbaum. He writes *exactly* like I do.
posted by ShutterBun at 3:52 AM on April 7, 2012

Dr. Kubrick's Names for Groovy Sixties Retrobands.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:19 AM on April 7, 2012

I've heard that the British Film Institute have the [pie fight] footage in storage and will privately screen this material for VIP applicants, very doubtful that it will ever reach us common proles on a future DVD / Blu-Ray release though.....

I just read somewhere -- probably Wikipedia or IMDb -- that it has been publicly shown just once, at some significant anniversary event for the film.
posted by pmurray63 at 7:20 AM on April 7, 2012

I read all those in Slim Picken's voice.
posted by hot_monster at 9:12 AM on April 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
posted by Splunge at 11:08 AM on April 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

How I learned to love the bomb: he got it right.

June, 1965, outside the northern perimeter fence at Bien Hoa Airbase. We had painted the side of a 20-foot box-trailer white, to use as a movie screen. We linked perforated steel planking (the stuff used to make runways in the field) together and set them up on upended ammo crates to use as benches. I believe we had six or seven rows of these benches, with an aisle down the middle. Although we had no roof, the theater was surrounded by a three-foot wall of sandbags. The movie screen faced toward the perimeter--the idea was that the VC probably wouldn't mortar the area until after the movie was over. On of my less fond memories is sitting on a PSP bench in a straight-down rain wearing a poncho that didn't actually keep me dry, to watch a movie. No popcorn, but sometimes we had sodas, or that 3.2 beer-like stuff.

The first movie I saw there was "How I Learned to Love the Bomb."

You cannot top reality with surreality....Kubrick could have filmed scenes for this movie at our camp.
posted by mule98J at 9:55 AM on April 8, 2012 [2 favorites]