Kubrick 1, Coppola 0 – on Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” (1964)

Sterling Hayden, who in The Godfather would go on to utter the immortal line “how’s the Italian food in this restaurant?” while meeting with Italian mobsters in an Italian restaurant, absolutely slays me in Dr. Strangelove the moment his Jack D. Ripper’s gravitas-rich anti-communist screed meanders from its Clemenceau quote to reach its inevitable denouement: “precious bodily fluids.”

That serious:silly juxtaposition makes for one of the very finest comedic line readings of all time.

Actually, while BOTH line readings are funny, only the latter is fully intentioned, and so Kubrick takes the directorial cake over Coppola for being aware enough of Hayden’s absurdly heightened masculinity to use it against him in this role.

5/5 stars.