A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

NOTES:
Kubrick read the novel A Clockwork Orange in the summer of 1969, a gift from Terry Southern, co-author of the Dr. Strangelove screenplay. He finished the book in one sitting and immediately reread it. He had Malcolm McDowall in mind to play Alex by the third or fourth chapter, a character Kubrick has compared to Richard III.

"Alex, like Richard, is a character whom you should dislike and fear, and yet you find yourself drawn very quickly into his world and find yourself seeing things through his eyes." --18

Kubrick shot most of the film on locations found by searching through back issues of architectural magazines. Alex's municipal flatblock was filmed at Thamesmead. The exterior of the writer's house was a home in Oxfordshire, the interior was another home in Radlett. The record shop was a Chelsea drugstore. Only 4 sets were built for the film: the Korova Milkbar, the prison reception area, and the mirrored hallway and bathroom of the writer's house. The sets were built in a factory in Borehamwood, near the old MGM studios.

Lightweight cameras, faster lenses, and improved sound equipment made filming on location much easier. The Sennheiser Mk. 12 microphones worked so well that Kubrick did not have to dub any dialogue for this film. (A lapel microphone is visible on the tramp in the scene where he recognizes Alex by the Thames.) About 85% of the film was shot either by replacing existing location light fixtures with photographic floodlights or by using lightweight Lowell 1,000-watt quartz lights bounced off ceilings or reflective umbrellas. This often freed Kubrick to shoot in any direction around a room without worrying about capturing lighting equipment in the frame. The scene with the cat woman is a good example.

While the film played very successfully in England for nearly a year, it was then pulled from release in that country by Kubrick and Warner Brothers after a number of copy-cat crimes were blamed on the film by police, judges, and defendants. In one case a woman was raped by a gang of youths who sang "Singing in the Rain." Another case involved a savage beating by a 16 year old dressed in an Alex-like costume. This distribution restriction was lifted in March of 2000 and the film returned to wide release in England nearly 20 years after its initial run.

Kubrick has described this film as: "...a social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioral psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots." --18

A Clockwork Orange premiered on December 20, 1971.

TRIVIAL TIDBITS:

• The William Tell orgy scene lasts 40 seconds but took 28 minutes to film at 2 frames per second.
• The rape scene took three days to rehearse and shoot, longer than any other scene in the film. The idea to use Singing in the Rain came up during rehearsal.
• In A Clockwork Orange the main character identifies himself as Alexander DeLarge, but later in the film a newspaper story names him Alexander Burgess. A reference to Anthony Burgess, author of the original novel. --3

• Content of Alex's pockets in A Clockwork Orange:
• 1 half bar of chocolate.
• 1 bunch of keys on white metal ring.
• 1 packet of cigarettes.
• 2 plastic ball pens--one red, one black.
• 1 plastic comb--black plastic.
• 1 address book--imitation red leather.
• 1 ten penny piece.
• 1 white metal wristlet watch, "Timawrist," on a white metal expanding bracelet. --7