Fail-Safe (1964)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Walter Bernstein (screenplay)
Eugene Burdick (novel) ...

Release Date:

7 October 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!

Plot:

American planes are sent to deliver a nuclear attack on Moscow, but it's a mistake due to an electrical malfunction. Can all-out war be averted?

Plot Keywords:

Bomber | General | Strategic Air Command | Colonel | Control

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Dan O'Herlihy	...	General Black
Walter Matthau	...	Groeteschele
Frank Overton	...	General Bogan
Edward Binns	...	Colonel Grady
Fritz Weaver	...	Colonel Cascio
Henry Fonda	...	The President
Larry Hagman	...	Buck
William Hansen	...	Secretary Swenson
Russell Hardie	...	General Stark
Russell Collins	...	Knapp
Sorrell Booke	...	Congressman Raskob
Nancy Berg	...	Ilsa Wolfe
John Connell	...	Thomas
Frank Simpson	...	Sullivan
Hildy Parks	...	Betty Black

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | West Germany:16 | Australia:PG | UK:PG | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The view of the satellite zooming into a closer shot is actually film taken from a camera mounted on a captured German V2 rocket launched from White Sands, New Mexico. The film is run backwards to show the illusion of zooming closer to the ground.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The flyover of the Empire State Building shows it without its television transmitter mast, which was completed in 1952.

Quotes:

Defense Secretary Swenson: The President says he may have to order our fighters to shoot down Group Six. He wants our opinion.
Prof. Groeteschele: I oppose it, sir, on the grounds that it's premature. Our planes have not yet reached Soviet territory, they're still hundreds of miles away.
Brigadier General Warren A. Black: We've got to do it, and fast! Right now before it's too late!
Gen. Stark: It might be too late anyway. Those fighters swung away from the bombers when they got the all-clear signal, they've been flying in opposite directions.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fonda on Fonda (1992) (TV)

Despite its limitations, A Thought-provoking Cold War drama

I mentioned in another comment about a series of movies made during the mid-1960's, that I call 'political noir'.

These films are easy to spot, in that there were made in B&W, dealt with a American institutional crisis and seemed to always feature Henry Fonda somewhere in the cast.

On all three counts, this film fits that criteria.

Because this film came out around the time of "Dr Strangelove", it was somewhat overshadowed, and because of the nearly identical plots, there was even talk of plagiarism, even though this film was based on a novel by two Washington-based journalists with a remarkable insight of the workings of government and was directed by Sidney Lument, one of the cinema's great directors.

Also, unlike "Dr Strangelove", which seemed to receive major studio backing, money and the freedom offered by being produced in Great Britain where this satire was more appreciated, "Fail-Safe" was independently produced in New York on a limited budget, without official backing by the Defense Department, which explains all of the flaws complained of by many viewers and posters on this site.

Yet in spite of these limitations, Lument pulls off a major coup by presenting us with an authentic piece of Armeggeddon.

In a real-time view, we watch as a million-to-one technical fault 'orders' a wing of American bombers to attack Soviet Russia, and the Defense Department and the President are helpless in trying to stop it.

We are also witness to how our military operates, trying to plan military policy, and debating theory and possible results.

Such things are sensible and harmless as far as these things go, until 'the day comes' when reality displaces theory.

Walter Matthau, who is more well-known for his comic talents ("The Odd Couple", "Grumpy Old Men"), than being an accomplished dramatic actor, is shown at the height of his powers as Prof. Groteschelle; a defense policy wonk, whose obsession with defense preparedness and Marxist theory reaches the point of detachment from human emotion, as he blindly recommends that no action be taken and the bombers be allowed to complete their mission, resulting in 'final victory' over Communism.

This is in direct contradiction to General Black, a compassionate Air Force officer who is also an intellectual, who desperately urges that every means be made to stop the bombers before it is too late.

However, it turns out to be too late, at least on the American side.

We watch how technology becomes a hindrance, as much as the distrust between the two superpowers seems to be, as the President and the Soviet Premier desperately try to seek a solution to this disaster.

The tragedy about this is that someone thought they should remake this in 2000, which in a way is flattering but certainly could not come close to the original work.

But, this only proves that the subject of 'accidental war' is still a concern.

However, how can one do better than Henry Fonda ???