Editing Fail Safe (1964 film)

{{short description|1964 Cold War thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Fail Safe
| image = Fail_safe_moviep.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Sidney Lumet]]
| producer = Sidney Lumet<br>Charles H. Maguire<br>[[Max E. Youngstein]]
| based_on = {{based on|''[[Fail-Safe (novel)|Fail-Safe]]''|[[Eugene Burdick]]<br>[[Harvey Wheeler]]}}
| screenplay = {{ubl|[[Walter Bernstein]]|[[Peter George (author)|Peter George]]}} (uncredited)
| starring = {{ubl|[[Henry Fonda]]|[[Dan O'Herlihy]]|[[Walter Matthau]]|[[Frank Overton]]|[[Fritz Weaver]]|[[Edward Binns]]|[[Larry Hagman]]}}
| cinematography = [[Gerald Hirschfeld]]
| editing = [[Ralph Rosenblum]]
| color_process = [[Black and white]]
| studio = [[Columbia Pictures]]
| distributor = Columbia Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1964|10|07|}}
| runtime = 112 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| gross          = $1.8&nbsp;million <small>(rentals)</small><ref>"Big Rental Pictures of 1964". ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', January 6, 1965, pg 39.</ref>
}}

'''''Fail Safe''''' is a 1964 [[Cold War]] [[thriller film]] directed by [[Sidney Lumet]], based on the [[Fail-Safe (novel)|1962 novel of the same name]] by [[Eugene Burdick]] and [[Harvey Wheeler]]. The film follows a crisis caused by a critical error that sends a group of [[strategic bomber|U.S. bombers]] to destroy [[Moscow]], and the ensuing attempts to stop the bomber group before it can deploy a [[Pre-emptive nuclear strike|nuclear first strike]]. The film features performances by [[Henry Fonda]], [[Dan O'Herlihy]], [[Walter Matthau]], [[Frank Overton]], [[Fritz Weaver]], [[Edward Binns]], [[Larry Hagman]], [[Sorrell Booke]], [[Dana Elcar]] and [[Dom DeLuise]].

In 2000, [[Fail Safe (2000 film)|the novel was adapted again]] as a [[television play|televised play]] starring [[George Clooney]], [[Richard Dreyfuss]] and [[Noah Wyle]], and broadcast live in black and white on [[CBS]].

==Plot==
[[United States Air Force]] General Black has been having recurring dreams in which a Spanish [[Bullfighter|matador]] kills a bull before a cheering crowd. Black flies to [[Washington, D.C.]], to attend a conference led by Dr. Groeteschele, a political scientist renowned for his expertise on the politics of nuclear weapons, a character based on [[Herman Kahn]].

Groeteschele is a fervent anti-communist. At a dinner party the previous evening, he dismisses the fears that such a war would destroy the human race. To Groeteschele, nuclear war, like any other war, must have a victor and a loser, and the millions who might die in such a war are the price to be paid to end the Soviet threat.

USAF [[Distant Early Warning Line|early warning radar]] indicates that an unidentified aircraft has intruded into U.S. airspace. Shortly after, the intruder is identified as an off-course civilian airliner. However, a computer error causes one U.S. bomber group, Group 6, to erroneously receive apparently valid orders for a nuclear attack on [[Moscow]]. Attempts to rescind this order fail because a new Soviet countermeasure [[radio jamming|jams]] U.S. radio communications. Colonel Jack Grady, the group's commander, obeys the order, and Group 6 starts flying their "Vindicator" bombers over the [[Arctic]] toward Moscow.

The [[President of the United States]] attempts to recall the bombers or shoot them down. Groeteschele is called to advise the President. The military—including Black—warns the President that the Soviets will retaliate with everything they have, and Groeteschele argues for a full-scale attack to reduce that. U.S. fighters scramble to intercept the Vindicators, but, needing to use their [[afterburner]]s to catch up, they run out of fuel before they or their missiles can reach Group 6, and plunge into the Arctic waters.

Communications are opened with the [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Soviet Premier]]. The jamming ceases, but the crew follows their training, dismissing the counter-orders as a Soviet ruse. General Bogan advises the Soviets on how to trigger the Vindicators' defense missiles. The President struggles to find a solution that will avert a [[nuclear holocaust]]. He orders a U.S. nuclear bomber to fly toward [[New York City]] to bomb it if necessary, trading the largest American city for the largest Soviet city, despite knowing that the [[FLOTUS|First Lady]] is there.

The Soviets destroy most of Group 6, but miss both Grady's plane and a second decoy plane, carrying only defensive weapons. The second plane draws Soviet aircraft away from Grady, despite Bogan's desperate pleas to the Soviets, allowing Grady to evade their defenses.

The Soviets, in desperation, fire all their weapons in the path of the remaining Vindicator. As Grady nears Moscow, the Americans are finally able to reach him via radio. Both the President and Grady's own wife desperately urge him to stop the attack. As Grady wavers, a salvo of Soviet missiles targets his plane. Grady decoys them with the last of his defensive missiles, causing them to detonate far above him, although Grady knows that his crew has received a fatal dose of radiation. Grady dismisses the pleas as a trick.

The President remains in contact with the U.S. ambassador in Moscow until the telephone line abruptly cuts off with a loud squeal. He orders General Black, whose wife and children live in New York City, to fly over the city and bomb it, using the [[Empire State Building]] as [[ground zero]]. Black obeys, taking full responsibility by dropping the bomb himself, then dies by suicide with a vial of poison hidden in his flight suit. As he dies, he calls out to his doomed wife, telling her that he has at last learned the meaning of his recurring dream: "The Matador, the Matador, the Matador ... me ... me".

Meanwhile, New Yorkers go about their daily lives, unaware of the coming disaster, at which point, the nuclear bomb explodes.

==Cast==
[[File:Edward Binns in Fail-Safe trailer.jpg|thumb|Edward Binns as Colonel Jack Grady (right)]]
{{div col}}
* [[Dan O'Herlihy]] as Brigadier General Warren A. "Blackie" Black, USAF
* [[Walter Matthau]] as Professor Groeteschele
* [[Frank Overton]] as General Bogan, USAF
* [[Edward Binns]] as Colonel Jack Grady, USAF
* [[Fritz Weaver]] as Colonel Cascio, USAF
* [[Henry Fonda]] as the President of the United States
* [[Larry Hagman]] as Buck, the President's interpreter
* [[William Hansen (actor)|William Hansen]] as Defense Secretary Swenson
* [[Russell Hardie]] as General Stark
* [[Russell Collins]] as Gordon Knapp
* [[Sorrell Booke]] as Congressman Raskob
* [[Nancy Berg]] as Ilsa Woolfe
* [[John Connell (actor)|John Connell]] as Thomas
* Frank Simpson as Sullivan
* [[Hildy Parks]] as Betty Black
* [[Janet Ward]] as Helen Grady
* [[Dom DeLuise]], credited as Dom DeLouise, as Master Sergeant Collins, USAF
* [[Dana Elcar]] as Mr. Foster
* Stewart Germain as Mr. Cascio
* Louise Larabee as Mrs. Cascio
* Frieda Altman as Mrs. Jennie Johnson
{{div col end}}

==Production==
The film was shot in black and white, in a dramatic, theatrical style, with claustrophobic close-ups, sharp shadows and ponderous silences between several characters. Except for radio background during a scene at an Air Force base in [[Alaska]], there is no original music score (only the electronic sound effects act as the film's main and end title music). With few exceptions, the action takes place largely in the [[White House]] underground bunker, the Pentagon war conference room, the [[Strategic Air Command]] war room, and a single bomber cockpit (a "Vindicator bomber"). Shots of normal daily life are seen only after the opening credits and in the final scene depicting an ordinary New York City day, its residents entirely unsuspecting of their imminent destruction, each scene ending with a [[freeze-frame shot]] at the moment of impact.

The character of Groeteschele was inspired, according to Lumet's audio commentary on the film, by military strategist [[Herman Kahn]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/05/shut-in-movie-club-fail-safe-coronavirus|title = Watching Fail Safe at the End of the World|website = [[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|date = 8 May 2020}}</ref>

The "Vindicator" bombers (an invention of the novelists) are sometimes represented in the film with [[stock footage]] of [[Convair B-58 Hustler]]s. Fighters sent to attack the bombers are illustrated by film clips of the [[Lockheed F-104 Starfighter]], [[Convair F-102 Delta Dagger]], [[Dassault Mirage III]] and [[McDonnell F-101 Voodoo]]. Stock footage was used because the Air Force declined to cooperate in the production, disliking the premise of a lack of control over nuclear strike forces.<ref name="Strategy">[http://www.strategypage.com/moviereviews/default.asp?target=Fail%20Safe "Fail-Safe (Reviews)."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012171023/http://www.strategypage.com/moviereviews/default.asp?target=Fail%20Safe |date=2012-10-12 }} ''strategypage.com.'' Retrieved: September 5, 2012.</ref> The scene depicting bombers taking off was stock footage of a single B-58 takeoff, edited to look like several bombers taking off in succession. A nightmare quality is imparted to many of the flying sequences by depicting the planes in [[Negative (photography)|photographic negative]]. In several of the negative sequences, the "Soviet interceptors" are actually French-built Mirage fighters with Israeli markings.

==Reception==
When ''Fail Safe'' opened in October 1964, it garnered excellent reviews, but its box-office performance was poor. Its failure rested with the similarity between it and the [[nuclear war]] satire ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'', which had appeared in theaters first, in January 1964. Still, the film was later lauded as a [[Cold War]] thriller. The novel sold well for the remainder of the 20th century, and the film was given high marks for retaining the essence of the novel.<ref>Erickson, Hal. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022212231/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/16577/Fail-Safe/overview?scp=1&sq=Fail%20Safe&st=cse "Fail Safe (1964)."] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved: October 24, 2009.</ref> Over the years, both the novel and the movie were well received for their depiction of a nuclear crisis, despite many critical reviews rejecting the notion that a breakdown in communication could result in the erroneous "Go" command depicted in the novel and the movie.<ref name="Strategy"/>

The film was nominated at the [[19th British Academy Film Awards|1966 BAFTA Awards]] for the [[United Nations]] Award category.<ref name=":0" />

==Lawsuit==
''Fail Safe'' and ''Dr. Strangelove'' were both produced in the period after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], when people became more sensitive to the threat of nuclear war. ''Fail Safe'' so closely resembled [[Peter George (author)|Peter George]]'s novel ''[[Red Alert (novel)|Red Alert]]'', on which ''Dr. Strangelove'' was based, that ''Dr. Strangelove'' screenwriter/director [[Stanley Kubrick]] and George filed a copyright infringement lawsuit.<ref name=Life>{{cite news |last1=Scherman |first1=David E. |title=in Two Big Book-alikes a Mad General and a Bad Black Box Blow Up Two Cities, and then— Everybody Blows Up! |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oU8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA49 |access-date=August 18, 2017|work=Life Magazine |date=March 8, 1963 |page=49}}</ref> The case was settled out of court.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schlosser |first1=Eric |title=Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety |year=2014 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780143125785 |page=297 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJ6JDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 |language=en}}</ref> The result of the settlement was that [[Columbia Pictures]], which had financed and was distributing ''Dr. Strangelove'', also bought ''Fail Safe'', which had been an independently financed production.<ref name=Slate>{{cite news |last1=Schulman |first1=Ari N. |title=Doomsday Machines|url=https://slate.com/technology/2014/10/fail-safe-50th-anniversary-sidney-lumets-nuclear-war-movie-is-better-than-dr-strangelove.html |access-date=July 21, 2020|work=Slate |date=October 7, 2014 }}</ref> Kubrick insisted that the studio release his movie first.<ref name="Jacobson">Jacobson, Colin. [http://www.dvdmg.com/failsafe.shtml "Review:Fail-Safe: Special Edition (1964)."] ''dvdmg.com,'' 2000. Retrieved: November 21, 2010.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Film}}
* ''[[The Bedford Incident]]'', a 1965 film based on a novel about an engagement between an American destroyer and a Soviet submarine in the North Atlantic.
* ''[[By Dawn's Early Light]]'', a 1990 TV film based on the novel ''[[Trinity's Child]]'' by [[William Prochnau]], about an accidental nuclear attack on the US and the subsequent desperate attempts to avoid nuclear annihilation.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* Dolan Edward F. Jr. ''Hollywood Goes to War''. London: Bison Books, 1985. {{ISBN|0-86124-229-7}}.
* Evans, Alun. ''Brassey's Guide to War Films''. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. {{ISBN|1-57488-263-5}}.
* Harwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". ''The Making of the Great Aviation Films'', General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
* LoBrutto, Vincent. ''Stanley Kubrick: A Biography.'' New York: Da Capo Press, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-306-80906-4}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{TCMDb title|4556}}
* {{IMDb title|0058083}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|failsafe}}
* {{AFI film|22481}}
* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6801-fail-safe-very-little-left-of-the-world ''Fail Safe: Very Little Left of the World''] an essay by [[Bilge Ebiri]] at the [[Criterion Collection]]

{{Sidney Lumet}}

[[Category:1964 films]]
[[Category:1960s American films]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:1960s thriller films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American political thriller films]]
[[Category:Cold War aviation films]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films about fictional presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Films about nuclear war and weapons]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Films based on military novels]]
[[Category:Films based on thriller novels]]
[[Category:Films directed by Sidney Lumet]]
[[Category:Films involved in plagiarism controversies]]
[[Category:Films set in 1964]]
[[Category:Films set in bunkers]]
[[Category:Films set in Moscow]]
[[Category:Films set in Nebraska]]
[[Category:Films set in New York City]]
[[Category:Films set in the Arctic]]
[[Category:Films set in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Films set on airplanes]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Walter Bernstein]]
[[Category:English-language thriller films]]