Fail-Safe [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Sidney Lumet Sidney Lumet

Overview

Based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe is set for the most part at Strategic Air Command headquarters, where a misguided transmission sends a squadron of bombers hurtling towards Russia, fully prepared to drop their atomic weaponry on Moscow. Air Force commander Frank Overton desperately tries to establish radio contact with the bombers, but once the pilots have passed the "fail safe" point, they've been instructed to disregard any reversal of orders. Racing against time, US President Henry Fonda, through his interpreter (Larry Hagman), informs the Russian premiere of the impending nuclear disaster. Working in concert with SAC, the Russians send up interceptors to shoot down the American bombers, while some of the planes run out of fuel and crash. Unfortunately, one aircraft, piloted by Edward Binns, manages to escape destruction and continues on its fatal mission. Realizing that Moscow is doomed, the President must decide how to avert World War III. Featured in the cast of Fail Safe are Walter Matthau as a hawkish scientist, Fritz Weaver as a round-the-bend colonel, and Dom DeLuise (billed as "DeLouise") as a weeping sergeant. Fail-Safe is followed by a government-dictated disclaimer insisting that the events leading up to the nuclear disaster depicted in the film could not possibly happen.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/28/2020
UPC:	0715515240413
Original Release:	1964
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:52:00
Sales rank:	3,847

Special Features

New 4k digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Audio Commentary from 2000 featuring Director Sidney Lumet; New interview with film critic J. Hoberman on 1960s nuclear paranoia and Cold War films; "Fail Safe" Revisited, a short documentary from 2000 including interviews with Lumet, Screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actor Dan O'Herlihy; Plus: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Walter Matthau	Groeteschele
Henry Fonda	President
Dan O'Herlihy	Gen. Black
Frank Overton	Gen. Bogan
Edward Binns	Col. Grady
Fritz Weaver	Col. Cascio
Larry Hagman	Buck
William Hansen	Secretary Swenson
Russell Hardie	Gen. Stark
Russell Collins	Knapp
Sorrell Booke	Cong. Raskob
Nancy Berg	Ilsa Wolfe
John Connell	Thomas
Frank Simpson	Sullivan
Hildy Parks	Betty Black
Janet Ward	Mrs. Grady
Dom DeLuise	Sgt. Collins
Dana Elcar	Foster
Stuart Germain	Mr. Cascio
Louise Larabee	Mrs. Cascio
Frieda Altman	Jennie
John P. Connell	Thomas
Nancy Berg Ilsa	Wolfe

Technical Credits

Walter Bernstein

Eugene Burdick

Harvey Wheeler

Sidney Lumet	Director,Producer
Walter Bernstein	Screenwriter
Max E. Youngstein	Producer
Eugene Burdick	Screenwriter
Harvey Wheeler	Screenwriter
Storyboard Inc	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

One little glitch threatens the world with a thermonuclear nightmare in Sidney Lumet's definitive cold-war drama, Fail-Safe. The plot is clean and to the point: A few U.S. bombers are accidentally sent toward Moscow, and the powers that be, including the president (Henry Fonda), spend the next desperate hour or so trying to stop World War III. There are some top-notch war room scenes here, and plenty of philosophical debate about whether nuclear war is winnable, yet despite the sensational subject, Lumet directs with magnificent restraint: Fail-Safe is shot in stark black-and-white and has no musical score. Fonda is the soul of the film as he presides over the crisis from a small bunker below the White House; he gives a brilliantly low-key performance, projecting a kindly, wise, and almost eerie calm, while his unspoken fears are clearly visible in his eyes. The result is a somber, chilling cautionary tale that builds slowly but inexorably to a surprising -- and very disturbing -- climax.

Barnes & Noble - Gregory Baird

Sidney Lumet's cold war thriller, adapted from the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, is a reasonably tense and well-played cautionary tale on the threat of nuclear holocaust with echoes of the then-recent Cuban missile crisis. The plot, which bears such a striking resemblance to that of Dr. Strangelove that director Stanley Kubrick threatened the studio with a plagiarism suit, centers on a group of SAC bombers that receive a mistaken order to unload nuclear warheads on Moscow. Lumet's theater and live television experience dovetailed nicely with a script that called for SAC headquarters to become the sole locus for most of the film, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobic suspense. Most of the steps in this doomsday genre follow a familiar ritual, and there is little here that is new. Familiar as the material may be, Lumet evokes fine performances from an excellent cast, including Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, and Larry Hagman.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello