"Fail Safe" (1964)

“Fail Safe” (1964) - Intro

Written by: Josh Lansky

TCM’s “The Essentials”

Intro:

Hi everybody, I’m Dave Karger and welcome to Turner Classic Movies. Coming up, we continue our showcase of Walter Matthau with our next film, from Columbia Pictures in 1964, starring Dan O’Herlihy, Henry Fonda, and our star of the night, Walter Matthau, it’s “Fail Safe.” The story of how a minor technical mishap could put the world on the brink of nuclear war. Said to be the finest Cold War thriller ever made, the film showcases the theory behind ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’ or ‘MADD’ and really puts the theory to the test. ‘MADD’ describes the likely path of nuclear escalation. The scenario goes like this: if either the U.S. or the Soviet Union were to attack one another, the 2nd country would respond- leading to all-out nuclear war. The ‘MADD’ theory was stretched to its limit during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when it looked to many that nuclear war was inevitable. Less than two years later came “Fail Safe.” “Fail Safe” effectively shows how well our nuclear defense system works and…well…it’s not all that effective. Director of the film, Sidney Lumet chose not to use any score what-so-ever, Lumet instead slowly builds tension relying on nothing but the performance of the cast and the tension of the events. And the story is just that, tense, almost suffocatingly so, and downright terrifying. Henry Fonda, who plays the United States’s Commander-in-Chief attempts to figure out what’s next after an American Bomber is accidentally sent to Moscow with a Nuclear Payload. It’s a gripping story all the way through till its bitter end. From 1964, here is: “Fail Safe.”*******

“Fail Safe” (1964) - Outro

Written by: Josh Lansky

TCM’s “The Essentials”

Outro:

Hollywood producers and directors often use what’s happening in the world to inspire the movies they create, the same holds true here. In the early 1960’s, perhaps the most consistently important story in the headlines was the very real threat of Nuclear War. And during 13 infamous days in October of 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union came dangerously close to a doomsday scenario - The Cuban Missile Crisis film. “Fail Safe” is one of the first films to present the threat of Nuclear annihilation on the big screen. “Fail-Safe” was based on a best-selling novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, unfortunately for Sydney Lumet’s film, Stanley Kubrick had a similar idea just 9 months earlier. Kubrick’s films “Dr. Strangelove” was based on a similar story, only his film was a comedy. The films were in production around the same time and ultimately for the same studio. The similar stories combined with Kuebrick’s light hearted take made it hard for people to take “Fail Safe” seriously. So by the time “Fail Safe” was released a few months later, it certainly had lost a bit of its punch, which is too bad, because it is truly an excellent film. Up next, a cautionary tale on the use of Marijuana, it’s “Reefer Madness.” We’ll see you next time, here, on TCM. *******