50 years ago this week the greatest Cold War suspense thriller Fail-Safe was released, and promptly fizzled at the box office. Directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the bestselling 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, it details what happens when an errant go-code is sent to a squadron of American Vindicator class jet fighters carrying nukes, with instructions to bomb Moscow. Once such an order is given, the jets cannot be recalled, even if ordered by the president of United States. The film stars Henry Fonda as the president desperately trying to stop the jets from bombing Moscow and starting WWIII. Fonda prepared for the role by studying accounts of how John F. Kennedy dealt with the Russians during the Cuban missile crisis. When Stanley Kubrick heard Lumet was working on the film, Kubrick sued him to halt production, because Kubrick was worried Fail-Safe would steal audiences from his satire of the Cold War Dr. Strangelove. Only years later when the movie was shown on late night television did its tense storyline and nail-biting plot twists find a wide and appreciative audience. CBS remade the film as a live TV drama in 2000, and broadcast it in black and white, an homage to the original.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 23:56:01 +0000
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