Fail Safe
Short description
During the Cold War, an electronic failure inside the American military system sends a group of nuclear bombers toward Moscow on a course they believe is a real attack order. Once the mistake is recognized, the crews cannot simply be recalled, and the planes are ordered to stay off the radio and carry out their mission. The President of the United States has only hours to find a way to stop them before the Soviet Union responds.
Sidney Lumet directed the film, the second of the twenty-six features he made, following 12 Angry Men and preceding The Pawnbroker. Walter Bernstein wrote the screenplay, and Max E. Youngstein and Charles H. Maguire produced it for Columbia Pictures. Henry Fonda plays the President, with Walter Matthau as Prof. Groeteschele, Fritz Weaver as Col. Cascio, Larry Hagman as Buck, Frank Overton as Gen. Bogan and Edward Binns as Col. Jack Grady among the twenty-four credited cast members.
The film runs 112 minutes and mixes drama, thriller and war elements. On IMDb it holds a film critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from twenty-nine reviews, while on TMDB it has a rating of 7.8 out of 10 from 495 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Both this film by Sidney Lumet (1924-2011) and Stanley Kubrick's (1928-1999) "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1963) were ready at Columbia Pictures, but Kubrick insisted that his film be released first, and it premiered in January 1964. When "Fail-Safe" was finally released, the reviews were excellent, but audiences found it funny precisely because they had already seen Kubrick's film. Even Henry Fonda (1905-1982) later said that he would not have worked with Lumet if he had seen Kubrick's film first.
- The images on the supposedly computer screen on the wall (which reflected a world map, airplanes, and explosions) were actually painted and, accordingly, animated.
- The enormous metallic telephone used by the president to speak with the Soviet premier was actually a telephone – the kind used in mining companies during blasting operations.
- The supposedly satellite view, which zooms in on the image for closer examination, is in fact a recording from a camera installed on a German V2 rocket, subsequently played in reverse.
- In the conference room where the president speaks with the Soviet premier, a clock showing 11 o'clock hangs on the wall. These are the so-called “Doomsday Clock,” counting down the time remaining until nuclear apocalypse, and began counting down in 1947. Depending on the increase or decrease in international tension between the United States and the USSR, along with their satellite countries, the clock's hands move forward or backward.
- When filming Colonel Grady's cockpit, played by Ed Binns (1916-1990), they did not use sets, but a flight simulator rented for the filming.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
