Fail Safe

A technical fault sends American bombers toward Moscow with a nuclear strike order that cannot be recalled. Sidney Lumet builds it as a crisis room drama, with Henry Fonda as the President spending nearly the whole film with a desk and a telephone. Its most striking formal decision is the absence of music. Jazz musician Hal Schaefer wrote a score and Lumet did not use it, opening instead on electronic sound effects, the same approach he had taken on 12 Angry Men. The silence is where the tension comes from. The Department of Defense and the Air Force refused to cooperate, because the premise involved losing control of nuclear strike forces, so the production used stock footage of real aircraft. The budget was under 1.2 million dollars and most of it was shot on New York soundstages. There was also a lawsuit. Stanley Kubrick and Peter George sued for copyright infringement, claiming the film resembled George's novel Red Alert. It settled out of court, Columbia took distribution, and Kubrick insisted his own film go first. Dr. Strangelove opened in January 1964 and Fail Safe followed nine months later in October, earning only 1.8 million dollars in rentals. Who it is for: viewers who want Cold War dread delivered cold and clinical. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action. The film happens almost entirely in rooms.