Fail-Safe

Fail-Safe 1957

[@yaknbo]

The wife's performance is excellent.

[@youdontseeanoldmanhavinatw4904]

It is? Lol

[@gkprivate433]

Fuck me this was a great movie. I was born in 57, and remember seeing this as a kid on tv after it came out

[@giantskunk]

Love the irony that at the start of the film the pilot was criticizing the younger pilots for lacking a “human factor” and yet he goes by the book to the end despite the numerous “human factor” attempts to convince him to do otherwise.

[@jamesronchi114]

Jetmech is right. This was one of the most intense scenes (& movie) ever. The pilot torn between his duty & knowing what his wife is saying is true. Fail Safe is chock full of intensity. General Bogan forcing a young Dom Deluise to tell the Russians how to blow up the missles on our planes. Pilot Grady hanging up on the President & Henry Fondas wide eyed stare. Bogan screaming at the War Room personnel that "This isn't some damn football game!". The shrill sound from the Ambassadors phone. Finally General Black as he commits suicide realizing just who "The Matador" really is. Fail Safe...........A truly great movie.

[@timwanwick6503]

Very intelligent movie -- they really don't make them this good anymore .

[@infantryattacks]

It was a great movie. It is still a great book.

[@ravingdave2757]

James Ronchi, thanks for your insightful observations

[@hibob418]

First saw this when I was about 10, and it really did a number on me. Can't see it today without getting chills. One of the most effective moments in all of cinema. Thanks very much for the post!

[@jamesdrynan]

According to Lumet, Janet Ward was hired for one day's work and was unconnected with the entire movie. She simply had to hit the ground running and deliver an exceptional performance of extraordinary depth. The editing of this scene is excruciatingly tense and her being surrounded by four figures in uniform is brilliant staging. Her final anguished cry of " Nooo! " is hair-raising and heartbreaking.

[@richspinaci8293]

She was excellent in such a small role

[@briggsquantum]

An incredible performance, pure distilled emotion. Another is Caitlyn Costello in "The Verdict" exclaiming "who were these men!". Brilliant stuff exemplifying the best in movie making.

[@josephthomasjr.6551]

The word "electrifying" was made for this movie. Superb! Magnificent! And profoundly alarming!

[@bigrobtheactor]

An unforgettable masterpiece.

[@turkey0165]

I remember that era that summer of 1964 . “He loves me, he loves me not!” I hope to God that What happens in this movie never never never happens In the future of this country or the world!

[@SteveMG500]

Amazing scene. That's remarkable acting.
Chilling.

[@user-wu3hb3ck6u]

being a Russian woman, when I saw this film in 1993 in Japan, I was devastated by this technocratic machine which took away from all human beings; its humanity. the human being remains only a simple cog of a well-oiled mechanism.
even the president of the United States cannot stop this major crisis because the machine-men are imperturbable.
I remember; at the end of the film, when the president of the USA tells the first secretary of the CCCP party; {we are all responsible}, I was, and still am, okay with that.
to take humanity away from a human being so that he can do the unthinkable is the first crime against humanity.

[@oldgoat142]

Well put. I've always been curious as to how other people besides Americans viewed the message in this film. Thank you for sharing your viewpoint.

[@user-wu3hb3ck6u]

@@oldgoat142 You are welcome.

[@James-pe1ky]

Concur with your commentary. My mother is Polish/German, survived the horrors of WII. Her mother, WWI&II. She saw this when it came out here in the States. As I grew into my teens she gave me vivid graphic detail of what went on and the mindset of all combatants. She said of Fail Safe, leadership on both sides was portrayed well for the theme. Colonel Kurtz "Horror" dialog in "Apocalypse Now" gives a graphic image of where conflict can go as well.

[@dtrix10kc]

Remarkable movie in every sense of the word. What a masterpiece.

[@MegaCrocosaurus92]

So ahead of it's time! An absolutely grim and NERVE-RACKING film!

[@dtrix10kc]

+XenoKaiju The climax.....gut-wrenching, terrifying and heart-breaking. I've never been able to forget that sequence as the bomb dropped on NY. Flashes of citizens going about their every day lives, not knowing that destruction fell from above. The birds taking flight and the children......the children. Fail Safe.....a masterpiece and a nightmare.

[@MegaCrocosaurus92]

The shriek of the telephone almost stopped my heart.

[@dtrix10kc]

+XenoKaiju The shriek of that melting telephone and almost certainly the shriek of the dying ambassador as nuclear death claimed him. My father's white-knuckled grip on his easy chair and tears in his eyes as he watched with me, a youngster, beside him on a foot stool.
His heart-broken expression as he said, "Son, I pray to God above that we as a civilization, never come to this."
Fail Safe performs the Aztec Treatment on me to this day. It rips my still warm and beating heart out of my chest and hands it back to me.
It's bone-chilling to watch, but a movie that everyone should watch in this day and age.
It's the very best of the cold war era.

[@Blastadonn]

They showed us this movie in fifth grade, just before summer break. The melting phone still shows up in my nightmares from time to time.

[@mjs28c]

Reading the comments....some clarification is needed:
The pilot flying this plane is Colonel Grady.
The pilot flying the plane over Manhattan is General Black (the 'matador').

[@tonyrestaino1967]

Seen this masterpiece over 2 dozen times and that scream at 1;26 still makes the hair's on my arm's stand up.

[@briggsquantum]

Agreed. It is something beyond acting. Primal.

[@TralfazConstruction]

Edward Binns commands those scenes in which he appears. Fail-Safe (1964), for me, gets better with repeated viewings. My father took me with him to see this when I was eight years-old; I classified this as an "airplane movie" at the time. Earlier in the year Dad had taken me to see Dr. Strangelove (1964) another "airplane movie" but I did take note of General Turgidson's scantily clad secretary also.

[@Astrobrant2]

Oh, yeah, man, she was a doll! So was the one in this movie that Walter Matthau's character slapped the crap out of.

[@georgethompson7683]

Every scene in this movie is intense this is one movie that will send chills through u knowing after this movie that things similar to this goes on everyday and henry fonda as pres.and hagman as the interpreter the most tense scene for any president to deal with a classic ✈🇺🇸👍😎

[@mongoosesvd]

They don't make movies like this anymore. I saw the re-make a few years ago and I like the original better.

[@benjjerman]

A seriously underrated movie. I was riveted to my seat the first time I saw this.

[@bigbob1699]

Please note , that there is no mood music any where .

[@johnstreet1812]

THE definitive cold war thriller. Period.

[@astrolabe1976]

amazing editing in this sequence. powerful

[@pschroeter1]

One of the ironies of this scene was the pilot says they got so much radiation they might as well just fly in very low and then suddenly fly upwards and let the bombs detonate inside the plane at a higher altitude, making them impossible to shoot down.

[@JoeTaclas-cc3rw]

The doubt in Brady's eyes hearing his wife's hysterical plea, knowing the Soviets could be making it all up...

[@southerninfidel3141]

No matter what you do one of our planes will get through.........damn straight !! Merica !!

[@infantryattacks]

It's too bad the video ends before the squadron commander finishes his comment that he intends to climb to altitude over Moscow and die when the altimeter fuzes detonate the H-bombs. The weapons officer's statement that there is nothing to go back to is chilling. One of the best movies produced at the height of the Cold War.

[@Noodles37UK]

I've seen both versions. Brilliant.

[@cfoxYOU]

@cfoxYOU On The Beach (1959) is also worthwhile.

[@lostvlog6857]

Great scene!

[@georgewilkinson1068]

A gripping masterpiece.

[@Mikey300]

Cameo by an X-15 at 0:55, with its B-52 drop ship's contrails above it.

[@DylansPen]

This film only made about $2 million at the box office but it is I think the best movie about the cold war there is, and it was made in the mid 60's when nuclear war was a breath away.

[@jagerfaust2009]

@dougalmac54
Hi mate, I agree 100% with what you replied (4 months ago) to the Gator nut..
Nobody could give those performances today in that scenario. A different time and a real "classic"
jager ...Cheers!

[@Rickwmc]

This movie came out in 1964 - just before the "Nuclear Bomb" election advertisements in favor of Democratic candidate Lyndon Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater who openly declared he would use nuclear weapons - especially in Vietnam. Those ads were terrifying.

[@railcar123]

Intense scene and movie...

[@chopperpilot5]

what a haunting scene

[@Rickwmc]

This generation has no idea how close humanity came to global nuclear warfare in October 1962.

[@sillyone52062]

Spartaculus Jones And 1983 and 1985!

[@Rickwmc]

@@sillyone52062 Those two incidents were not publicized, but you are quite right. Thanks, friend.

[@Rickwmc]

@@sillyone52062 You're right all these years later I finally learned about Lieutenant Stanislav Petrov who on September 26, 1983 almost single-handedly saved the entire world and all of humanity when he refused to notify the Soviet High Command of 5 incoming missiles headed towards Moscow who then surely, almost automatically, would have fired off a full scale Soviet retaliation against those five US ICBM's headed toward Moscow. A minute later terrified Soviet officials realized the American 'attack" was a computer glitch. Another man might have notified the high command. Stan rightly figured that only 5 missiles must be a mistake. Before he died in 2017, there were two movies made about him: The Man Who Saved Humanity, and, The Red Button.

[@davidstegne2044]

I was born in 84, the cuban missile crisis and able archer were far too close to anihalation. Movies like this show when deterrence goes arye..

[@TairnKA]

All she needed to do was mention the "Matador".

[@gerardclark4289]

Powerful stuff

[@sethwyo7905]

After watching this movie I could never stand to watch doctor strange Love,
this movie really delivered a powerful message and after seeing it , strange love was so stupid I made me mad every time I even see the picture for the movie

[@dougalmac54]

@TheGatorfan93 Absolute nonsense. This film is a classic and is acted superbly. Your "standards" are a joke. The only thing that fails on all levels is your "analysis."

[@candrew14]

start World War III or stay married - tough choice

[@itstheburnz]

Lol

[@gkprivate433]

funny showing a B-58 hustler in which the crew sat behind each other and not beside each other as all the cockpit scenes show

[@stevetheduck1425]

The bombers in both the book and film are called Vindicators, a non-existent plane depicted with negative monochrome stock footage of many planes including a Convair B-58 Hustler, a Grumman F9F Cougar (as in this clip), and even the North American X-15 (as briefly seen in this clip).
The X-15 clip could equally well be showing one of the missiles being chased by other missiles, that's how I read it.
I find this film far superior in subject matter and execution than it's rival Dr. Strangelove.
The most human character in the film able to affect the outcome is (remarkably) General Black, who must take on himself the duty of ending the war (we hope) by destroying New York and does so out of friendship for the man he's known since University (the President).

[@oldgoat142]

Well, like Mr. Dante said, they didn't really have a big budget and were unsupported by the military brass, so basically they scratched together whatever they could find.

[@cfoxYOU]

You are absolutely right, it was 1964.

[@davidgifford8112]

Too dark for most audiences, Strangelove does it with a sugar pill of black humour and the premise of sexual impotence driven insanity. Strangelove remains a top listed movie of all time and the equally compelling Fail Safe is almost forgotten.

[@klatu1956]

Nothing can stop the USAF.

[@bigbillstudd]

Her name was Janet Ward. She was one hot babe!

[@jimsims9422]

The only scene ever to compare to this is the Deer Hunter compound scene.

[@ebf1957]

@billpeterson5150
Hilda Sims played Ed Binns' wife.

[@KevinBalch-dt8ot]

According to Wikipedia it was Janet Ward.

[@glouconx983]

This was their last hope.

[@klatu1956]

I wish i could find a girl to love me as much as corenal gradys wife helen loves him!This is a magnifacente performace by this actress and i dont know who she is!Sidny the director is no stanly kubrick!The inside of a B-58 Hustler not vigalente is very different thenin this film.its a lot smaller and has less armenents. dr' strange love was right on though aboput a b-52.

[@emilyoshiro]

1964, I was 9

[@al1936ful]

It's 1964, not 1957.

[@canbest7668]

0:55 I think that is footage of an X-15

[@stevetheduck1425]

You are right; it's a camera looking back along the X-15's path from just in front of the tail surfaces.

[@SPiderman-rh2zk]

This Vindicator is pretty phenomenal, not only does it fly airborne alert missions despite having four fuel guzzling J79s and outruns interceptors and their missiles, it can also fire X-15s at whatever threatens it!

[@None-zc5vg]

@@SPiderman-rh2zk Sloppy editing and use of any old footage spoils a lot of pictures and this one was no exception: see also the "Pearl Harbor attack" footage in 1953's "From Here To Eternity".

[@rockyroad442]

Real world situation

[@nickpn23]

What a wasted opportunity. Couldn't she indicate something secret between them to verify her ID instead of just ranting? If I had her voice screaming at me over the airwaves like that, I'd start WW3 too.

[@alanstevens1296]

Professor Grossbelch

[@Delta2D2]

Sounds like my wife trying to justify her last purchase was cheaper than it actually was!

[@MrValiant61]

@TheGatorfan93 Well, i guess we`re all entitled to an opinion. Let`s leave it at that.

[@brittoverbaugh4035]

1:21

[@itstheburnz]

Looks like a bad Twilight Zone...closed in, cheap set...I couldn't sit still through this.

[@williambozynski1176]

Not enough blinking lights eh?

[@brianarbenz1329]

As much as I appreciate this film and Dr. Strangelove and 7 Days in May, each has just one woman with a significant part. They play the pigeonholed roles of the highly emotional screamer, the self-doubting dependent girlfriend, or the barbie doll secretary. Formulas of the gender exclusive major motion picture industry.

[@jeffaddis5715]

christ give it a rest you woke moron

[@williambozynski1176]

@@jeffaddis5715 AMEN JEFF!!

[@docmalthus]

As one who is old enough to have seen each one of these in theatrical release I can tell you that is just about the way women were regarded then. Not right but that's the way it was.

[@youdontseeanoldmanhavinatw4904]

Remake is honestly better

[@klatu1956]

also technicly this could never happen like its done in fail safe. ive herd ex air force officers and enlisted perrsonell say its possible in a strangelove senerio though! in fact it's easyer.you cant give a go code if its only in the presidents attachhe case! but there is always a recall code. the new abc submarine with the negroe captain is a frweaking horror show and a discrace.

[@klatu1956]

I agree I might be predijudiced cause im older but it sems to mee actors from the 30's to 60's putore into the role then they do today! It could be the homosexual influence in hollywood now that billionaires run the film industry who are not norman sexualy.

[@Ryan-qv9ed]

What

[@MrKUBRICKIAN]

Of course it was silly,it was a satire.But the ironic thing,strangelove still had better acting and a more plausible plot!Not to mention obviously,much MUCH more intelligent and imaginative than this unintentional comedy.And what annoying characters?As opposed to the wooden or over the top cast of fail-safe?No joint chief or anyone else would follow the president's order.Think about it,''Well we bombed new york..whew..everything's fixed now''.LOL cmon,it's not terrifyingit's just corny.