FAIL SAFE

Anyone who found ‘A House of Dynamite’ tense and scary should really check out this 1964 precursor. It had the misfortune to come out a few months after ‘Dr Strangelove’ and as a result suffered at the box office, but in its own way it is very impressive. 

As the result of a freak accident, in which some new Soviet jamming technology plays a part, a group of US bombers are ordered to invade Soviet airspace and drop their nuclear bombs on Moscow.  That’s bad enough of course, but the real problem is that the Russians will inevitably launch an all-out retaliatory strike, leading to total nuclear Armageddon.

Cue frantic efforts to stop the bombers by any means, and to convince the Russian Premier that it’s all an accident. 

But there's a relentless inevitability about the fact that whatever desperate measures are used, including the US military giving their opposite numbers help in trying to shoot down the bombers, one plane will get through.

At that point the US President makes a truly horrific decision.  If the viewer doesn't find that decision credible then the film will have failed to convince.  But I for one was totally on board due to the excellent direction, screenplay and acting, which combine to give the film an almost documentary-like feel.  And I loved the black-and-white photography, especially in the closeups towards the end.

Henry Fonda is superb as the President, calmly exploring all avenues to avert catastrophe, and he is ably supported by the whole cast, especially Larry Hagman (of all people) as his interpreter, and Dan O'Herlihy and Frank Overton as a couple of senior military men.

Sidney Lumet is the director and as he demonstrated with the earlier 'Twelve Angry Men' he sure knows how to direct men in enclosed spaces: after a few early scenes this film takes place in just three interior locations, plus the cockpit of the key bomber.  He ratchets up the tension, leading to a gut-wrenching scene in which the wife of the bomber's senior pilot is imploring him to abort the mission at the same time as the bomber is having to take evasive action from a barrage of rockets.

We are also treated to a memorable performance by Walter Matthau as a political scientist who is so hostile to the Soviets that he takes every opportunity to expound the virtues of a 'limited' nuclear war. It’s another great example of his versatility and range as an actor.

The film is so terrifyingly convincing that it's not surprising that it ends with a caption in which the Department of Defense claims that the events shown could never happen.  I would guess though that this film led to a lot of anxious reviews of standard operating procedures.  If nothing else it surely highlighted the need to have a watertight way of enabling bomber pilots to distinguish between genuine and fake communications.