Fail-Safe

It's many years since I last saw Sidney Lumet's 'Fail-Safe', but having just watched it again, it still packs a hell of a punch. Essentially 'Dr Strangelove' played without the laughs, it's a shame it got eclipsed by Kubrick's masterpiece. A brilliant cast is just one of its many strengths; Dan O'Herlihy is exceptional, while Henry Fonda plays the solid president as only Henry Fonda could (while still being eerily close to Peter Sellar's President Muffley). Walter Matthau takes the position of Scott's General Turgidson, encouraging a first strike, and in his hawkish anti-Communist academic at least one real-life Pentagon advisor comes to mind. All in all well, well worth a viewing even today. The same issues really haven't gone away.