Fail-Safe

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Fail-Safe details the chaos that unfolds after a technical malfunction sends American planes into Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack – with the movie following several figures, including Henry Fonda’s President, Walter Matthau’s Dr. Groeteschele, and Dan O’Herlihy’s General Black, as they attempt to avert the impending crisis. Filmmaker Lumet, armed with a script by Walter Bernstein and Peter George, delivers a progressively absorbing and electrifying drama that admittedly gets off to a rather shaky start, as the picture opens with a decidedly underwhelming (and curiously low-rent) dream sequence that segues into an overly talky and distressingly dry opening stretch – with the predictably solid performances and Lumet’s stark, mesmerizing visuals effectively compensating for the otherwise far-from-flawless atmosphere. It’s clear, then, that Fail-Safe improves considerably once the aforementioned technical malfunction occurs, as the movie, beyond that point, adopts an often astonishingly tense sensibility that’s heightened by a continuing emphasis on engrossing, mesmerizing sequences – with, for example, virtually everything involving Fonda’s character’s fraught discussions with the Russian leader possessing an impressively gripping punch. The final third, buoyed by a thoroughly shocking and surprising plot development, is as rewarding and satisfying as one might’ve initially hoped, to be sure, with the final result a slightly erratic yet completely captivating endeavor that remains just as potent all these years later.

***1/2 out of ****