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Fail-Safe

Presented by The Colonial Theatre

July 17, 2011

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Sponsored by Phoenixville Area Education Association

This high-tension thriller provides yet another way in which our civilization could be wiped out; what if a mechanical malfunction were to cause a U.S. bomber mission to set out on a deadly course to wipe out Moscow with nuclear devices, thus setting off World War III? And what if there were no way of calling it back from its “doomsday mission”?

Based on the best-selling novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, and starring Henry Fonda as the President who must make agonizing decisions, this is the ultimate cold-war nightmare, played out in real time. With a great secondary cast, including Walter Matthau, Dan O'Herlihy, and Larry Hagman, and directed by the late Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon) Fail-Safe is one of the most suspenseful films of the 1960s. (NOTE: Although Stanley Kubrick told a very similar story in Dr. Strangelove, released the same year, and effectively played the concept for laughs, we can assure you that this one is not a laugh-fest, but is played with deadly seriousness, tension, and intelligence.) (Bill Roth)

Directed by Sidney Lumet. US. 1964. PG. 112 min. Sony. DVD.