Fail Safe (1964 film)

Fail Safe
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySidney Lumet
Screenplay by (uncredited)
Based onFail-Safe
by Eugene Burdick
Harvey Wheeler
Produced bySidney Lumet
Charles H. Maguire
Max E. Youngstein
Starring
CinematographyGerald Hirschfeld
Edited byRalph Rosenblum
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • October 7, 1964 (1964-10-07)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.8 million (rentals)[1]

Fail Safe is a 1964 Cold War thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The film follows a crisis caused by a critical error that sends a group of U.S. bombers to destroy Moscow, and the ensuing attempts to stop the bomber group before it can deploy a nuclear first strike. The film features performances by actors Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Fritz Weaver, Edward Binns, Larry Hagman, Sorrell Booke, Dana Elcar and Dom DeLuise.

In 2000, the novel was adapted again as a televised play starring George Clooney, Richard Dreyfuss and Noah Wyle, and broadcast live in black and white on CBS.

  1. ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1964". Variety, January 6, 1965, pg 39.