20 minutes that'll make you terrified of buttons.
Film critic J. Hoberman discusses the best-selling 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler on which "Fail-Safe" is based, along with the pervasiveness of nuclear paranoia in films of the sixties.
Editing
Jarring archival cuts that time-travel dread.
Direction
Hoberman's scholarly panic is weirdly gripping.
Edward Binns
Self (archive footage)
Dana Elcar
Self (archive footage)
Henry Fonda
Self (archive footage)
Larry Hagman
Self (archive footage)
William Hansen
Self (archive footage)
Walter Matthau
Self (archive footage)
Dan O'Herlihy
Self (archive footage)
Frank Overton
Self (archive footage)
Hildy Parks
Self (archive footage)
Janet Ward
Self (archive footage)
Fritz Weaver
Self (archive footage)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1962 novel sold so fast it spawned two competing film adaptations—'Fail-Safe' and 'Dr. Strangelove'—released the same year.
Kubrick actually sued Columbia Pictures to delay 'Fail-Safe' because 'Strangelove' was too similar. The court said nah.
US
