Dir: Sidney Lumet | Cast: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau | US Political thriller
In the Simpsons episode ‘Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming’, in addition to the predictabe references to Dr Strangelove, the producers as usual showed that they’d cast their net wide by quoting both Fail-Safe and the notorious ‘Countdown’ election broadcast of 1964.
Made almost simultaneously with Dr Strangelove but held back so the two films didn’t clash, director Sidney Lumet was always of the view that the films were released in the wrong order since Strangelove had achieved such an impact ‘Fail-Sale’ could only suffer by comparison; which is a shame as the characters in Strangelove were a bunch of buffoons who plainly deserved everything they got, while ‘Fail-Safe’ depicted sane men trapped in an insane situation. @RichardChatten