Fail Safe (35mm)

(Sidney Lumet, US 1964, 112 min., 35mm)

The Pentagon breaks out in a Cold War cold sweat when a glitch sends a group of Moscow-bound bombers past the point of no return. Performances by Dan O'Herlihy as a cool general, Walter Matthau as a power-mad scientist, and the venerable Henry Fonda as a principled President who must decide whether to shoot down the planes or unleash World War III.  This underrated tale of accidental Armageddon is one of the best of the nuclear catastrophe movies that emerged in the years immediately following the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the not-so-funny flipside to Dr. Strangelove (screening at the Dryden in June), Lumet’s taut thriller is gripping, intelligent, and still terrifyingly timely.