FAIL-SAFE | IMDB v2.1

FAIL-SAFE Aug 10, 2018 3:24:30 GMT mattgarth, Eλευθερί, and 2 more like this

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Post by mikef6 on Aug 10, 2018 3:24:30 GMT

Aug 10, 2018 3:14:41 GMT them1ghtyhumph said:

Aug 10, 2018 2:10:19 GMT london777 said:

Hardly surprising. They were both based on the same novel, "Red Alert" by Welsh author Peter George, though with adapters and screen-writers, modifying his story before it reached the screen in both cases. He only received a pittance in royalties. Whether that was a factor in his suicide two years later I do not know.

I think you should look into the reasons for his suicide.

Each was based on a different novel. The authors of “Fail-Safe” – Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler – had to make an out-of-court settlement to British author Peter George whose novel “Red Alert” had come out 4 years earlier and had basically the same plot: accidental American nuclear attack on Russia (a mad General in “Alert”, mechanical failure in “Fail-Safe”), communications between the President and Premier, U.S. helping Russia shoot down their own planes, and the offer to “trade cities” to prevent all-out nuclear war. The lawsuit effected the production of the movies. The suit was filed when Stanley Kubrick was filming “Strangelove” with Peter George as co-writer of the screenplay. They panicked when they heard that “Fail-Safe” was also in production and at the same studio (F-S was a Columbia production, DS was an independent production, dist. by Columbia, to be precise), so made the move to sue to prevent the release of F-S. Part of the settlement was that “Strangelove” would be released first. “Fail-Safe” reached theaters about 10 months later.

I’m not sure if the source novel by Burdick and Wheeler is being read much any more. I read it in H.S. and thought it had too much filler material like the long chapters relating the biographies of Buck the translator (played by Larry Hagman in the film), Groeteschele (Walter Matthau) and General Black (Dan O'Herlihy). Director Sidney Lumet and his writers wisely jettisoned all that and filmed in a tight noir style.