The Movie: Fail Safe (1964)
What Is It?: The same
year that Stanley Kubrick decided the subject of accidental nuclear
annihilation was too absurd to take seriously, Sydney Lumet took it quite
seriously. The results are taut and terrifying. The cast—Dan O’Herlihy, Walter
Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Henry Fonda, Larry Hagman—is explosive.
Why Today?: On
this day in 1963, Washington and Moscow
establish a “red telephone” link after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
