Fail-Safe

Lumet... has a knack for landing a tight, winning premise. Fail Safe, a box office failure in its time that's been considered a classic ever since, is no exception.

Fail Safe imagines a no-win situation backing a sturdy, dependable American president in the proverbial corner, where, in a bit of sentimental and masochistically crowd-pleasing fantasy, he manages to do the right thing.

An impressive and disturbing brink-of-doom thriller.

It packs a melodramatic wallop that will rattle a lot of chattering teeth.

It faithfully translates on the screen the power and seething drama of the Eugene Burdick-Harvey Wheeler book.

Lumet sensibly avoids pyrotechnics in favour of tightening the psychological screws ...

Will have you clenching whatever is nearby...

I was literally on the edge of my seat... It really did make a huge impact on me... This is an under-the-radar classic.

...a progressively absorbing and electrifying drama...

doesn't pull any of its punches, and it has the strength of its own convictions to see things through the logical end, horrible though it may be