The Henry Fonda movie sabotaged by the government: “We opened to no audience”
It’s one thing to be a great actor, but it’s something else entirely to begin an acting dynasty. Henry Fonda ticks both of those boxes. Beginning his career on Broadway, he became a movie star on both sides of World War II, amassing one of the most impressive filmographies of the era. Though he passed away in 1982, his legacy continued through two of his children, Peter and Jane.
Throughout his career, Fonda’s movies have always been popular. His final film, On Golden Pond, was the second-highest-grossing movie of 1981, behind only Raiders of the Lost Ark. His pre-war efforts included Jesse James, Young Mister Lincoln (in which he played the former president), and The Grapes of Wrath, which saw him give an Oscar-nominated turn as the classic literary figure Tom Joad.
Fonda also has his fair share of hidden gems, few of which are as hidden as the 1964 Cold War thriller Fail Safe. Directed by Sidney Lumet, who famously helmed another Fonda project, 12 Angry Men, Fail Safe is about the chain of events that follows a technical error leading an American nuclear bomber to believe they have been ordered to attack the Soviet Union. Fonda plays the President of the United States (a fictional one, this time), whilst his co-stars include Dan O’Harlihy, Larry Hagman, and Walter Matthau.
If you think you’ve heard that plot before, chances are you’re thinking of Stanley Kubrick’s legendary satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Pretty much exactly the same thing happens in both films, right down to the involvement of the president. Kubrick took a less serious approach to his story, but still felt like his film was under threat from Lumet’s offering. So, ironically for a man making an anti-war movie, Kubrick went into battle himself.
The director based his screenplay for Strangelove on a book called Red Alert by Peter George. To try and repress Fail Safe, Kubrick and George filed a lawsuit against the film, citing plagiarism. The two parties settled out of court, but this significantly damaged the less-famous project. What sealed Fail Safe’s fate was when its distribution rights were bought by Columbia Pictures, the same company that owned Strangelove. Kubrick demanded that his film come out first, a wish he was granted. In Lumet’s own words, “We opened to no audience whatsoever. You have to look silly after the comedy version has come out.”
It turns out that Kubrick and Columbia weren’t the biggest threat that Fail Safe had to deal with. The US government didn’t like how they were portrayed in the film, so they went out of their way to discredit it. “The incidents in Fail Safe are deliberate lies!” said General Curtis LeMay, a high-ranking Air Force official who earned the nickname ‘Old Iron Pants’. “Nothing like that could happen.” It should be noted that another of the General’s nicknames was ‘Bombs Away LeMay’, so he may have had a vested interest.
With the combined forces of Stanley Kubrick and the US government against it, Fail Safe didn’t stand a chance. It’s a good movie and Fonda gives a great performance, so if you feel like it deserved a better chance, do the right thing and seek it out.
