“FAILSAFE” WAS NOT SLEEP INDUCING

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33154, 19 February 1973, Page 4

“FAILSAFE” WAS NOT SLEEP INDUCING

There is nothing n quite so luxurious, par- | ticularly if you do not 1 get much chance to i watch television during i the week, as putting ® your feet up in front of J: the set after work on s Friday and watching a c feature film that does « not put you to sleep. c “Failsafe,” which explored t the possibility of nuclear war s by mistake, was more likely 1 to keep you awake than the £ usual run of Friday night t films. t Based on the best seller of ‘ the same name by Burdick ■ and Wheeler, the film cer- 1 tainly managed to maintain and build up suspense, with ‘ plenty of room for the imag- ’ ination to envisage the chill- 1 ing possibilities of an all-out ]

nuclear war between the. United States and the Soviet Union. “Failsafe” relies on the implications of a breakdown in the sophisticated defence system, when a squadron of bombers, ordered into the air, continue on their way and • actually get beyond the point of no return before the false alarm is discovered. The situation is all too clearly displayed on the electronic board in the Pentagon and at the United States Air Force headquarters. And ; viewers watch as the top secret orders are unzipped by the pilot and his crew—orders that carry nightmarish implications as they involve bombing Moscow with nuclear bombs. There have been a number of films on this theme, including spoofs, but this one maintains its serious overtones by bringing in the President of the United States early, thus establishing the gravity of the emergency situation. Henry Fonda makes a good President. Alone, but for Buck, the interpreter, he has to take the awesome responsibility as commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed services. And the drama intensifies as he reasons, urges, pleads and finally bargains with the Russian leader. A senior officer cracks under the strain, an embittered professional defence expert, with still-vivid memories of World War 11, urges an immediate full-scale strike, and attempts by the Russians to shoot down all the American bombers fail. i The bargain made by the j President is that if one bomber gets through and drops two thermo-nuclear bombs on Moscow, he will order an American bomber to drop a similar deadly load on New York, where, incidentally, the First Lady is ■: visiting that day. , ; Even an impassioned radio i plea by the pilot’s wife fails, . i and the aircraft does get through. The touch involving ,! the high-pitched noise being > synonymous with the melting i of the Ambassador’s telei phone was one of the most t realistic in the whole film. And the flashes of people » living their normal lives ir New York city, unaware ol

i the terrible death awaiting ; them, was a grim reminder : that while these weapon systems exist, mistakes can always be made. The postscript, no doubt added by the American State Department, that this sort of disaster can never happen, did nothing to soften the possibilities. Sis Sis Sj6

Songs and sketches from the “good old days” of Victoriana might be some I people’s cup of tea, but they i do not necessarily make for good television. “The South on Saturday” certainly pulled out the stops, and even joined in the fun at the music hall opening. Brian Allpress did his stuff belonging to Glasgow, twice, and if I’m not mistaken. Miss Edwards also obliged with a ditty. It must have been a luverly evening for all present, but the result on our television screens was rather like trying to re-create an uproariously funny bar-room evening, with everyone stone-cold sober. This was the main item on the “South on Saturday” and left the distinct impression that the N.Z.B.C. was determined to take us all out to the music hall, like it or not. At most, the establishment rated a camera shot or two, but little more. “Jokers Wild,” which for some extraordinary reason is rated as family entertainment, is billed as a joke-telling session between two teams of ! lively jokers. Frequently the so-called jokes fall flat, and just as fre- , quently, the jokers appear as ! much less than lively. This [ show invites swift use of the . off switch. I * * * > "Paul Temple” was much 1 better on Saturday evening ■ with a play that enabled him > to display his familiar flair and style. Incidentally, the > actor who plays Temple is , Francis Matthews, and his t wife, Steve, is played by Ros z Drinkwater. x Paul did not think that Dr » Matthew Fox, research fellow ’ at Oxford University, killed t himself. It was not so much that suicide was out of chare acter, but that there was a cause for seriously considerf ing he had been murdered. Some of the best sequences were in the- college itself, when Temple was “buzzed” at high table, and when various members of the staff made clear this distinct objection to what they regarded as his prying. As always, nothing too serious happens to Temple, who always gets where he wants to at precisely the right time. And the “revolutionaries” who had previously chased him on their bicycles, also arived in the nick of time.—PANDORA’S GUEST.