On 9 Jan 1963, LAT announced that Max E. Youngstein’s newly formed production company, Entertainment Corporation of America (ECA), paid $500,000 for the motion picture rights to Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler’s 1962 bestseller, Fail-Safe, which depicted the fallout of the U.S. government accidentally initiating a nuclear war. Around this time, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick had begun filming a satirical take on the same subject: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, see entry), based on the Peter George novel, Red Alert (1959). Both projects were to be distributed by Columbia Pictures. The 12 Feb 1963 DV reported that George filed a plagiarism lawsuit against Burdick, Wheeler, their publishers, and ECA, alleging that the similarities between the source materials created “unfair competition” that would damage the commercial value of Dr. Strangelove. According to a 27 Mar 1963 Var article, the dispute prompted ECA’s financier, Ace Film, to withdraw further investment in Fail Safe. Although a 21 Mar 1963 LAT item claimed production had been canceled, ECA resolved to seek support elsewhere, as they had already spent $210,000 on development costs and established offices in New York City. Up to this point, funds had been provided by ECA’s parent corporation, Television Industries. The following month, the 6 Apr 1963 NYT announced that the case was settled out of court, but resulted in the total dissolution of ECA, with Columbia assuming all remaining production duties.
       Principal photography began 15 Apr 1964 in New York City. Significant measures were taken to ensure the picture was produced both as quickly and cheaply as possible, with the 28 Apr 1964 DV reporting a planned budget of less than $1.2 million. According to a 16 Jul 1963 LAT article, filmmakers received no cooperation from the Pentagon or U.S. Armed Forces, and interiors of the Pentagon and Strategic Air Command base were replicated on sound stages of the Fox Movietone Studios on 10th Avenue. While the “President” and “General Black” only communicate via intercom, stars Henry Fonda and Dan O’Herlihy spent two weeks rehearsing their dialogue “as if [they] were in a Broadway show,” allowing them to become familiar with the script. They then filmed their scenes separately, which “cut shooting time in half.” The 28 Apr 1963 NYT stated that Lumet spent a week on location at LaGuardia airport, where production utilized the interiors of training aircraft for the scenes set inside a bomber plane. Despite earlier reports of a four-to-six-week shooting schedule, it was not until 23 Aug 1963 that DV announced that production had “recently” been completed.
       Although the release dates of several politically themed films were affected by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Nov 1963, Columbia did not plan to open Fail Safe until the following autumn. According to the 27 Sep 1964 NYT, the world premiere took place mid-Sep 1964, as part of the second annual New York Film Festival, followed by a citywide engagement on 7 Oct 1964. An 11 Nov 1964 LAT news item reported that Fail Safe opened that day in twenty-eight theaters in Los Angeles, CA.
       Reviews were generally positive, but its late release invited several comparisons to Dr. Strangelove, which opened eight months earlier. NYT critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the two films presented “diametrically opposing estimations of the capacity of man,” with Fail Safe offering the less cynical perspective and a “more realistic premise.”