About "fail safe" (1964 or 2000), and "Dr Stangelove and... bomb" ?

Question

yesterday I saw the 1964 fail safe, I had saw before the 2000 version, and liked them a lot.

but also, last night "Dr stangelove ... bomb" came to my memory and looked to me there was a relation in the scripts, both apperared in 1964, jeje

even if they're not exactly (to me , very alike) , isn't the idea about the same?

am I wrong,

Answer 1

You are right that both have similar plots - but their treatment of the material is drastically different.  Namely, "Fail-Safe" is a very serious thriller while "Dr. Strangelove" is a dark comedy.

"Dr. Strangelove" is the superior of the two films, in my opinion.

Answer 2

You're correct, they are very similar and for a good reason: Dr. Strangelove (1964) was based on the novel "Red Alert" by author Peter George, who collaborated on the screenplay. Fail-Safe (1964) was based on the novel of the same name by authors Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The later is so similar to "Red Alert" that Peter George sued on charges of plagiarism. During the filming of Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick learned that Fail-Safe (1964), a film with a similar theme, was being produced and feared that its overall plot resemblances would damage Dr. Strangelove's box office potential, especially if it were to be released first. Kubrick succeeded  to halt the production on Fail-Safe by arguing that its source novel of the same name had been plagiarized from Peter George's Red Alert, so Fail-Safe opened a full eight months behind Dr. Strangelove with mediocre box office results. When Fail-Safe (1964) was released, it garnered excellent reviews, but audiences found it unintentionally funny because of  Dr. Strangelove, and stayed away. Henry Fonda later said he would never have made this movie if he had seen Dr. Strangelove first, because he would have laughed too.

Answer 3

Yes, they are very similar.  But Fail Safe wasn't concerned with one's precious bodily fluids and so is much inferior to Strangelove.  Plus Strangelove had the funnier phone call between the us president and the soviet premier.  "Yes, Yuri, this is a friendly call.  Hey, if it wasn't friendly I wouldn't even be calling."  Great Movie.