2632 / Fail Safe; My Man Godfrey
Friday, June 12th, 2026 21:43![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siriaFail Safe
Set during the Cold War, Fail Safe follows what happens in the hours after a technical glitch means that a U.S. bomber sets out on a mission to drop a nuclear bomb on the USSR.
Essentially a stage play which was broadcast live in 2000, because George Clooney really loves a live TV broadcast I guess. (Given the ending which involves a nuclear bomb being dropped on Manhattan, it wouldn't have aired even a year later.) It's a political thriller but the tension only really begins to ratchet up in the very last stages, thanks to a fairly didactic script and characters who are written only in service of ideas. (The ideas are that nuclear war, jingoism, slavish obedience to technology and capitalism are bad, however, so kudos for that, I guess.) What this does have going for it are some solid performances, particularly Brian Dennehy's.
Deserves some additional credit for how beautiful Noah Wyle's profile looks in black-and-white.
My Man Godfrey
A wealthy, daffy socialite in Depression Era New York City hires a homeless man to be her family's butler, and shenanigans ensue.
Imagine a wealthy American businessman today saying “I don’t mind giving the government 60 percent of what I make"! How times change. In other ways, the film's social positioning is a bit confused and the ending is just plain bizarre. It was like watching a grown man being married off to a toddler against his will. William Powell has great wry self-possession, and there are some good one-liners, but Carole Lombard pitched her performance too much in the "manic squawk" range for me to warm to her character or to root for Irene and Godfrey to end up together. Costumes and scene-framing are great.
Set during the Cold War, Fail Safe follows what happens in the hours after a technical glitch means that a U.S. bomber sets out on a mission to drop a nuclear bomb on the USSR.
Essentially a stage play which was broadcast live in 2000, because George Clooney really loves a live TV broadcast I guess. (Given the ending which involves a nuclear bomb being dropped on Manhattan, it wouldn't have aired even a year later.) It's a political thriller but the tension only really begins to ratchet up in the very last stages, thanks to a fairly didactic script and characters who are written only in service of ideas. (The ideas are that nuclear war, jingoism, slavish obedience to technology and capitalism are bad, however, so kudos for that, I guess.) What this does have going for it are some solid performances, particularly Brian Dennehy's.
Deserves some additional credit for how beautiful Noah Wyle's profile looks in black-and-white.
My Man Godfrey
A wealthy, daffy socialite in Depression Era New York City hires a homeless man to be her family's butler, and shenanigans ensue.
Imagine a wealthy American businessman today saying “I don’t mind giving the government 60 percent of what I make"! How times change. In other ways, the film's social positioning is a bit confused and the ending is just plain bizarre. It was like watching a grown man being married off to a toddler against his will. William Powell has great wry self-possession, and there are some good one-liners, but Carole Lombard pitched her performance too much in the "manic squawk" range for me to warm to her character or to root for Irene and Godfrey to end up together. Costumes and scene-framing are great.
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Date: 13/6/26 02:53 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13/6/26 02:56 (UTC)