1964 ... the genius of 'Failsafe'


 Important men need dramatic important rooms to make their decisions in. The set for the War Room at the Pentagon is well appointed mid-century corporate - but a little claustrophobic. It lends to the drama of the debate. Is this room in a hardened bunker below the Pentagon building?
 


William Hansen as Sec. of Defense Swenson listens silently to the debate between the think tank advisor and the Air Force General. I am trying to figure out why the Secretary was portrayed as a 'cripple'. ( We see him enter the conference room late- on the type of steel crutches often used by Polio victims in those times.) Was it a dramatic device of was the actor Hansen actually disabled at that point in his life?
 

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