Suddenly

Director: Lewis Allen Lewis Allen

Overview

Suddenly is the name of the small town invaded by professional assassin Frank Sinatra and his henchmen. Taking a local family hostage, Sinatra sets up a vigil at the second-story window of the family's home. From here, he intends to kill the President of the United States when the latter makes a whistle-stop visit. The film's tension level is enough to induce goose pimples from first scene to last. Sinatra is outstanding as the disgruntled war vet who hopes to become a "somebody" by killing the president. The parallels between his character and Lee Harvey Oswald's are too close for comfort, so much so that Suddenly was withdrawn from local TV packages for several years after the JFK assassination. Sinatra would claim in later years that he himself engineered the removal of Suddenly from general distribution, though in fact he'd lost whatever rights he'd held on the film when it lapsed into public domain. Be sure and miss the notorious colorized version of this black-and-white thriller, wherein Sinatra is transformed into Ol' Brown Eyes.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/09/2018
UPC:	0886470610709
Original Release:	1954
Rating:	NR
Source:	Digicomtv
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Frank Sinatra	John Baron
Sterling Hayden	Tod Shaw
James Gleason	Pop Benson
Nancy Gates	Ellen Benson
Willis B. Bouchey	Dan Carney
Paul H. Frees	Benny Conklin
Christopher Dark	Bart Wheeler
Kim Charney	Peter "Pidge" Benson III
Ken Dibbs	Wilson
Clark Howat	Haggerty
James Lilburn	Jud Kelly
Charles B. Smith	Bebop
Paul Wexler	Slim Adams
Dan White	Burge
Richard Collier	Ed Hawkins
Roy Engel	First Driver
Ted Stanhope	Driver
Charles Wagenheim	Kaplan
John Beradino	Trooper

Technical Credits

Richard Sale

Lewis Allen	Director
Robert Bassler	Producer
Howard Bristol	Set Decoration/Design
Willard Buell	Makeup
Charles G. Clarke	Cinematographer
Louis de Witt	Special Effects
Charles R. Hall	Production Manager
Hal Klein	Asst. Director
Jack Masters	Costumes/Costume Designer
Jack R. Rabin	Special Effects
David Raksin	Score Composer
Richard Sale	Screenwriter
John Schreyer	Editor
F. Paul Sylos	Art Director
Herman Townsley	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Frank Sinatra stars as a jittery presidential assassin in this unpretentious B-movie which features fine work by Sterling Hayden and James Gleason. The lesser known of the two films involving the singer which were withdrawn from distribution after the death of JFK -- the other is the brilliant The Manchurian Candidate -- it also deals with an attempted presidential assassination, while offering a more conventional portrait of cold-war hysteria and '50s conformity. Particularly in its suggestion that Nancy Gates' war widow character is a helpless creature badly in need of protection from the local cop, it's very much of its time. While its confinement to one set and workmanlike direction give the project the feel of a photographed play, the principal characters are fleshed-out well enough to be compelling for the brief running time of the film. Sinatra is excellent as the paranoid, embittered WWII vet who leads the team of hired assassins, Gleason has one of his best parts as a wily retiree who understands how to exploit the chinks in the killer's psyche, and Hayden is solid in a lesser role.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello