Suddenly (1954 film)
| Suddenly | |
|---|---|
 Theater release poster |
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| Directed by | Lewis Allen |
| Produced by | Robert Bassler |
| Written by | Richard Sale |
| Starring | Frank Sinatra Sterling Hayden James Gleason Nancy Gates Kim Charney Christopher Dark |
| Music by | David Raksin |
| Cinematography | Charles G. Clarke |
| Editing by | John F. Schreyer |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | October 7, 1954 (United States) |
| Running time | 75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Suddenly (1954) is an American film noir[1] directed by Lewis Allen with a screenplay written by Richard Sale. The drama features Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason and Nancy Gates, among others.[2]
The tranquility of a small town is jarred when the U.S. President is scheduled to pass through and a hired assassin takes over the Benson home as a perfect location to ambush the president.
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[edit] Plot
In post-war America, the President of the United States is scheduled to journey through the small town of Suddenly, California. Claiming to be checking up on security prior to his arrival, a group of FBI agents arrive at the home of the Bensons, which neighbors the station where the Presidential train is due to stop. However, they soon turn out to be assassins led by the ruthless John Baron (Frank Sinatra), who take over the house and hold the family hostage.
Sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) arrives with Dan Carney (Willis Bouchey), a Secret Service agent in charge of the President's security detail. When he does, Baron and his gangsters shoot Carney and a bullet fractures Shaw's arm.
Baron sends one of his two henchmen to double-check on the President's schedule but he is killed in a shootout with the police. Jud (James O'Hara), a television repairman, shows up at the house and also becomes a hostage. Pidge (Kim Charney) goes to his grandfather's dresser to fetch some medication and notices a fully loaded revolver which he replaces with his toy cap gun.
Baron is confronted by the sheriff on the risks and meaning of killing the President and Baron's remaining henchman begins showing some reluctance. For Baron, however, these are the very least of his concerns and it soon becomes clear that he is a psychopath whose pleasure comes from killing – who and why he kills being the least of his problems.
A sniper's rifle has been mounted on a metal table by a window. Jud discreetly hooks the table up to the 5000 volt plate output of the family television. Pop Benson (James Gleason) then spills a cup of water on the floor beneath the table. Although the hope is that Baron will be shocked to death, his remaining henchman touches the table first and is electrocuted, firing the rifle repeatedly and attracting the attention of police at the train station as he struggles to free himself. Baron shoots Jud, disconnects the electrical hookup and aims the rifle as the president's train arrives at the station, but to his surprise, doesn't stop (having been alerted to the risk). Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates) shoots Baron in the chest and Shaw shoots him again. Baron's last words are, "Don't... please."
[edit] Cast
- Frank Sinatra as John Baron
- Sterling Hayden as Sheriff Tod Shaw
- James Gleason as Peter "Pop" Benson
- Nancy Gates as Ellen Benson
- Kim Charney as Peter Benson III (Pidge)
- Paul Frees as Benny Conklin, Baron's Accomplice (also TV announcer voice)
- Christopher Dark as Bart Wheeler
- Willis Bouchey as Dan Carney, Chief Secret Service Agent
- Paul Wexler as Deputy Slim Adams
- James O'Hara as Jud Kelly
- Kem Dibbs as Wilson
- Clark Howat as Haggerty
- Charles Smith as Bebop
- Dan White as Desk Officer Burg
[edit] Background
Suddenly became part of the colorization controversy in the mid-1980s when the movie was colorized for home video by Hal Roach Studios in 1986, turning Sinatra's famous blue eyes brown.[3] A second and far superior newly remastered colorized version by Legend Films was released to DVD on June 16, 2009 which also includes a newly restored print of the original black & white film. This colorized version also restores the color of Sinatra's blue eyes back into the film.
The film's copyright was not renewed and it fell into the public domain. Hence, prints became widely available from a number of discount/public domain distributors. The picture can also be downloaded and viewed for free online.[4]
[edit] Noir analysis
Film critic Carl Mazek makes the case that the "Machiavellian attitude" of John Baron links the picture with the brutal films noir of the 1950s like The Big Night (1951) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Moreover, the themes of violence, sense of claustrophobia and despair mark the film as completely amoral, and, as such, Suddenly is quite opposite of non-noir films like The Desperate Hours (1955).[5]
[edit] Critical reception
When the film was released, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, liked the direction of the film and the acting, writing, "Yet such is the role that Mr. Sinatra plays in Suddenly!, a taut little melodrama that... [it] shapes up as one of the slickest recent items in the minor movie league... we have several people to thank- particularly Richard Sale for a good script, which tells a straight story credibly, Mr. Allen for direction that makes both excitement and sense, Mr. Bassler for a production that gets the feel of a small town and the cast which includes Sterling Hayden, James Gleason and Nancy Gates." Crowther especially liked Sinatra's performance. He wrote, "Mr. Sinatra deserves a special chunk of praise...In Suddenly! he proves it in a melodramatic tour de force."[6]
The staff at Variety magazine also gave the film a good review and praised the acting. They wrote, "Thesp inserts plenty of menace into a psycho character, never too heavily done, and gets good backing from his costar, Sterling Hayden, as sheriff, in a less showy role but just as authoritatively handled. Lewis Allen's direction manages a smart piece where static treatment easily could have prevailed."[7]
More recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz also reviewed the film favorably, writing, "Lewis Allen (The Uninvited) directs this fast-paced crime thriller, a minor film written by Richard Sale, about a violent incident that interrupts the tranquil life of a middle-class family and changes their life significantly. Frank Sinatra stars and delightfully shows up for the part, while Sterling Hayden helps with a fine supporting role performance and the gritty 80-year-old James Gleason provides some laughs for this grim narrative...What I liked best was that Frank Sinatra wore a fedora throughout, even indoors. It's interesting to note that it was filmed years before the Kennedy assassination, but there are many similarities between the Sinatra character and Lee Harvey Oswald."[8]
[edit] Influence
In 1959, five years after the release of Suddenly, a novel was published which had a remarkably similar ending. This was The Manchurian Candidate written by Richard Condon, a former Hollywood press agent recently turned novelist. His book also features a mentally troubled former war hero called Raymond Shaw who, at the climax, uses a rifle with scope to shoot at a presidential candidate. Because of such strong similarities, it is now thought that Suddenly was one inspiration for Condon's Manchurian Candidate.[9]
The Manchurian Candidate was released as a film in 1962, again starring Sinatra, but this time out to prevent an assassination being committed by Laurence Harvey.
Another person who was certainly aware of Suddenly, whether or not he ever saw it, was Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The movie played at several New Orleans theatres for two months in the winter of 1954-55, at a time when Oswald was living there and was a 15-year-old borderline juvenile delinquent. In his teenage world, Oswald cannot have been ignorant of such a violent and sensational movie.[10]
It was long thought that Oswald actually saw Suddenly on television in October 1963 (one month before the assassination of Kennedy), but an investigation of that claim eventually revealed that he did not. The confusion arose because Oswald actually saw another presidential assassination film, We Were Strangers, not once but twice on one weekend in October 1963. His twofold viewing of that film came to be understood, in all the chaos immediately following the assassination of Kennedy, as his having seen two different assassination films at that time. Suddenly was naturally but mistakenly believed to have been the "second" one.[11] Vincent Bugliosi, in his 2007 work Reclaiming History, claims that Oswald did see Suddenly on television in October 1963, but Bugliosi misquoted and ignored several other findings, and his claim is not correct.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Selby, Spencer. Dark City: The Film Noir, film listed as film noir #406 on page 184, 1984. Jefferson, N.C. & London: McFarland Publishing. ISBN 0-89950-103-6.
- ^ Suddenly at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ Suddenly at AllRovi.
- ^ Internet Archive. Free download of film possible.
- ^ Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward, eds. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, film noir analysis by Carl Mazek, page 275, 3rd edition, 1992. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-479-5.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, October 8, 1954.
- ^ Variety. Film review, January 1, 1954.
- ^ Schwartz, Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, February 19, 2011.
- ^ Loken, John. Oswald's Trigger Films: The Manchurian Candidate, We Were Strangers, Suddenly?, Falcon Books (November 1, 2000), p. 36.
- ^ Loken, John. p. 34.
- ^ Loken, John. pp. 24-36, 75.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Suddenly (film) |
- Suddenly at the Internet Movie Database
- Suddenly is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- Suddenly at the TCM Movie Database
- Suddenly at DVD Beaver (includes images)
- Suddenly segment by Tim Estiloz on You Tube (Backstage - seen on the Comcast Network)
- Suddenly film on You Tube (complete in Widescreen)
