Suddenly (1954)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Lewis Allen

Writer:

Richard Sale (written by)

Release Date:

7 October 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A cold-blooded thriller!

Plot:

In the city of Suddenly, three gangsters trap the Benson family in their own house, on the top of a hill nearby the railroad station, with the intention of killing the president of the USA.

Plot Keywords:

U.S. President | Small Town | Gun | Mother Son Relationship | Police

Cast

Frank Sinatra	...	John Baron
Sterling Hayden	...	Sheriff Tod Shaw
James Gleason	...	Peter 'Pop' Benson
Nancy Gates	...	Ellen Benson
Willis Bouchey	...	Carney - Secret Service detail chief
Kim Charney	...	Peter Benson III (Pidge)
James O'Hara	...	Jud Kelly - TV repairman (as James Lilburn)
Paul Frees	...	Benny - henchman in dark suit
Christopher Dark	...	Bart - henchman in gray suit
Paul Wexler	...	Deputy Slim Adams, Suddenly Police Dept.
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kem Dibbs	...	Wilson - Carney's deputy (as Ken Dibbs)
Clark Howat	...	Haggerty - Carney's tallest deputy
Charles Smith	...	Telegrapher's asst. / runner

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Finland:(Banned) (1954) | Finland:K-14 (1990) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:M | USA:Approved (PCA #17058) | UK:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Newhall, California, USA

Company:

Libra Productions Inc.

Trivia:

Shot in four weeks.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the sequence where the gangsters carry the table across the living room from the kitchen, it is not the same table they later use. The table they carry across from the kitchen is wood; the table they set up at the window on which to mount the rifle is a metal table.

Quotes:

John Baron: Tonight at five o'clock I kill the President. One second after five there's a new President. What changes? Nothing!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sinatra raconté par le FBI (2007) (TV)

Entertaining Thriller

When the President decides to pass through the small town of Suddenly on route to a fishing trip, the town's police and chief officials rise to meet the challenge of assuring his protection as there have been rumors of an assassination attempt.

The hired guns meanwhile make plans of their own. They cleverly trick their way into the home of the best house in town from which to try and carry out their assassination plot - the house of Pop Benson, respected citizen with an house upon an hill that overlooks the President's planned arrival destination. Now only an handful of hostages stand between the President and doom...can they in some way warn him in time?

Frank Sinatra steals the show here as the ruthless criminal mastermind behind the want-to-be assassins - a man named John Baron. He is downright brutal and nasty in the role--an utterly detestable villain who does remind us the it was the army that created him and made him into a killer or maybe deep down, it's just that he was always a killer at heart. An outstanding multi-dimensional performance from Sinatra.

Sterling Hayden meanwhile plays the idealistic police sheriff Tod Shaw, who believes in America and the American way and supports unquestioningly the system and will do whatever it takes to preserve the America he believes is right and just. He too served in the military to protect rights and freedoms and now carries on the good fight as Suddenly's sheriff. An interesting contrast of two extremes with the pacifist minded Ellen Benson (played here by Nancy Gates), her becoming a widow after her husband got killed in the war, finally forced to take a stand at the film's climax.

Daring for its time, this film deals with surprisingly intense subject matter for the early 1950s. Quite good.