John T. Ryan HERE IS YET another film that has been completely an unknown commodity to us until recently. In spite of an obviously frugal budget, the story and the execution of the plot line proves to be quite captivating. The staging of the scenes that comprise the picture did tend to bring to mind the small screen production of a few years later, namely the ZIV Television Productions' HIGHWAY PATROL; which of course starred Broderick Crawford. Both the film and that series exploited the highways and small towns of California for realistic, yet inexpensive locations.AS FOR THE cast, it can only be called a mixed bag. It sports a mixture of talent ranging from the starring combo of Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden, to topp support from Nancy Gates, James Gleason and Willis Bouchey and lesser known relative newcomers Paul frees (the voice actor extraordinaire), Paul Wexler, Clark Howat and James Liburn (real life brother of Maureen O'Hara).THIS PRODUCTION BECAME a particularly important chapter in the career of Mr. Sinatra. His interpretation of a psychotic homicidal maniac hired hit man proved to many that his dramatic abilities. His Oscar winning portrayal of Private Angelo Maggio in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY was shown to be no fluke.AS FOR OUR own observations, we saw a believable, complex, even somewhat sympathetic personality in his rendering of hit man, John Baron. It was this complex or even split personality that made it even more menacing. We also detected a similiarity and possible influence of Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo in KISS OF DEATH (20th Century-Fox, 1947).THE IDEA OF an attempted assassination of a United States President seemed to be an unlikely and far fetched premise for a film; that is until nine years later when John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas. After that, the plot became common place.

Blake Peterson For his entire career, Frank Sinatra remained the skinny kid (and later skinny legend) with a voice that made you believe in God. That voice, that voice, was and is one of the many wonders the entertainment industry has given us over the years. Throughout the 1940s, he was placed in throwaway musical comedies that only continued to paint him as a singer first and foremost — but the 1950s changed all that typecasting stuff.Beginning with his stunning performance in 1953's From Here to Eternity, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, audiences were introduced to Frank Sinatra The Actor; he was no longer just a singer who decided that headlining movies would be a fun side-gig. Today, only the nerdy cinephiles seem to appreciate his stunning acting abilities, while the rest of the world paints him as Old Blue Eyes. Either party will find themselves bathing in a hearty basin of nostalgia, but exploring all of his occupational triumphs is nothing short of astonishment. Singers turned actors were and are never ever this talented.Suddenly continued his "serious actor" path, placing him in a low-budget thriller and having much of the focus lie single-handedly upon him. Like Dial M for Murder, much of the action takes place in a single location — a house in the suburbs — and like The Manchurian Candidate, the assassination of the president may or may not be the climax. At just 77 minutes, it's a tight, to-the-point psychological exercise, giving Sinatra one of his juiciest roles as the assassin. It's an unexpected character for an actor who always played the hero.In Suddenly, Sinatra portrays John Baron, a psychopathic sniper whose arrival coincides with that of the country's leader, who is stopping by the small town of Suddenly, California for a visit. John's intent is to ambush him and successful exterminate him, with payoff. Finding a perfect safe house in the suburbs, Baron and his men hold the Benson family hostage until they meet the point of no return.The film is a minor work in Sinatra's filmography, but it's also an important one. It shows a performer unafraid to explore low-budget but challenging territories, curious about his abilities and willing to see how far he could go. As Baron, Sinatra is surprisingly formidable, managing to make us forget about his charming past and replace it with unbridled fear. Perhaps Suddenly is too stagy for my taste, but it manages to be taut and pulse-pounding when we least expect it. This isn't a film concerned with deep characterizations or in your face action — it is a film about acting, writing, and directing, and how the three characteristics can take you to places you never thought you would have traveled to before. Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

cminj2001 Yes a junior deputy sheriff saves the U.S. by checking out a random stranger in town. The first thing the secret service does in 1954 is to clear all the buildings with windows facing the spot where the President will stand. All the buildings, public and private are checked and secure....but this was 1954, I guess they had forgotten all that nonsense by 1963. In this movie they figure an assassin would have to be a real heel, a guy with no politics, who slaps little kids around and is happy to kill for money! You gotta love Frank though, he puts on a double breasted suit, a necktie and a fedora when he is getting ready to off somebody famous....oh OK maybe Jack Ruby caught this flick. He was a big Sinatra fan.

ferbs54 Frank Sinatra's legion of fans who had seen him sing with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey Bands in the late '30s and early '40s, and those bobby-soxers who had swooned as "The Voice" performed at NYC's Paramount Theater from December '42 to February '43, must have been struck with dumb disbelief as they watched him in the 1954 thriller "Suddenly." And indeed, his appearances in such lighthearted (albeit excellent) musical fare as "Anchors Aweigh" (1945), "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949) and "On the Town" (1949, and one of the greatest of all Hollywood musicals), and his dramatic role as Maggio in 1953's "From Here to Eternity," for which he won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar, could hardly have prepared viewers for what was to come. In "Suddenly," Sinatra portrays not only a psychotic ex-soldier, but one who is plotting to assassinate the president of the United States, and slit the throat of anyone who gets in his way...including children! It might be the most despicable role that Sinatra ever essayed, and--no surprise--was a complete success for the actor, whose career was thought to be washed up after his vocal cords hemorrhaged abruptly in 1952.The film transpires in the sleepy little town of Suddenly, where life proceeds so slowly that we hear a local cop in the film's opening scene tell a driver that the town council is thinking of changing its name to Gradually. But all that, uh, suddenly changes when town sheriff Tod Shaw (still another sterling performance from the always dependable Sterling Hayden) learns that the U.S. president himself (Eisenhower, presumably) will be arriving by train at 5 P.M., en route to a fishing vacation. Secret Service agents descend on the town in advance, and so does a car driven by John Baron (Sinatra) and two other men. This trio claims to be F.B.I. agents, and takes over a house with a commanding view of the train depot. Although they tell the home's occupants--a war widow named Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates, who many viewers may recall from the great 1956 sci-fi film "World Without End"), her 8-year-old son, Pidge, and her father-in-law, "Pop" Benson (perhaps too coincidentally, a former Secret Service agent himself under Calvin Coolidge, and played by the wonderful character actor James Gleason)--that they are only trying to maintain security, their real intentions are soon revealed. Before long, the entire household, plus Sheriff Shaw, are being held hostage in the small home, while the living-room clock ticks its way toward 5:00 and the fulfillment of Baron's assassination plot....Clocking in at a remarkably compact 77 minutes, "Suddenly" confines most of its action to a single claustrophobic set: the Bensons' living room. The film is somewhat reminiscent of the great Humphrey Bogart films "Key Largo" (1948), in which Edward G. Robinson and his thugs take over a hotel during a hurricane, and 1955's "The Desperate Hours," in which Bogey and HIS gang take over Fredric March's home to elude the cops. In "Suddenly," of course, the stakes are much higher, and director Lewis Allen--who had previously helmed such wonderful films as "The Uninvited" (1944) and "So Evil, My Love" (1948)--manages to squeeze every drop of possible suspense out of this scenario. Although the story does not proceed in strict "real time," as in 1952's "High Noon," that wall clock surely does manage to ratchet up the tension. The picture features still another solid score from composer David Raksin, though of course nothing he ever did could quite compare to his immortal theme for that classiest of film noirs, "Laura" (1944). The picture's script, by Richard Sale, is simply outstanding, with great tough-guy talk and psychological insight. We really get to know what makes Baron tick during the course of the film, and what we learn is not pretty. The product of an "unmarried" mother and a "dipso" father, Baron claims that he was a lost nothing of a man until the Army gave him a gun and taught him how to kill. Inordinately proud of the 27 "Jerries" he killed at Cassino and the Silver Star he earned as a result (he mentions that darn decoration at least four times as a sort of apologia), Baron has since become a professional killer, truly believing that the possession of a gun makes him a sort of god, and declaring to Ellen at one point "Show me a guy with feelings and I'll show you a sucker." He has no political reasons for offing the prez, and as few qualms; the $500,000 he is being paid for the job is reason enough. He is a completely cold-blooded, amoral creature, slapping Pidge about and kicking Shaw in his bullet-broken arm (ouch!), and Sinatra plays the part brilliantly. Scorning the men who shot Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, Baron declares that HE will be the first assassin of a U.S. president to get away with it...and the viewer almost believes him! The juicy dialogue between this psychopath and the sheriff, and how overprotective mom Ellen comes to realize the necessity of a little well-placed violence, constitute the heart and soul of this hugely entertaining and quite gripping film."Suddenly" is currently available on a very nice-looking DVD from Legend Films, which spares the viewer the necessity of watching what is most likely (based on my previous experience) a crummy-looking print from Alpha Video. The DVD also comes with a colorized version, which I have not watched on general principles (don't get me started on how I feel about colorization!). Still, whichever version you choose to watch, I can guarantee a thrilling ride...and perhaps a revelatory performance from Frank Sinatra. To reference his rendition of "The Lady Is a Tramp" from 1957's "Pal Joey," it is MUCH better than "oke"....