Suddenly (1954 film)
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| Suddenly | |
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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 |
| Music by | David Raksin |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | October 7, 1954 (US premiere) |
| Running time | 75 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Suddenly is a 1954 film noir directed by Lewis Allen and starring Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, and Nancy Gates.
According to Kitty Kelley's biography of Sinatra, it's rumored that Lee Harvey Oswald watched this film just a few days before assassinating President John F. Kennedy, a fact that Sinatra learned years after the tragedy, prompting him to withdraw the film from circulation. After that withdrawal, there was a failure to renew the copyright and it fell into the public domain. As a result the film became widely available from a number of discount/public domain distributors. The film also became part of the colorization controversy in the mid-1980s when Suddenly was colorized for home video—turning Sinatra's blue eyes brown.
[edit] Plot
It's post-war America and the president of the United States of America is visiting a small town called, "Suddenly." Sinatra plays ruthless assassin John Baron, who, with his henchmen, pretend to be members of the FBI ordered to protect the president. They enter the house of the Benson family, pretending to be members of the FBI. Sheriff Tod Shaw arrives with Dan Carney, Secret Service agent in charge of the president's security detail. When he does, Baron and his gangsters shoot Carney and a bullet enters Shaw's arm, fracturing it. Baron sends one of his two gangster cronies to double-check when the President arrives, but he is killed in a shootout with the police. Jud, a television repairman, shows up and is captured. Pidge then goes into his grandfather's dresser to fetch some medication. There, he notices a fully loaded revolver. Quietly, he replaces his toy cap gun, which was sitting on a table, with the real gun, so that the sheriff may shoot Baron when the time arises. Baron is confronted by the sheriff on the morals of killing the president and Baron's remaining henchman shows to be reluctant to kill the president. Finally, Jud hooks up the metal table on which the sniper rifle is standing on to the 5000 volt television. Grampa Benson then "accidentally" spills a cup of water all over the table. The moment Baron's henchman pulls the trigger, he is electrocuted. Ellen Benson shoots Baron twice in the chest as the President's train rushes through the station. Baron's last words are, "Don't...Please."
