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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786303039442 Format: Black & White, Original recording reissued, NTSC ISBN: 6306914641 Label: Alpha Video Manufacturer: Alpha Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Alpha Video Release Date: March 19, 2002 Running Time: 75 minutes Sales Rank: 28372 Studio: Alpha Video Theatrical Release Date: October 07, 1954
Amazon.com: Directly in the wake of his Oscar-winning comeback in From Here to Eternity, Frank Sinatra took on the role of a psychopathic hit man in this taut, low-budget film noir. The choice shows how interested Sinatra was in serious acting during the mid- to late '50s; there's nothing remotely likable about this angular, neurotic assassin. He's in the small town of Suddenly to kill the president, who is passing through on a quick train stop. Sinatra makes hostages of a local family and sheriff Sterling Hayden, and the film is basically a countdown to the president's arrival, with Sinatra's patter getting loonier as the day goes on. Aside from the interest of Sinatra's performance (very focused and downright perverse at times), and the film's place in the American noir tradition, Suddenly is uncannily prophetic on the subject of assassination. It's clear that the killer is doing it for the fame as well as the money, a theme that would crop up in later confessions of real-life killers or would-be killers. Perhaps the 1954 film was too prophetic; like Sinatra's Manchurian Candidate, this movie was pulled from circulation for years after the JFK assassination. According to Kitty Kelley's bio of Sinatra, Lee Harvey Oswald saw this film a few days before he took rifle in hand. Now in the public domain, Suddenly is generally available in cheap, scratchy prints. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Suddenly
Shortly after his celebrated turn in "From Here to Eternity," Sinatra was cast as a cold-blooded killer in Lewis Allen's gritty thriller "Suddenly." Anticipating the Kennedy assassination by several years--Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly viewed it days before he killed JFK--"Suddenly" has the look and feel of a "B" movie quickie, but Sinatra's intensity blazes off the screen. Still thin as a reed, the actor excels as a human time bomb, while Hayden's Sheriff provides a decent, steady counterpoint. Only debit: that annoying little boy- but just focus on Ol' Blue Eyes.
Rating: - Entertaining rubbish
Predictable ending to a typical post-war script. They are hitting you over the head without any subtlety. The theme is that pacifism doesn't work, sort of like preaching to the converted, since it is a POST-war film, not a pre-war film.
A war widow spurns the advances of the town sheriff and doesn't allow her 8 year old son to play with guns. There's your pacifist, the war widow. By the end, she's ready to kill the bad guy herself. As I said, there's no subtlety to the script. It is obvious, unoriginal, completely predictable, and therefore juvenile and uncreative.
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Rating: - Not for Suddenly Susans.
A long, withheld movie of historical and musicological interest,that has taken on increasing interest. Why? Frank Sinatra, the star, the Voice, withdrew the film following the assassination of JFK, because of the mob ties. Nevertheless, this B noir movie is better than you expect.Among the supporting cast lies a real WWII hero,Sterling Hayden, who gives a restrained performance, playing the sheriff in the small town with the responsibility to see that the president's train gets through without incident. However, Frank Sinatra and his gang of co-conspirators plan to remove the responsibility, by ... Read More
Rating: - Meat 'n' Potatoes with Tommy Guns
This is a great slice of Americana, a true "Period Piece." Sinatra was a competent actor and probably could have paid the bills this way even if he hadn't been a remarkably talented singer. It's not everybody who can pull off a menacing tough-guy when he weighs 118 soaking wet. This film presents itself in stark tones both visually and thematically. Patriotism, courage, honor, sacrifice. The words necessary to make that into a sentence would only sully the higher meaning; and that's the feeling you get as you watch this film. It is sparse, but self-assured. Think of it as the lost episode ... Read More
Rating: - Suddenly
Oddly enough I had never seen this show.. and I found it to be very good.
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