Suddenly

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS THE WAY "SUDDENLY" WAS MEANT TO BE SEEN!!!
Review: *Suddenly* is an intriguing little film about a plot to assassinate the POTUS (President of the United States). The premise is groundbreaking, considering the period it was made in, the "I Like Ike" years.

Frank Sinatra is pretty good as the wack job hired by some unknown plotters for the job of whacking the Prez. There's some decent acting from a few of the supporting players, especially the one who plays the old retired Secret Service agent. Sterling Hayden, whom I really like in *Asphalt Jungle* and *The Godfather*, doesn't shine for me in this one. I'll bet he was bored.

The trouble with *Suddenly* is that it's a low-budget thriller that set its sights too high. You simply can't believe that a big-buck-backed assassination plot could really transpire like this. It's just too hokey. At the same time I give the film credit for making the old college try. 'Cause that's what *Suddenly* feels like--a film-college noir, strong on bold concepts but weak in the pocketbook and experience. Having a gang of desperados headed by a maniac impersonate a team of FBI agents so as to knock off the president was a brilliant idea for a film of '54, but this idea, great as it was, is stillborn in *Suddenly.* If it had been about a train heist or a small town bank robbery, it could have worked a lot better.

I'm a personal friend of Alan Wexler, son of the late Paul Wexler who played the deputy sherrif, Slim. He gets shot (but not killed) when trying to arrest one of the gang. Al has a lot of cool stories about growing up in Hollywood during the '50's and 60's. He was just a little runt when *Suddenly* was made so he doesn't remember much about that one. Still, it's a part of his life, and as his good buddy, it's a part of mine too. Get *Suddenly* and get nostalgic.

Rating:
Summary: An early psychodrama, but not very convincing
Review: *Suddenly* is an intriguing little film about a plot to assassinate the POTUS (President of the United States). The premise is groundbreaking, considering the period it was made in, the "I Like Ike" years.

Frank Sinatra is pretty good as the wack job hired by some unknown plotters for the job of whacking the Prez. There's some decent acting from a few of the supporting players, especially the one who plays the old retired Secret Service agent. Sterling Hayden, whom I really like in *Asphalt Jungle* and *The Godfather*, doesn't shine for me in this one. I'll bet he was bored.

The trouble with *Suddenly* is that it's a low-budget thriller that set its sights too high. You simply can't believe that a big-buck-backed assassination plot could really transpire like this. It's just too hokey. At the same time I give the film credit for making the old college try. 'Cause that's what *Suddenly* feels like--a film-college noir, strong on bold concepts but weak in the pocketbook and experience. Having a gang of desperados headed by a maniac impersonate a team of FBI agents so as to knock off the president was a brilliant idea for a film of '54, but this idea, great as it was, is stillborn in *Suddenly.* If it had been about a train heist or a small town bank robbery, it could have worked a lot better.

I'm a personal friend of Alan Wexler, son of the late Paul Wexler who played the deputy sherrif, Slim. He gets shot (but not killed) when trying to arrest one of the gang. Al has a lot of cool stories about growing up in Hollywood during the '50's and 60's. He was just a little runt when *Suddenly* was made so he doesn't remember much about that one. Still, it's a part of his life, and as his good buddy, it's a part of mine too. Get *Suddenly* and get nostalgic.

Rating:
Summary: An early psychodrama, but not very convincing
Review: *Suddenly* is an intriguing little film about a plot to assassinate the POTUS (President of the United States). The premise is groundbreaking, considering the period it was made in, the "I Like Ike" years.

Frank Sinatra is pretty good as the wack job hired by some unknown plotters for the job of whacking the Prez. There's some decent acting from a few of the supporting players, especially the one who plays the old retired Secret Service agent. Sterling Hayden, whom I really like in *Asphalt Jungle* and *The Godfather*, doesn't shine for me in this one. I'll bet he was bored.

The trouble with *Suddenly* is that it's a low-budget thriller that set its sights too high. You simply can't believe that a big-buck-backed assassination plot could really transpire like this. It's just too hokey. At the same time I give the film credit for making the old college try. 'Cause that's what *Suddenly* feels like--a film-college noir, strong on bold concepts but weak in the pocketbook and experience. Having a gang of desperados headed by a maniac impersonate a team of FBI agents so as to knock off the president was a brilliant idea for a film of '54, but this idea, great as it was, is stillborn in *Suddenly.* If it had been about a train heist or a small town bank robbery, it could have worked a lot better.

I'm a personal friend of Alan Wexler, son of the late Paul Wexler who played the deputy sherrif, Slim. He gets shot (but not killed) when trying to arrest one of the gang. Al has a lot of cool stories about growing up in Hollywood during the '50's and 60's. He was just a little runt when *Suddenly* was made so he doesn't remember much about that one. Still, it's a part of his life, and as his good buddy, it's a part of mine too. Get *Suddenly* and get nostalgic.

Rating:
Summary: Sinatra - The Actor
Review: Firstly I'll presume your a Sinatra fan or you would'nt be looking at this Dvd.

Secondly I will further presume you hav'nt heard much about this film, maybe never even heard of it before, am I right.

.....Well relax and get this film, its one of those rare films in which Sinatra showed all the disbelievers he could act. A gritty drama, probably better because it was shot in black and white and O.K, its not as good a quality print as some of todays films would be but this genuinely adds to the feel of the movie.

As anyone who has seen the laserdisc will testify this is a very good watch and a must for all real Frank Sinatra fans.

Rating:
Summary: An Excelent Performance by the Boy Singer!
Review: Frank Sinatra is often looked upon as the greatest singer of the 20th century for many reasons. But he was also an actor. His favorite part was the suave, swinging, ring a ding dinging bacholor who sings greats songs in movies, but he truly deserves an award for this thrilling role. He brings such realism to his role it is almost scarry. But that just goes to show he is not only a great singer, but a great actor. Suddenly shoud be seen by thouse who appreciate Sinatra and those who dont.

Rating:
Summary: "I'm not a traitor, I won a silver star"
Review: Frank Sinatra is riveting as a cold-hearted hit man obsessed with his spurious war record, who traps a family in their house, along with a few others that get caught in his net, as he plots to assassinate the president, who is making a stop in Suddenly, California, on his way to Los Angeles. It's a great character study, and Sinatra pulls it off flawlessly, making this a taut thriller, with a quiet, folksy beginning that turns into a nightmare.
Sinatra followed his Oscar Award winning performance in "From Here to Eternity" with this film, which unfortunately hasn't been seen much, and one of the reasons is Sinatra himself; he was horrified to know that Lee Harvey Oswald had watched "Suddenly" shortly before the Kennedy assassination, and requested the film be pulled from distribution.

Co-starring Sterling Hayden who is excellent as Sheriff Tod Shaw, it has well paced direction by Lewis Allen, a crisp script by Richard Sale, and a score by David Raskin. There have been other films with this type of hostage scenario like the '55 Humphrey Bogart "Desperate Hours" and its 1990 remake, and this is up there with the best.
My DVD copy is of the inexpensive variety, a little blurry with imperfect audio (distributed by VINA) but is still fascinating viewing.
Filmed almost entirely in one room, it holds one's attention, mostly due to Sinatra's superb performance.
Total running time is 75 minutes.


Rating:
Summary: This movie is not all that bad.
Review: Granted, the acting is a bit stagy in some parts, but the overall quality of the movie is good. Sinatra portrays a good assassin who practices his own sense of twisted logic. Sterling Hayden is good as the mild mannered policeman. The DVD quality is surprisingly good for a public domain release. For the money one would spend, it's worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A few good moments, but otherwise laughable
Review: I don't normally contribute reviews, but I feel obligated to write in order to lower the rating on this video. Yes, there are a few good lines. But the acting is woeful, the plot is more predictable than Father Knows Best, and the dialogue is full of little monologues that most high school plays avoid. All that said, it is watchable in a so-bad-it's interesting way, and Sinatra is sometimes average. And as a period piece, it's probably instructive. But don't be fooled; it's out of date and it's not that good.

Rating:
Summary: Oswald Goes to Mayberry
Review: I first saw this movie at the Chicago Art Institute about 10 years ago double-billed with "The Manchurian Candidate." The latter movie is one of the great films of all time, and by far Sinatra's best. "Suddenly" is something quite different. Sinatra's performance here is outstanding. He is thoroughly believable and engrossing as the Oswald-like John Barron. Given this performance, it is rather surprising to me that most of the other actors' acting is so terrible and flat. The non-Sinatra scene dialogue seems like it was written by a b-level 50's t.v. writing team - on the level of "The Adventures of Superman" or "The Lone Ranger." But the scenes with Sinatra are very well written and carried out, particularly the interchanges between Sterling Hayden and Sinatra (which really make up the core of the film, the rest is just filler). In fact, these scenes are so good, I forgive the rest of the film while remaining amazed how bad the rest is.

I do want to reiterate one warning made by some of the other reviewer's of this particular DVD version (Madacy Entertainment). The price is hard to fight with, but the film copy they transferred to the DVD was very poor quality. The sound is often very poor (the non-Sinatra scene dialogue sounds very much like it was dubbed in latter), and there are awkward jumps in the film itself, i.e., where it looks like the film either broke and was spliced together rather half-hazzardly, or the sprockets skipped or something. Unfortunately, one of these skips comes during one of the best scenes where Sinatra is talking about how "he hates crowds, and used to dream about that crowd". It seems no one at the company making this DVD bothered to watch it while the transfer to DVD was occurring. Perhaps one of the other DVD versions has a better print, but in lieu of knowing that, my advice would be to videotape the movie next time it is on AMC or TMC - they seem to have better prints of it.

Rating:
Summary: Oswald Goes to Mayberry
Review: I first saw this movie at the Chicago Art Institute about 10 years ago double-billed with "The Manchurian Candidate." The latter movie is one of the great films of all time, and by far Sinatra's best. "Suddenly" is something quite different. Sinatra's performance here is outstanding. He is thoroughly believable and engrossing as the Oswald-like John Barron. Given this performance, it is rather surprising to me that most of the other actors' acting is so terrible and flat. The non-Sinatra scene dialogue seems like it was written by a b-level 50's t.v. writing team - on the level of "The Adventures of Superman" or "The Lone Ranger." But the scenes with Sinatra are very well written and carried out, particularly the interchanges between Sterling Hayden and Sinatra (which really make up the core of the film, the rest is just filler). In fact, these scenes are so good, I forgive the rest of the film while remaining amazed how bad the rest is.

I do want to reiterate one warning made by some of the other reviewer's of this particular DVD version (Madacy Entertainment). The price is hard to fight with, but the film copy they transferred to the DVD was very poor quality. The sound is often very poor (the non-Sinatra scene dialogue sounds very much like it was dubbed in latter), and there are awkward jumps in the film itself, i.e., where it looks like the film either broke and was spliced together rather half-hazzardly, or the sprockets skipped or something. Unfortunately, one of these skips comes during one of the best scenes where Sinatra is talking about how "he hates crowds, and used to dream about that crowd". It seems no one at the company making this DVD bothered to watch it while the transfer to DVD was occurring. Perhaps one of the other DVD versions has a better print, but in lieu of knowing that, my advice would be to videotape the movie next time it is on AMC or TMC - they seem to have better prints of it.