Suddenly (dir. Lewis Allen, 1954)
The president is scheduled to travel by train through a small California town of Suddenly. John Baron (Frank Sinatra) is the man hired by unknown parties to kill him. He and his team, disguised as FBI agents, take a family hostage to use their house as a sniper’s nest for the hit. The plan goes awry as the town’s sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) arrives on the scene.
Most of the film’s 75 minute runtime takes place in the house as Baron and his accomplices wait for the president’s train to arrive and Shaw and the family attempt to stop them. It is very reminiscent of a stage play, especially given how much of the plot is devoted to Baron and Shaw discussing their actions in the war and its effect on their psyches. While you can certainly fault the writing for being leaden and the story not being terribly exciting, you cannot deny the charisma of Sinatra and Hayden. You also can’t help but be incredulous about Frank Sinatra, who I tower over at a mere five foot, eight inches, would ever pose a threat to literal giant and decorated officer Sterling Hayden, but I guess he does have a gun on him.
Suddenly is mostly remembered as a historical curiosity. The film predates Richard Condon’s novel The Manchurian Candidate and its adaptation, also starring Sinatra, by several years, and John Baron originates a whole new archetype of assassin that would come to dominate the imagination and media in the aftermath of November 22, 1963. It also lapsed into the public domain after being shelved by United Artists for re-release after President Kennedy’s assassination, lending it a certain mystique that’s undercut by the actual content of the film. Still, there are worse ways to spend an hour-and-change.
oliveresque 