Suddenly
About Suddenly
Sheriff Tod Shaw is courting Ellen Benson in the California town of Suddenly, but the Korean War widow will not let her son Pidge play with guns. When the President's train is due to stop, John Baron and two gunmen pose as FBI agents, seize the Benson house above the depot, kill Secret Service agent Dan Carney, and break Shaw's arm. Baron, paid half a million dollars by an employer he never names, mounts a rifle at the window. Pop Benson, a retired agent, and television repairman Jud help wire the metal table to the set; one gunman is electrocuted, the train is waved through, and Ellen shoots Baron.
Cast & crew
More about Suddenly
Shooting began 12 April 1954 at Goldwyn Studios, with exteriors in Saugus. Libra Productions was Robert Bassler's first independent company after years at Twentieth Century-Fox. Richard Sale adapted his own May 1943 Blue Book story "Active Duty," which he had drawn from reports of President Eisenhower's train trips to Palm Springs.
Themes
Background
The script sits in the early 1950s, with a widow of the Korean War and a president who, like Eisenhower, travels by special train. Life used the release to recall the killings of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.
In film history
After the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, Sinatra asked United Artists to withdraw the film because he had heard a rumor that Lee Harvey Oswald watched it. The later story that he bought and destroyed every print is not supported. The copyright, LP4300, was not renewed, and the film entered the public domain.
Making
In Sale's 1943 story the attempt is set in wartime and the mother is not in the house; in the film Ellen, still bitter about her husband's death, is the one who fires at Baron. Bassler produced for his new firm, Libra Productions, and United Artists released the picture.
Reviews
Bosley Crowther, in the New York Times of 8 October 1954, called it a taut little melodrama and singled out Sinatra's performance. Variety (8 September 1954) wrote that Sinatra put menace into the psycho role without overplaying it, and that Lewis Allen avoided a static staging. Newsweek said the part answered doubts that his dramatic work in From Here to Eternity had been a one-time turn.
Look
Charles G. Clarke photographed it in black and white at 1.75:1, with most of the siege inside the Benson house and the depot exteriors shot in Saugus.
Technique
John F. Schreyer edited the eight-reel picture. Sound was Western Electric mono, and Frank Sylos was art director.
Music
David Raksin wrote the score.
Preservation
The copyright was not renewed and the film is in the public domain. Hal Roach Studios issued a colorized video in 1986 that turned Sinatra's blue eyes brown. Legend Films put a remastered color version and a restored black-and-white print on DVD on 16 June 2009, and Serge Bromberg restored the picture from the camera negative for Lobster Films in 2018.
Notes
- Frank Sinatra's John Baron was his first dramatic role as a heavy.
- AFI lists running times of 75, 77, and 82 minutes; TCM and the technical sheets commonly give 77.
- The New York Times review of 8 October 1954 printed the title as Suddenly!
- Onscreen credits call the repairman Jud Hobson; in the film he is Jud Kelly.
- Erich von Stroheim Jr. was second assistant director.
- Paul Frees plays henchman Benny Conklin and also voices the television announcer.
- A Life article of 25 October 1954 counted six U.S. presidential assassination attempts to that date, three of them fatal.
Scenes
- Baron, posing as an FBI man, shoots Secret Service agent Dan Carney in the Benson living room and breaks Sheriff Shaw's arm.
- Pop spills water so a gunman is electrocuted when he touches the rifle table wired to the television set.
- The presidential train runs straight through the depot, and Ellen picks up Pop's revolver and shoots Baron.
Influenced by
- Richard Sale's short story "Active Duty" (Blue Book, May 1943)
- Newspaper reports of President Eisenhower's train visits to Palm Springs
Influenced
- Suddenly (2013), Uwe Boll's remake with Dominic Purcell
Also available
- Internet Archive (suddenly)
- Legend Films DVD (16 June 2009), with a restored black-and-white print
- Lobster Films restoration (2018)
Quotes
John Baron, dying: "No…don't…no…please no…no…no…