Suddenly (1954 movie)

Suddenly is a 1954 film noir starring antagonist Frank Sinatra, sheriff Sterling Hayden, grandpa James Gleason, and mother Nancy Gates.

According to Kitty Kelley's bio 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 After the film was withdrawn from circulation, there was a failure to renew the copyright and it fell into the public domain.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 labels. 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 when the video was transferred from black and white to color.

Plot

Sinatra plays ruthless assassin John Baron, who, with his henchmen, subdue a family and take over a home in the small town of Suddenly, where the President is scheduled soon to arrive.

The movie portrays Baron's psychological struggle with his captives, and presents an interesting portrait of what nowadays is a hot-button matter, the function of firearms in the home.

See also

• Films featuring Sinatra
• Film noir
• Crime film

External link