Suddenly [M]

The little town of Suddenly has been so quiet in recent years that the officials are thinking of renaming it Gradually. But this suddenly changes one afternoon when a confidential telegram is received by the Sheriff stating that the President will be changing trains within the town. Secret Service and FBI begin flooding the streets making sure there are no threats and with them slips in a trio of assassins who take advantage of a house on the hill overlooking the station and hold the family hostage whilst they prepare to assassinate the President. 

This came in a little Frank Sinatra triple pack that I picked up on a whim, I have a bit of a thing for Frank Sinatra I have to admit, and I have to say that I hold no regrets in my impulse decision to buy this film that I’d never seen. Suddenly is a short-running gangster thriller that succeeds in capturing attention and holding it at arm’s length. There is a great amount of suspense that kept me completely within the film’s grips and for the 75-minute duration there was nowhere I’d rather have been. 

The little town of Suddenly has been so quiet in recent years that the officials are thinking of renaming it Gradually. But this suddenly changes one afternoon when a confidential telegram is received by the Sheriff stating that the President will be changing trains within the town. Secret Service and FBI begin flooding the streets making sure there are no threats and with them slips in a trio of assassins who take advantage of a house on the hill overlooking the station and hold the family hostage whilst they prepare to assassinate the President. 

I think what made this movie was the suspense that was crammed into it. It wasn’t like a shadowing Hitchcock type of suspense where you’re waiting for a burst of staccato soundtrack or the discovery of a corpse, no this was more a tantalising curiosity that gets satiated only in very small doses. For a fair portion of the movie, particularly all scenes featuring Frank, the audience is left with clues as to who this villain is and what makes him tick, but are never given some hard evidence of his character and are just left t sort of fill in the blanks. Frank is a person who captures the camera’s eye and can command attention and I think the casting of him as the villain in this piece was quite a slick move as his performance and his lack of giving too much away as to his character is what kept me on my toes, as all the film’s other audiences would be I’d assume. 

Not exactly an Academy Award winning performance by modern standards, Frank nonetheless stole the show as the villain. He goes through a series of transformations: beginning the film as a cool and professional gangster type, progressing into a proud ex-militant flaunting his ‘silver star’, and finally the psychotic nature begins to shine through as the climactic moment draws near. A bit like Heath Ledger’s joker, Frank’s character was one whom you couldn’t read: you had to expect anything and everything of this guy so the majority of the movie involves audiences bracing themselves for some frightening sexual advance of his, or a real exhibition of violence, or even some chilling maniacal laughter. I loved this; this is what stood out for me. 

Starring Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates, Kim Charney, Willis Bouchey, Paul Frees, Christopher Dark, and James O’Hara, Suddenly is an engaging little thriller that’s filled with action, romance, gunplay, drama, and suspense. I will admit that I may be giving it a little too much credit because of my Frank Sinatra blinders, but I really enjoyed it and would readily watch it again.