Movie Review: Suddenly (1954) directed by Lewis Allen
Back during the gold rush, Suddenly, California was the kind of place where things happen in a hurry. Nowadays, it’s a much sleepier town. Slim the deputy (Paul Wexler) jokes to a passing motorist that the town fathers are considering changing the name to “Gradually.” But today’s going to be a little different. Sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) learns that the president of the United States of America (never named or seen) will be getting off the train there for a trip to a vacation resort. Security needs to be tight, especially as the Secret Service has it on good authority that an assassination attempt is in the works.
To make sure the president’s safe, the Secret Service has called in the sheriff’s department, police officers from the nearest large city, and the FBI. Or at least that’s what FBI agent John Baron (Frank Sinatra) and his two co-workers claim. He’s come to make sure the house on the hill overlooking the train station is secure.
The inhabitants of the house are “Pop” Benson (James Gleason), a former top Secret Service agent who took a bullet to the heart and miraculously survived, but was invalided out; Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates), Pop’s daughter-in-law whose husband was killed in Korea, giving her a hatred of guns; and Pidge Benson (Kim Charney), her eight-year-old son who doesn’t understand his mother’s fears and likes watching violent movies and playing with the cap gun Sheriff Shaw gave him.
When the head Secret Service agent and Sheriff Shaw arrive at the house, Mr. Baron reveals his true colors by shooting both men. The agent is killed, and Tod badly wounded, allowing him to be taken captive. It turns out that John Baron and his two accomplices are mobsters, John being an expert hitman who’s been paid to assassinate the president. The people in the house are held hostage so that Baron can make his shot from this perfect angle. Tense drama ensues.
This black and white thriller did modest box office, but has gained notoriety for certain similarities to the Kennedy assassination a decade later. It’s very much a star vehicle for Frank Sinatra, who does an excellent turn as the seemingly cold-blooded killer who enjoys shooting people a little too much.
John Baron is quick to claim that he’s not a traitor, or really working against the interests of the United States. He won a Silver Star in World War Two (but then was released on a Section Eight.) He doesn’t know who the money is coming from for the assassination, but considers those people suckers as if the president dies, he’ll simply be replaced by the vice-president; and things will go on exactly as they would have otherwise for the enemies of America. Baron is thrilled, however, by the prospect of killing such a prominent person, and perhaps being the first person to ever successfully get away with a presidential assassination.
Baron’s good at making plans, and things go relatively smooth at first, but starts coming unglued once the situation starts throwing curveballs at him. His henchmen Wheeler (Christopher Dark) and Benny (Paul Frees in a rare non-voice acting role) aren’t as good at planning or as confident about the chances of success.
This movie wears its values on its sleeves. A dying stoolie is “proud to be an American.” Tod’s pursuit of Ellen for marriage despite her repeatedly making it clear she’s not interested seems noxious to modern eyes, but it’s eventually made clear that her objection is not because she doesn’t love him, but because he carries a gun in the performance of his duties. Ellen is depicted as entirely wrong in her hatred of guns and war, with the men in her life insisting that it’s not a matter of guns being dangerous, but who holds the gun and uses it for which purpose. Baron is the wrong man to have a gun, because he thinks it makes him powerful and important, a “somebody”, when he kills. But Pop, Sheriff Shaw, and even Pidge are the right men to have guns, because they use them to protect.
Content notes: Pidge, a child, is repeatedly threatened with death. Gun violence, not particularly bloody but repeatedly fatal. May not be suitable for small children or sensitive viewers.
Overall: A pretty good short thriller which will appeal most to Frank Sinatra fans.
Despite the fact that you didn’t even hint at the existence of a twist, I was able to guess that there was one and what it was. This looks like an interesting thriller, I’ll have to watch it some time.
You’ve seen enough movies to know this sort of thing. Not so much of a twist for anyone who read the back of the DVD case though.