Suddenly

Suddenly is a small town in California. The sheriff Tod Shaw is courting a widow and she is not receptive; she lost her husband in the war and hates guns. That day word comes to the town: the president's train will pass through in the afternoon and make a short stop. Security is arranged. The same morning three men arrive. They present themselves as federal agents and enter a house on the hill. Its window looks onto the station. They stay in the family's house and tell them what is going to happen. Lewis Allen directs. Frank Sinatra plays the assassin John Baron and Sterling Hayden the sheriff; Nancy Gates is in the cast. It was made on a low budget in a short shoot; the narrative takes place almost entirely in one house. Sinatra was known as a singer at the time and had recently won an Oscar; the part stands apart in his career. The matter it treats is how violence is learned; Baron describes having been a good marksman in the war and decorated for it. The film never shows the president; the narrative is built on waiting and the event kept inside the house. The strand between the sheriff and the woman carries the argument; opposition to guns is made plain as a subject. The production was withdrawn from circulation after the Kennedy assassination and went unseen for a long time, which gave rise to various claims around it. Its limit is scale; the budget shows, the cast is small and the ending fast. Who it is for: viewers who like thrillers of the noir period and Sinatra. Who it is not for: it is short, confined to one place, and the plot simple.