Suddenly

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Suddenly ★★★½ 1954

Crazed gunman John Baron (Sinatra) holds a family hostage in the hick town of Suddenly, California, as part of a plot to kill the president, who's stopping at the local train station. As things begin to go wrong, Baron begins to unravel. Tense thriller is a good display for Sinatra's acting talent. Unfortunately hard to find because Sinatra forced United Artists to take it out of distribution after hearing that Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had watched “Suddenly” only days before November 22, 1963. Really, Ol' Blue Eyes should have stuck with making top-notch thrillers like this one, instead of degenerating into the world's greatest lounge singer. 75m/B VHS, DVD . Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates, Paul Frees, Willis Bouchey, Kim Charney, Christopher Dark; D: Lewis Allen; W: Richard Sale; C: Charles Clarke; M: David Raksin.