Actor:          Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates
Director:     Lewis Allen
Genre:         Drama 
Year:             1954
Studio:         HD Cinema Classics
Length :        75
Released:   October 16, 2012
Rating:         Not Rated (MPAA Rating)
Format:        DVD
Misc:            Black & White
Language:   English
Subtitles:    Spanish

DESCRIPTION:

Fresh from his Academy Award winning comeback in 1953 s From Here to Eternity, Frank Sinatra surprised world wide movie audiences by following up that life altering triumph with the darkest screen role of his legendary career- that of would be Presidential assassin John Baron in Suddenly. With a plotline inspired by then President Eisenhower s train trips to Palm Springs, California, Suddenly finds Baron holding pacifist war widow Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates), her family, and the town sheriff (Sterling Hayden) hostage while preparing to shoot the President. In a tough, taut 75 minutes suffused with classic film noir elements, Suddenly presents characters alienated from their surroundings, men and women trapped in the dark side of a post war American society where the old cultural certainties have vanished. Portraying a psychopath about whom he stated : I have never seen on the screen any character as consistently brutal as this man is , Sinatra here turns in a dramatic performance which ranks right alongside his classic turns in From Here to Eternity and The Manchurian Candidate. Complete with neurotic 1950s underpinnings that spoke to the post war atomic age of anxiety, Suddenly packs a punch so powerful that for two decades following President Kennedy s assassination, the film was never shown on television. Now beautifully restored for the first time since its original release in October of 1954- a mere five years but lightyears removed from Sinatra s classic MGM sailor suit musicals with Gene Kelly - here at last is the definitive version of the film long considered the forgotten gem of Sinatra s extraordinary filmography. Watching Johnny spit out the chilling command Let s go to work to his accomplices- words to which Quentin Tarantino deliberately paid homage in Reservoir Dogs- audiences today will remain as fascinated and unsettled as they did at the time of the film s initial release. With its eerily prescient take on American political violence, Suddenly remains, in the words of Newsweek s rave review: As simple and startling as a good scream. Tom Santopietro Author, Sinatra in Hollywood This Blu-Ray + DVD Combo Pack, which was digitally restored in High Definition from original 35mm elements, includes the following bonus features: Audio Commentary with Tom Santopietro, Spanish Subtitles, English Closed Captioning, a Before & After Restoration Demo, and an Original Movie Art Postcard.