Suddenly

Synopsis: An assassin (Frank Sinatra) and his gang hold a family and a sheriff (Sterling Hayden) hostage as they plan to kill the President in a small California town.

Suddenly may start rough, with some stilted dialog and suspect acting, but once Frank Sinatra shows up, it kicks into gear and never looks back.

Sinatra, in a rare chance to stretch his acting chops, is superb as a sociopathic assassin with a chip on his shoulder. Watching the film, you can’t help but wish he’d played more villains, perhaps in a Hitchcock picture, because his ability to switch from charming to frightening is so uncannily believable.

Supporting Sinatra are Sterling Hayden, who’s perfect as a small town sheriff, and James Gleason, who’s equally good as a retired Secret Service operative. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is less impressive. Nancy Gates overacts almost every scene, Kim Charney is just annoying as Gates’ character’s kid, and James O’Hara does a poor job of masking his Irish accent. Fortunately, these sub-par turns don’t detract from Sinatra’s knockout performance.

Clocking in at only 75 minutes, the film operates in close to real time, which adds to the suspense. Further, the subtle way it unravels Sinatra’s character is near perfect, avoiding a myriad of clichés as his character goes from cool and collected to near raving mad as the pressure of the situation builds. The writing by Richard Sale is better than it has any right to be in such a low budget production.