Lewis Allen's - Suddenly - Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review Lewis Allen Suddenly Frank Sinatra DVD Review

directed by Lewis Allen
USA 1954

"Suddenly" is a peaceful small town in Southern California. Nothing ever happens but one day the local police are notified that a train carrying the President of the United States, on a re-election campaign tour, will be making a brief stop in their little hamlet.

As expected, security is stringent as FBI agents comb the area to see that every precaution is taken to ensure the President's protection. A car draws up at the home of a family whose house overlooks the station at the very point where the President's train will stop. A trio of men headed by John Baron (Frank Sinatra) announce themselves as FBI security men and proceed to enter the house. Eventually the genuine FBI agents turn up and are shot by Baron. The family realizes that he is a paid assassin preparing to shot the President! He and his henchmen hold the family hostage at gunpoint as they await the arrival of the presidential train.
As the hours pass, Baron's pathological personality becomes more pronounced while the family try, unsuccessfully, various ways to outwit him and his men. The killer's plans have been carefully laid and as the train approaches. The tension mounts and it seems that nothing can prevent the impending murder of the nation's leader.

Suddenly is an obvious attempt at eroding any pacifist leanings. It uses and targets women as the weak link in the chain of vigilant security. The young mother Ellen Benson (played by Nancy Gates), has lost her husband in Korea (fighting the communist menace) and consistently attempts to keep her son Pidge (Kim Charney) from playing with guns. The strong father-in-law opposes this and the mother is portrayed as a simple un-worldly female unaware of the threats that society is consistently exposed to. From this standpoint the film is a true classic of pro-war propaganda and 'defense of country' with nationalistic intent. You can almost hear in the narrative " The commies could be everywhere". A fascinating and obvious piece of cold-war fear mongering - out of

NOTE: Sinatra made two films with a plot revolving around a Presidential assassination (the other being The Manchurian Candidate), but Suddenly became infamous when it was learned Lee Harvey Oswald had watched the film just a few days before he shot President Kennedy. After learning of this, Sinatra had the prints removed from circulation.

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 7th, 1954 - USA

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DVD Comparison:

Sanctuary Digital Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Disc Plaza Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Image Entertainment - Region 1- NTSC

Big thanks to Per-Olaf Strandberg for the Sanctuary screen captures !

(Sanctuary Digital Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC LEFT vs. Disc Plaza Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - MIDDLE vs. Image Entertainment - Region 1- NTSC - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers

Distribution

Sanctuary Digital Entertainment

Region 0 - NTSC

Disc Plaza Entertainment

Region 0 - NTSC

Image Entertainment
Region 1 - NTSC

Runtime	1:12:29 (4% PAL speedup)	1:15:45	1:12:09
Video	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio ? Average Bitrate: ?mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.32:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 2.35 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.7 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Disc Plaza
Bitrate: Image
Audio	English (2.0 mono)	English (2.0 mono)	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby)
Subtitles	English HoH, French, German, Spanish, NONE	None	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Disc Plaza / Platinum Disc Corporation Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (non 16X9) - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Cast & Crew Frank Sinatra 13 pages Sterling Hayden 8 p Nancy Gates 2 p James Gleason 2 p Raksin 4 p Richard Sale 1 p Lewis Allen 2 p • Background information 7 pages • Commentary track from Ken Barnes, including archive recordings of Sinatra and Bing Cosby from around the 1954 Academy Awards. • Featurette: Sinatra The Actor 5:14 • Featurette: Sinatra The Singer 6:17 • Featurette: Sinatra The Man 5:01 • Afterthoughts 7 Pages • Notes 4 pages DVD Release Date: October 15th, 2001 Keep Case Chapters 20	Release Information: Studio: Disc Plaza / Platinum Disc Corporation Aspect Ratio: Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Includes "The Man With the Golden Arm" DVD Release Date: June 1st, 1999 Keep Case Chapters 6	Release Information: Studio: Image Entertainment (Hal Roach Classic division) Aspect Ratio: Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Liner note page with poster DVD Release Date: May 18th, 2004 Keep Case Chapters: 8

Comments:

ADDITION (Sanctuary Digital Entertainment - Dec -04) - Well, well, well - what have we here. Buried in a PAL country (UK) but my contributor assures me that the disc is NTSC... and not only that - we have even more surprises. The far superior Sanctuary DVD claims the film was theatrically shown at 1.85 widescreen! .. and the composition appears to bear that out. The Image Entertainment disc looks absurdly blue next to the Sanctuary and is a notch below on the sharpness scale to its UK predecessor. The Sanctuary looks much more like a 'real' DVD with extras, commentary, featurettes and decent menus. Wow, I am scratching my head - I am sure there is a reason that it is only for sale in the UK... but I wish I had known sooner before shelling out for this Image Entertainment cheapy. NOTE: The audio on the sanctuary is les than stellar with lots of crackles and pops. We flip-flop - our advice is BUY the Sanctuary !

****

The Disc Plaza edition has the lowest bitrate I have ever seen (2.35 mb/s) and is fraught with problems - aspect ratio adjustment (stretched horizontally), contrast boosting, cropped etc. Now the Image Disc is not perfect have a blue-ish haze over the picture, but it is miles better - sharper and superior contrast. Neither disc, unfortunately, has any extras, but the inexpensive Disc Plaza (aka Platinum) has the inclusion of another Sinatra classic 'The Man With the Golden Arm" and it is in better condition than "Suddenly". There are many Public Domain issue DVDs of "Suddenly" and this Image DVD appears to be the best of the lot. A true classic noir that we encourage you to watch!

- Gary W. Tooze

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Film Noir Reader 4 : The Crucial Films and Themes (Film Noir Reader)
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The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir
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The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir: Quotations from Films of the 40's and 50's
by Peg Thompson, Saeko Usukawa

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Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959
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DVD Menus

(Sanctuary Digital Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC LEFT vs. Disc Plaza Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - MIDDLE vs. Image Entertainment - Region 1- NTSC - RIGHT)

Sanctuary DVD is widescreen... claiming:

NOTE: The Disc Plaza release has huge combing issue with scene frame shifts: