In my lifetime, the assassination of John F. Kennedy changed everything. America lost it's innocence on that Dallas morning over forty years ago, and I came away from this movie with the thought that maybe the film makers were subconsciously looking ahead to when such an event in modern times might not be so much conjecture, but something almost inevitable. Precautions for the assassination of the President in 1963 were probably about on a par with what was disclosed in this story, but who would have thought to check the upper floors of the Book Depository building? Interestingly, the name of Dwight Eisenhower was never mentioned in "Suddenly".
There was also a unique observation made in the picture by Frank Sinatra's character, Johnny Baron. Speaking to Sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) about the momentous nature of his intent, Johnny declares - "...the first man they shoot to the moon in a rocket will take pains too, it's just never been done before". Two eerily prophetic observations made by the same story to become realized within the coming decade.
In reading some of the comments from other posters on this board, I was struck by the number of those who took issue with the picture's overt message about guns, particularly the number of times the subject was brought up and reinforced throughout the story. It did seem heavy handed and forced after a while, and I remember how a 1957 TV Western broached the subject much more effectively without getting in your face. I refer to the series opener of 'Colt .45', when Wayde Preston defends his occupation as a traveling gun salesman - "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". That idea didn't have to be repeated for the rest of the episode.
Overall, I found the story to be generally suspenseful, but had to question a number of scenes that didn't quite ring true. Right after Carney and the Sheriff were shot, the Benson's and Shaw were left unsupervised in another room just a bit too long to be credible. A similar scene occurred in 1957's "The Desperate Hours" with Bogey at the helm in charge of similarly inept henchmen. I'm sure many viewers picked up on the cap-gun exchange for Pop's hidden pistol as being something of a stretch. The topper for me though was when Pidge fired the errant shot and threw the gun across the room, and Johnny Baron didn't bother to worry about who might go after it. In that split second, you just knew that Johnny deserved whatever he got.
There was also a unique observation made in the picture by Frank Sinatra's character, Johnny Baron. Speaking to Sheriff Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden) about the momentous nature of his intent, Johnny declares - "...the first man they shoot to the moon in a rocket will take pains too, it's just never been done before". Two eerily prophetic observations made by the same story to become realized within the coming decade.
In reading some of the comments from other posters on this board, I was struck by the number of those who took issue with the picture's overt message about guns, particularly the number of times the subject was brought up and reinforced throughout the story. It did seem heavy handed and forced after a while, and I remember how a 1957 TV Western broached the subject much more effectively without getting in your face. I refer to the series opener of 'Colt .45', when Wayde Preston defends his occupation as a traveling gun salesman - "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". That idea didn't have to be repeated for the rest of the episode.
Overall, I found the story to be generally suspenseful, but had to question a number of scenes that didn't quite ring true. Right after Carney and the Sheriff were shot, the Benson's and Shaw were left unsupervised in another room just a bit too long to be credible. A similar scene occurred in 1957's "The Desperate Hours" with Bogey at the helm in charge of similarly inept henchmen. I'm sure many viewers picked up on the cap-gun exchange for Pop's hidden pistol as being something of a stretch. The topper for me though was when Pidge fired the errant shot and threw the gun across the room, and Johnny Baron didn't bother to worry about who might go after it. In that split second, you just knew that Johnny deserved whatever he got.