Holland Uncovers Long-Lost Negative of Sinatra's Controversial SUDDENLY
May 10, 2010
A previously unknown 35mm fine-grain negative of
one of Hollywood's most controversial motion pictures, Frank Sinatra's SUDDENLY,
the 1954 fictional film about the assassination of an American president, has
been discovered by Los Angeles-based theatrical distributor Holland
Releasing. "When SUDDENLY was first released, it was considered too disturbing
by most audiences and so it was quickly pulled from theaters and soon
forgotten", according to Holland Releasing's CEO, Tom Holland. "As far as we
can tell, virtually all prints of SUDDENLY were destroyed and the
negative missing. Up until now, all videos of the film, as well as the
occasional TV broadcast, originated from the same splicy, grainy release print.
Now that's all changed and audiences can soon watch this amazing piece of
Hollywood history just as it was originally released in the 1950's." Holland
continued.
Frank Sinatra took the role of
SUDDENLY'S psychopathic hit man in the wake of his Oscar-winning comeback FROM
HERE TO ETERNITY. Although Sinatra's goal was to
show Hollywood he had the makings of a serious actor, he may have gone too far
in this choice of a frightening and highly unlikeable presidential assassin.
Aside from Sinatra's performance, and the film's place in the American noir
tradition, SUDDENLY is uncannily prophetic on the subject of assassination.
Like Sinatra's MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, the movie was pulled from circulation
after the JFK assassination. According to Kitty Kelly's bio of Sinatra, Lee
Harvey Oswald saw this film a few days before he took rifle in
hand.
Holland Releasing's newly-discovered negative is in
mint condition, according to the company, and has just been scanned to
high-definition video by Rainbow Productions in New York City. Holland
Releasing plans a worldwide theatrical reissue of SUDDENLY as well as licensing
to broadcast and Blu-Ray.
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