page_title: Suddenly (1954 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Suddenly (1954 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: Sterling Hayden in a photo frame of Suddenly.
context_page_description: Suddenly is a 1954 American noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen with a screenplay written by Richard Sale. The drama stars Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden, and features James Gleason and Nancy Gates.
  The story concerns a small California town whose tranquility is shattered when the train of the president of the United States is scheduled to make a stop in the town, and a hired assassin and his henchmen take over a home that provides a perfect vantage point from which to assassinate the president.
context_section_description: Writer Richard Sale gained his idea for the short story which was the basis of the film after he read stories in the news about President Dwight D. Eisenhower traveling to and from Palm Springs, California by train. There were differences between the story and the film, the most thematically important being that the mother in the story was not bitter about her husband's death in World War II, and in fact, was not present during the assassination attempt, so never had to make the choice the mother in the film has to make: whether to shoot and kill the assassin when the opportunity arises.
  The exterior scenes for Suddenly were filmed in Saugus, California.
  The production company, Libra Productions, was producer Robert Brassler's company, and Suddenly was his first independent film. Previously, Brassler had worked for Twentieth Century Fox.
caption: Sterling Hayden as Sheriff Tod Shaw
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