In the title role, James Stewart seemingly makes very little effort to become the character, instead relying on his usual tics and mannerisms to carry the plot along.
As a biopic, it’s weak. As a story in its own right, it’s reasonably entertaining but oddly childish. You learn surprisingly little about Miller’s life and career.
The main point of interest is Marilyn Monroe, who is always engaging, and it’s telling how much the film has retrospectively been sold on her involvement. The back of the DVD box, for instance, describes it as a Monroe film, when she’s not the star of it at all.
The main focus is on the singing family, the Donahues, played by Ethel Merman, Donald O’Connor, Dan Dailey, Johnnie Ray and Mitzi Gaynor. They’re loud and bold, in an unsubtle and unappealing way, and they lack charisma. Indeed, they struggle to hold your attention at all.
Likewise, the songs by Irving Berlin aren’t especially memorable, with the exception of the famous title song (which you have to wait right until the end to hear).
It’s not a terrible film by any means, and it probably achieves what it sets out to, but from the vantage point of 2023 there’s very little in it that stands up.
There are some nice moments but it’s not really funny enough to justify the slightly contorted plot. Hepburn and Bogart are both charismatic and charming, but you wish they had been given sharper, wittier lines to deliver.
The film was remade in 1995 with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinnear.
When a wealthy playboy named Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) crashes his speedboat, he is saved by use of a resuscitator belonging to nearby Dr. Phillips. But the doctor himself requires it at the same time and dies as a result. Merrick falls in love with the doctor’s widow, Helen (Jane Wyman), and tries to change the course of his life through acts of kindness and generosity to her and others.
There’s a strong (heavy-handed) message promoting Christianity. One character, Edward Randolph (Otto Kruger) even takes on a God-like role, offering spiritual guidance and saintly encouragement.
It’s a strange film because the main plot thread hinges on Helen going blind and not being able to see that the kindly gent helping her is the same man who inadvertently led to her husband’s death. I thought it was working up to a big moment “reveal” of his true identity, but when it arrives that moment is thrown away and completely peters out.
Odd as it is being sold an advert for the Christian life, it’s worth watching for the strong performances by Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. The former in particular has charisma.
Although there’s some excitement in the ticking-clock countdown to the planned assassination at 5pm, the performances are mainly wooden and/or half-baked. Sinatra has a definite magnetism and out-performs everyone else, but there’s a B-movie feel that it cannot rise above.
It’s mostly interesting for its attitudes. Ellen (Nancy Gates) wants to prevent her son playing with a toy gun, but her boyfriend, the sheriff (Sterling Hayden) tells her “Stop being a woman!” Shocking stuff. The “moral” seems to be that guns are great – unless a psychopath happens to get hold of one – and that masculinity is incomplete without them.
The most remarkable aspect of the film is explained by Wikipedia: “Sinatra asked United Artists to withdraw Suddenly from circulation because he heard the rumor that Lee Harvey Oswald had seen it before shooting President Kennedy. According to Hollywood legend, Sinatra bought up all remaining copies of Suddenly and had them destroyed, but this was not true.”
There are several odd things about it. Certain scenes have been lost and are represented on the DVD simply by on-set stills backed by the original audio. It’s very difficult to absorb these parts as part of the narrative.
Also, Judy Garland’s fame as a singer means that the film-makers took every opportunity to cram in more of her singing. The extended “film within a film” interlude doesn’t really work, but it could have done if they’d simply cut back to Norman and Esther’s reactions as they watched the show from the theatre.
Too little happens in the first hour: her talent and his drinking are established in the very first scene, then there’s a lot of filler before that story is picked up again. It’s oddly unbelievable as a romance, and there's very little chemistry between the pair.
On the plus side, the two leads are superb. Mason has just the right mixture of charismatic appeal and troubled “dark side”. You can see and feel his pain as his character declines. And it’s extremely colourful and vivid, with a particular emphasis on red and pink shades. But I was surprised to find that overall it was far less compelling than the Gaga/Cooper remake.
