The assassin
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The assassin |
| Original title | Suddenly |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 75 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lewis Allen |
| script | Richard Sale |
| production | Robert Bassler |
| music | David Raksin |
| camera | Charles G. Clarke |
| cut | John F. Schreyer |
| occupation | |
| |
The assassin (original title: Suddenly ) is in black and white twisted American film noir of Lewis Allen from the year 1954th
There is a docudrama of the same name (1969) about the Hitler assassination attempt (1939) by Georg Elser; see here .
action
In the peaceful Californian town of Suddenly, the secret arrival of the US President is imminent, who is supposed to change from the train to a car. While the Secret Service and the local police at the station are busy with the necessary preparations, three men arrive at the Benson family home on an adjacent hill. You introduce yourself as FBI agents trying to search the house. When Sheriff Tod Shaw and senior Secret Service agent Dan Carney arrive shortly afterwards, Carney is shot by the alleged FBI people and another shot smashes Shaw's left arm. It turns out that the three are actually contract killers. Their leader, John Baron, wants to shoot the President from the Bensons' living room window.
While Ellen Benson tends to the injured sheriff in the bedroom, her father-in-law manages to load his revolver unnoticed and to deposit it in a dresser drawer. Eventually everyone is brought into the living room, where Baron's accomplices Benny Conklin and Bart Wheeler screw a metal table in front of the window and mount a sniper rifle on it. Then Baron sends Conklin to the station to take a look at the situation. Shortly afterwards, TV technician Jud Kelly arrives at the house and is also arrested.
After Conklin was exposed and shot at the train station, a psychological game of cat and mouse develops between the two World War II veterans Shaw and Baron. It becomes clear that Baron is a dangerous psychopath who murders for the fun of killing. While Jud is repairing the television next to the window, little Pidge Benson finds the revolver in the dresser drawer and swaps it for his toy revolver, which he has been carrying around with him all day.
Jud secretly connects the television's power supply to the metal table. When Wheeler tries to check the aiming device of the rifle, he receives a fatal electric shock, which detaches numerous shots from the rifle and the police at the station become aware. Baron shoots Jud, disconnects the power cables from the table and aims at the arriving train. Warned by the shots, it drives through without stopping. Ellen Benson wounds the shocked Benson with Pidge's pistol in his chest. Shaw grabs the gun and shoots him.
criticism
"Extremely exciting gangster thriller with impressive actors."
backgrounds
The assassin opened in US cinemas on October 7, 1954. In Germany it was released in cinemas on May 13, 1955.
In the history of the United States there have been some attacks on US President (1865 ( Abraham Lincoln ), 1881 ( James A. Garfield ), 1901 ( William McKinley ) and 1912 ( Theodore Roosevelt )).
Web links
- The assassin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The assassin in the lexicon of international films .
- ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , pp. 274-275.