Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Suddenly Blu-ray Movie Review

Assassin in Widescreen

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 26, 2016

When I first wrote about Suddenly four years ago, I said that the 1954 film had "a lot of baggage". Add to that weight the peculiar distinction of being given three (3) Blu-ray releases, all of them different and each with its own pros and cons. The latest Blu-ray rendition of this public domain title is from The Film Detective, and the headline is that the new disc presents the film in what has now been conclusively determined to be its original aspect ratio of 1.75:1. From there, things get more complicated, as discussed in the "Video" and "Supplements" sections below.

My original discussion of Suddenly can be found here in the review of Image Entertainment's 2012 Blu-ray. My colleague Jeffrey Kauffman added his thoughts in reviewing a near-simultaneous second release by HD Cinema Classics.

Suddenly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Previous Blu-rays of Suddenly by Image Entertainment and HD Cinema Classics presented the film "full frame" at aspect ratios of 1.38:1 and 1.34:1, respectively. Although my 2012 review expressed doubt about the likelihood of the film being shot for a wider ratio, archival research has confirmed that the intended ratio was 1.75:1, which was one of the multiple ARs with which Hollywood experimented in the early Fifties. Film Detective has matted its new transfer for 1.75:1, and the effect is more striking than I could have imagined. Suddenly's tense confrontations and claustrophobic groupings of characters play with noticeably greater impact in the wider AR, and this is apparent even before Frank Sinatra's cheerfully vicious killer enters the scene. Such earlier sequences as the one in which Sterling Hayden's sheriff confronts Nancy Gates's grieving widow over her son's desire for a cap pistol acquire additional dramatic heft with the matted AR focusing attention more tightly on the drama. From a purely compositional perspective, Film Detective's presentation is a meaningful improvement.

But (isn't there always a "but"?) the corrected AR comes at a price. The print from Film Detective's library is noticeably inferior to the source used by Image, which is described on the Blu-ray jacket as a "35 mm fine grain master print". While the damage isn't terrible, there's more of it on Film Detective's source, including specks, blotches and vertical lines that come and go. (The hair that intrudes into the upper right corner of the frame at about 31:20 exists in all versions and is most likely a flaw in the negative that would have to be painted out digitally, at significant cost.) Film Detective's version also exhibits a much heavier grain field that will surely disturb viewers sensitive to such phenomena. In comparison, the Image disc's smoother surface appears to be the product of grain reduction, at least in part, but some of Film Detective's graininess is no doubt source-based. The new disc also has more pronounced contrast, which yields a slight increase in detail, though at the cost of accentuating grain.

Finally, there is the issue of media. Image uses pressed BD-ROMs, where Film Detective's edition of Suddenly arrives on a 1080p, AVC-encoded BD-R. While most players can handle burned discs, some cannot. Many members of Blu-ray.com have also expressed concerns about the durability of BD-Rs. On that point I reserve judgment, but the concerns can't be dismissed out of hand.

(Note: I have tried to match the screenshots accompanying this review to those accompanying my prior review of the Image disc. I do not have HD Cinema Classics' Blu-ray to perform a comparison.)

Suddenly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Film Detective has encoded Suddenly's mono soundtrack in two-channel lossless DTS-HD MA, in contrast to Image's single-channel lossless rendition. At first blush, Film Detective's version may sound superior, simply because the doubling of channels results in a higher volume (and the 2.0 format may also be more easily spread throughout a speaker array by some decoders). But when the volume is equalized, the track is comparable to the prior disc I reviewed.

Suddenly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Buyers are out of luck in the extras department. Film Detective hasn't provided any. Image's disc had two informative commentaries (one of them by Frank Sinatra, Jr.), a gallery of marketing materials and an unrelated short film. HD Cinema Classics offered an entirely different commentary, plus a restoration demonstration and its own version of a trailer. Taken together, that's more supplemental material than most films receive, but you get none of it with the new disc.

Suddenly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Suddenly remains a fascinating film with an electrifying performance by Frank Sinatra. Buyers now have three choices, each with its own positives and negatives. For future viewings, I will probably load up Film Detective's version—but I'm keeping the Image disc.