Lewis Allen directs Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Gates in this noir thriller where the small town of Suddenly is overrun by secret service agents ahead of the President’s visit and three assassins take a family hostage so they can maintain the vantage point of their sniper rifle.

Really solid this (though some the minor characters acting is atrocious). Sinatra gets a really beefy part as the self-aggrandising psycho. This could easily be a play but it grips and stays surprisingly claustrophobic.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Desperate Hours (1955)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Clint Eastwood directs himself, Jeff Fahey and Charlotte Cornwell in this period adventure based on a true story where John Huston delayed and exploited The African Queen’s on-location shoot to hunt an elephant (thinly fictionalised).

An amusing anecdote told with an epic sweep. Though it takes potshots at colonialism and Hollywood hypocrisy, it is hard to see who it is really for. Perhaps Clint relished playing someone whose monstrous flaws are human, whose weaknesses are apparent. Definitely one for him rather the studio or his fanbase but a fine enough single use movie in its own right.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The African Queen (1951)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/