Director John Frankenheimer seemed to direct two kinds of films by the mid 1960s. There were the commercially successful films that starred Burt Lancaster (The Train, Seven Days in May, The Birdman of Alcatraz), and the experimental films that were box office duds (The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds).
Seconds was lambasted by most critics upon its release. However, it did receive an Oscar nomination for James Wong Howe's striking, showy black and white cinematography. But perhaps that was due more to Howe's reputation than the film's.
It is true that many will find Seconds to be an unpleasant, grim experience. Rock Hudson had made a career out of romantic comedies, but this film is the complete opposite. Even black humor is largely missing. While Hudson is given a love interest, she's neither attractive nor romantic.
On the other hand, Seconds does make you think. And I am somewhat grateful to the film for giving me a visual experience that I had thought I would never see: Rock Hudson being forced naked into a large vat of crushed grapes. Expertly reworded, the scene would make a great trivia question for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" As with Eyes Wide Shut, the orgy scene is edited in American prints but not in European versions.
When seen for the first time, Seconds has a surreal quality. Strange events occur, and are explained only later. Combined with the film's vaguely science fiction premise, and Howe's curious choice of shots, an unsettling, creepy feeling may be imposed on the viewer.
Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a middle aged banker who lives a quiet, empty life with his equally bland wife (Frances Reid). He is contacted by an old school chum whom he believed to be dead (Murray Hamilton). He is told to go to a certain street address, where he meets a pleasant elderly man (Will Geer). He is talked into beginning his life over again.
He undergoes intensive plastic and transplant surgery, performed by Dr. Innes (Richard Anderson). After further physical rehabilitation, he is 'reborn' as successful painter Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson).
Wilson is given a cozy seaside mansion, a house servant (Wesley Addy), and even a girlfriend (Salome Jens). But while Wilson's life is externally more desirable, he remains unsatisfied. He doesn't want, or even cannot, be the person that 'The Company' expects him to be.
Seconds reminds me of THX 1138 (1970), which was George Lucas' futuristic film about an emotionally suppressed individual who is unable to conform within a numbing, controlling society. Hudson has been told that he is free, even 'reborn', but he eventually realizes that he lives a gilded cage.
While not particularly recommended to fans of Rock Hudson's more mainstream films, Seconds is a thoughtful, disturbing insight into the fleeting nature of happiness, and the difficulty of adapting to a vastly different (even if superficially superior) environment. (76/100)
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