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THE SECOND TIME AROUND: Thanks to scientific advances right around the corner, Rock Hudson’s forlorn antihero achieves the once-magical concept of being young again. In this near-future thriller, sci-fi proves to be closely related to surrealism by the auteur’s oblique camera-eye. Courtesy: Joel/Gibraltar/Paramount Pictures.
CREDITS
Paramount Pictures/Gibralter Productions/Joel Productions; John Frankenheimer, dir.; David Ely, novel; Lewis John Carlino, scr.; Frankenheimer, Edward Lewis, pro.; Jerry Goldsmith, mus.; James Wong Howe, cin.; David Newhouse, Ferris Webster, ed.; Ted Haworth, art dir.; Saul Bass, titles; 106 min.; B&W; 1.85:1.
CAST
Rock Hudson (Antiochus “Tony” Wilson); Khigh Dhiegh (Davalo); John Randolph (Arthur Hamilton); Frances Reid (Emily Hamilton); Salome Jens (Nora Marcus); Barbara Werle (Secretary); Jeff Corey (Mr. Ruby); Murray Hamilton (Charlie Evans); Will Geer (Old Man); Richard Anderson (Dr. Innes).
MOST MEMORABLE LINE
A man who lives the age-old dream —
If only I could begin my life all over again.
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BACKGROUND
By the mid-sixties, the times—as Bob Dylan duly noted in one example of the era’s new music—were a-changin’. The Hollywood product displayed more influences from the style and substance of avant-garde European cinema. One of the first significant experimental projects had been the Warren Beatty/Arthur Penn collaboration Mickey One (1965), which introduced a nonlinear narrative, a surreal sensibility, and a paranoid outlook to commercial movies. Seconds would relocate such a Kafkaesque vision within science fiction. As a big-budget project with an A-lister star and director, Seconds ranks high among the mid-decade movies that altered the popular vision of what American movies, particularly those belonging to this genre, could be.
Businessman Arthur Hamilton would appear to have it all: an impressive house, a loving family, and financial rewards, thanks to success in his chosen white-collar profession. Though no one in his small circle of friends is aware that anything’s wrong, Hamilton seethes beneath the surface, always wondering: Is this all there is? He has never experienced the extremes of romance and adventure that he dreamed about as a boy. Through an old acquaintance, Hamilton learns of the possibility, albeit risky, of a second chance. For a costly sum, a mysterious company transforms aging men into semi-human cyborgs, their minds still intact, but relocated in perfect young bodies. Better yet, or so Hamilton believes, the company helps the transformed client to disappear.
THE FILM
Here is another one of those unique films that barely qualifies as science fiction. Most of the story takes place in the real world, though the viewed-through-a-camera-eye-darkly cityscapes in the prologue and spacious, brightly lit (to the point of equal oppressiveness) California sequences that follow project an edgy sensibility. Seconds offers a near-future phantasmagoria in which scientific possibilities almost within reach at the time of filmmaking—in this case, plastic surgery taken to nightmare extremes—are presented not as fantasy but as a believable projection of what will likely come into being the day after tomorrow.
Known for his convincing sense of realism in dramas from the golden age of television (Playhouse 90 and Studio One in Hollywood) and his film collaborations with Burt Lancaster (The Young Savages, 1961, and Birdman of Alcatraz, 1962), John Frankenheimer (1930–2002) grounded this piece by using everyday settings rather than in-studio sets, something of an innovation at the time. Happily, he teamed with James Wong Howe (1899–1976), the daring director of photography who opted for a subjective treatment of the everyday world.
The film stands not only as a genre milestone, but also as a turning point for American filmmaking. It revived noir, which had flourished between 1945 and 1960, then all but disappeared for the better part of a decade. Further, Seconds rates as the first important movie to address openly middle-aged hippie-dom: wealthy people over the age of thirty, hoping to remain forever young, adapted elements of the free love/free drug subculture into their upscale lives.
THEME
Though seemingly less political than previous Frankenheimer films, such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1964), Seconds conceals a political subtext beneath its obvious surface show of social criticism. This film about “reborns” features three gifted actors—Jeff Corey, Will Geer, and John Randolph—in supporting roles. All were blacklisted during the 1950s McCarthy witch hunt, owing to their progressive politics. In 1960, beginning with the release of Spartacus, producer-star Kirk Douglas insisted that Hollywood outcasts—such as that film’s screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, who had been working under pseudonyms or fronts—again receive billing. Cinematographer Howe, who would win two Oscars and come to be considered one of the ten most influential cinematographers, had been “gray-listed” in the late 1950s and early 1960s, returning to work in 1963 with the contemporary Western Hud. Seconds continued that professional “re-birthing” behind and in front of the camera in a film that, appropriately enough, highlights that very theme.
TRIVIA
Originally, Frankenheimer planned to co-produce with his Seven Days in May star, Kirk Douglas. That fell apart owing to Douglas’s desire to portray both the “before” and “after” incarnations. Frankenheimer believed the distinction should be considerably sharper. Many observers were concerned when Rock Hudson was cast as the “after,” convinced that he was not a strong enough actor. As it turned out, Hudson’s limitations led to a perfect portrayal. Tony is not a normal human (the kind of part a character-lead like Douglas would relish), but a semi-human creation, a faux front. Hudson’s low-key presence, which diminished the power of many serious films in which he appeared, turned out to be precisely what this role required.