Seconds (1966)

[JackFavell]

Whoa! That's awful! Thank goodness he was able to get past it all and figure that out.... some people would never have the strength to make it through all of that.

[kingrat]

SECONDS is the kind of film that makes you want to write about both the filmmaking--the first word that comes to mind is "Wow!"--and the issues raised by the film. Mr. Arkadin and srowley have talked about the compelling themes of identity and second chances that the film raises. I wish we'd learned a little about how our hero feels about painting now that he's faced with a blank canvas every morning. Is this less exhilarating than he imagined? Does it create new anxieties?

Rock Hudson has to convey anxiety, fear, and drunkenness in various scenes. He's not the kind of actor who can simply reach into a bag of tricks to finesse these moments. He seems to have gone deep to make these scenes work. The casting of Frances Reid as John Randolph's wife has even more resonance if you know that for decades after SECONDS she played the kindly matriarch of the Horton family on DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

We haven't talked much about the filmmaking, though it seems clear that many of us are impressed by it. Saul Bass's superb credit sequence unsettles us in exactly the right way, and the dissolve from the credits to the fisheye view of the train station begins one of the most stunning opening sequences of any film. They put the camera there? They cut to that? Every choice is daring, and it all works in terms of storytelling. Distortion and disorientation: the methods of the filmmaking not only create the right atmosphere, but even enact the themes of the film. Though the approach couldn't be different from that of Fred Zinnemann in THE NUN'S STORY, which I praised in another thread, each director found the best possible way to realize the essence of his project.

To describe only one of Frankenheimer's disorienting moments: when Rock Hudson sees Dr. Ruby (Jeff Corey) again to ask for "thirds," the tight shots on each individual actor don't let us locate them in the room. Hudson seems to be looking to his left (audience right) when he talks to Dr. Ruby. Then we see a wider-angled shot which locates Dr. Ruby as sitting on the opposite end of a couch with Rock, and he's on Rock Hudson's right side (audience left). This comes as a real jolt.

Do you suppose that when the Company in SECONDS started accepting female clients, it had Paul Mazursky make AN UNMARRIED WOMAN as a recruiting pitch?

[kingrat]

Before the showing of SECONDS at the TCM Film Festival, Cari Beauchamp interviewed Richard Anderson, now white-haired, who walked across the stage unaided. His voice hasn't changed; you'd recognize it with no trouble. Anderson always gave the impression of being a nice, intelligent man you'd like to have as a friend. He still does. Cari Beauchamp said that those of us who'd chosen to see SECONDS had made a great choice and that Frankenheimer stood high in her pantheon. I knew I liked this woman.

When John Frankenheimer interviewed Richard Anderson for the role of the plastic surgeon in SECONDS, he asked how Richard's life was going. Anderson said he was happily married with three daughters. Dead silence. Then Frankenheimer said that he had had that kind of life once and would now like to have that again. So we can conclude that this was a film with deep personal meaning for Frankenheimer. Rock Hudson campaigned hard for the lead role.

While the film was being made, either a producer or a studio executive said, in Anderson's hearing, "I don't know why we're making this picture. I don't really like it."

Cary Grant helped Richard Anderson get hired in Hollywood because Betsy Drake, then married to Cary, had seen Richard's stage work and liked his skill in comedy. When RA was told that Mr. Grant wanted him to call back, he thought it was a casting director at Republic. RA does a great impersonation of Cary Grant, who helped him get a part in Dream Wife.

RA said that in those days the studios paid a lot of young actors $300-$400/week, which was good money in those days, in the hope that 1 in 20 would hit big and justify the expense.

Cary Grant told him that you knew you'd arrived when you had the last line of a picture, which RA does in SECONDS. I don't, however, recall, any last lines spoken by Cary that referred to a cranial drill.

The print of SECONDS was the poorest I saw all weekend, with a good bit of scratching in some parts, but even so, James Wong Howe's cinematography was amazing and so was Frankenheimer's direction.

[Ann Harding]

I just discovered this thread. I watched Seconds about a week ago. But, unlike many of you, I must admit I didn't like the film that much. I felt the script was not quite what it could have been. The characters felt rather empty to me. I still don't know why this banker decides to have a second life. He seems to be bored with his life and job, but neither aspect is really looked into. Apart from the constant phone calls from a friend, nothing tells us why he decides all of a sudden to go to that 'house' to change personality. After the op', he has suddenly returned to youth. Ok, this is SciFi, but it was a bit hard to buy for me. Then his life is still that empty vacuum it was before. I wished the film had put more into focus his surroundings, friendships, etc. I far prefer Soylent Green which has three-dimensional characters and a real look into everyday society.
Thinking about it, I never understand stories where a middle-aged male finds life boring and cannot get interested in anything. It's probably because I am myself very curious and I am never bored. I remember that I also didn't like Louis Malle's Le feu follet where Maurice Ronet is on the verge of suicide. He has a wife, he has money, he has friends and he still wants to commit suicide. I found him really annoying...

[kingrat]

Ann, as much as I love SECONDS, I think the script misses a real opportunity by not showing us our hero becoming just as frustrated trying to be an artist as he was being a banker in his previous life. What I like most about the film is the direction, the choice of camera set-ups, the editing, the amazing photography of James Wong Howe. It also has some of Rock Hudson's best work.

I don't see SECONDS as a sci fi film, though of course it is. A noir nightmare, perhaps? You could also see it as a parable: he thinks the problem is his external life, but fails to realize that the real problem is inside him.

Interesting that you should mention LE FEU FOLLET, another film I love. Perhaps these films appeal more to those who have suffered from depression at some point in their lives? As an adolescent I often felt bored, but now, never.