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| Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures |
John Frankenheimer’s initially maligned and misunderstood
masterwork Seconds given the full 4K treatment from The Criterion
Collection is one of the director’s strongest if not most uncompromising
efforts made arguably at the height of his creative power. A paranoid science fiction thriller in the
vein of The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May, the
microbudget hyperactively stylized film which premiered at Cannes 1966
competing for the Palme d’Or was met with unanimous derision failing critically
as well as commercially. Despite the
initial rejection of the film, in the years since it has long been embraced as
one of Frankenheimer’s very best and most chilling thrillers featuring a
breathtaking performance from ordinary romantic comedy lead Rock Hudson who
wanted with the film to get away from being typecast.
Based on David Ely’s 1963 novel of the same name and written
for the screen by eventual The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and
The Great Santini director Lewis John Carlino, Seconds tells the
story of Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) a depressed middle-aged banker living
at home in Scarsdale, New York with his wife Emily (Frances Reid) whose
relationship is fraying while his estranged daughter has moved away. One day he receives a phone call from his
childhood friend Charlie whom he previously believed was dead informing him of
a secret outfit which specializes in ‘rebirthing’ people dissatisfied with
their lives. Cornered into it by way of
blackmail, he reluctantly agrees and after an intense plastic surgery Arthur
Hamilton reawakens as Antiochus ‘Tony’ Wilson (Rock Hudson) who is an
established visual artist. Despite
hitting the reset button on his life, Arthur now Tony finds his newfound
existence threatened when he speaks of his past life one drunken evening and
soon finds himself in a paranoid whirlwind of intrigue, madness and even
murder.
Featuring an evocative score by Jerry Goldsmith which seems
to foreshadow the score for Saul Bass’ Phase IV, arresting opening
titles by the aforementioned Bass, astounding cinematography by James Wong Howe
whose work was nominated for an Academy Award and a searing central performance
from Rock Hudson, Seconds is like an invisible hand that grabs you by
the throat and won’t let go until its over with. Hypnotic, enthralling and kind of dizzying,
it is a bit like being trapped on the other side of the looking glass gazing
out at Alice in Wonderland.
Predating Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in terms of how
much sheer warped visceral otherworldliness can be created onscreen with no
money but plenty of technical innovation, Seconds is something of a
cinematic marvel playing around with your eyeballs. From top to bottom, it is an intensely
controlled exercise in masterful storytelling seen all the way through to its
still incredibly chilling coda.
Initially lambasted so greatly that John Frankenheimer supposedly
did not go to the premiere and left Rock Hudson out on a limb desperately
fielding questions from angry press junkets at Cannes, Seconds was years
later called by Frankenheimer the only movie ‘that’s ever gone from failure to
classic without ever having been a success’.
Censored somewhat in the North American release by Paramount before being
released uncut by Criterion years later, Seconds is a bit like a feature
length The Twilight Zone episode decades before Hollywood would do their
own in crisp black-and-white with gotcha moments that are still shocking
now. One of the riskiest films to ever emerge
from the mid-1960s studio system and maybe even the singularly boldest offering
of Frankenheimer’s filmography, Seconds represents the thriller genre playing
the viewer like a furious pianist, left shattered yet exhilarated by the
symphonic sci-fi/horror experience.
--Andrew Kotwicki
