Seconds (1966 film)

Seconds
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Frankenheimer
Screenplay by	Lewis John Carlino
Based on	Seconds by David Ely
Produced by	Edward Lewis
Starring	Rock Hudson Salome Jens Will Geer John Randolph
Cinematography	James Wong Howe
Edited by	David Newhouse Ferris Webster
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Production companies	Joel Productions John Frankenheimer Productions Gibraltar Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	May 16, 1966 (1966-05-16) (Cannes) October 5, 1966 (1966-10-05) (New York City) November 9, 1966 (1966-11-09) (Los Angeles)
Running time	107 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million
Box office	$1.75 million (US/Canada rentals)[2]

Seconds is a 1966 American psychological horror^[3] science fiction film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randoloph, and Will Geer.^[4] The film tells the story of a middle aged New York banker who, disillusioned with his life, contacts an agency known as "The Company" which specializes in providing "rebirths" under new identities and appearances altered by plastic surgery. The screenplay by Lewis John Carlino was based on the 1962 novel of the same name by David Ely.

Filmed in New York and Malibu, California in 1965, Seconds was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and released by Paramount Pictures. The cinematography by James Wong Howe was nominated for an Academy Award.^[5][6]

In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[7]

Plot[]

Arthur Hamilton is a middle-aged banking executive in Scarsdale, New York, who, despite his professional success, remains profoundly unfulfilled. His love for his wife, Emily, has dwindled, and he seldom sees his only daughter, who has relocated to the West Coast and started a family. One day, Arthur receives a call from his childhood friend, Charlie, whom he believed to be dead. Though Arthur is initially disbelieving, Charlie recounts personal anecdotes that only he could know. Charlie informs Arthur that he has changed his identity through a secret organization known as the "Company", which offers individuals an opportunity to adopt a new life. Charlie offers Arthur the same opportunity, and provides him a secret address to the Company.

After some contemplation, Arthur decides to take up Charlie's proposition, and travels to the address, which he finds to be an apparent meat-packing plant; there, he is given workman overalls and a hat, then exits the facility by a different door and is seated inside a truck that takes him to another building. He disappears into a large complex filled with dark, empty hallways. The Company's associates drug Arthur and manipulate him into sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman. After waking, Arthur is informed that the Company's service comes at a cost of $30,000 and is shown a video recording of the prior assault, ostensibly to make his decision easier. Although he recoils at the apparent use of blackmail, Arthur reluctantly accepts on his own terms, after considering the emptiness in his life. The associates inform Arthur that they will fake his death in a hotel fire using an anonymous cadaver, and Arthur proceeds to undergo multiple extensive procedures by Dr. Innes that transform not only his facial features, but his vocal cords, teeth, and even fingerprints. Once healed, he is conferred the identity of the younger "Antiochus 'Tony' Wilson", an established visual artist. Arthur later discovers this identity has been taken from someone who recently died.

Arthur is relocated by the Company into a community in Malibu, California, filled with people like him who are also "reborns". He attempts to assimilate into his new life, in which he is able to live as an artist —a career he had always aspired to— though he soon finds himself growing restless. While visiting the beach one day, Arthur encounters the freewheeling Nora Marcus. The two develop a swift attraction to each other, and Nora recounts how she came to leave her former life behind. One night, Arthur accompanies Nora to a Dionysian-themed party in Santa Barbara. There, the revelers dance, sing, and stomp grapes in a large trough and, after some initial discomfort, Arthur lowers his inhibitions and begins to enjoy himself. Later, Arthur and Nora host a cocktail party for neighbours and other guests. Arthur gets drunk over the course of the night, and begins to speak openly to the other guests about his former identity, which is forbidden by the Company. Upon returning home, Arthur receives a phone call from Charlie, who warns him that he has put himself in danger by violating the Company's rules. Charlie also reveals that Nora is an employee of the Company who covertly oversees new "reborns" to assure they have a smooth transition.

Disenchanted by his new contrived life, Arthur defiantly leaves California, and returns to New York. He arranges a meeting with Emily at his former home, claiming —as Tony— that he was once a friend of Arthur's. The two have a conversation in which Emily shares that she felt Arthur was emotionally disconnected from his life, and was in a constant state of longing that she could not understand. After the meeting, a melancholic Arthur is met by associates of the Company, and he requests that they give him a different identity. They agree to do so, but only if he can provide them with another referral to the Company. He tells them he does not know anyone he could proposition, and demands they carry out the transformation anyway.

Returning to the headquarters, Arthur is placed in a waiting room with various other men, including his friend Charlie, all of whom have asked to undergo yet another 'rebirth'. An elated Charlie is chosen and is escorted from the waiting room. Frustrated at the unknown amount of time the men have been waiting to be chosen, and being unable to think of anyone that he can refer to the Company, Arthur angrily demands that his procedure is performed without further delay. Later, as Arthur is wheeled into the operating room, he is met by a chaplain who begins to read him his last rites. After being bound, gagged, and sedated, Arthur comes to realize he is about to be killed. Dr. Innes, who performed Arthur's original transformation, coldly laments to Arthur that he is sorry it has to end this way, and that Arthur's transformation into Tony was his "best work". He explains that Arthur's body will be used as the catalyst for another patient's transformation — the staged scene for that patient's faked death will be a car accident. Dr. Innes proceeds to drill into Arthur's skull to inflict a brain hemorrhage consistent with head injuries sustained in a car crash. As Arthur loses consciousness, he stares into the surgical light, where he has a memory of playing with his infant daughter on the beach; the image distorts and loses resolution as Arthur dies.

Cast[]

Analysis[]

In the film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, the psychoanalytical Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek discusses the film as an example of what happens when desires are fulfilled.^[8]

Production[]

Development[]

Frankenheimer had recently completed several successful films prior to his involvement with the project, namely Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Seven Days in May (1964). These last two films together with Seconds are sometimes referred to as Frankenheimer's 'paranoia trilogy'.^[9]

Casting[]

For the central role of Antiochus "Tony" Wilson, Frankenheimer had sought Kirk Douglas, whose company, Joel Productions, was producing the film.^[10] When Douglas was unavailable due to other commitments, Frankenheimer offered the role to Laurence Olivier.^[10] After reading the screenplay, Olivier agreed to take the part, but Paramount Pictures objected to the casting, feeling that Olivier was not a big enough star at the time.^[10] Rock Hudson was ultimately cast in the film despite being dissuaded by friends and colleagues, as he wanted to expand his range, having felt he was typecast for his work in numerous romantic comedies.^[11] "He was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met," Frankenheimer recounted. "He really wanted to do this picture, but he would only do it as the second character. He didn’t think he could handle the older character."^[10]

Filming[]

Principal photography of Seconds began on June 14, 1965, on a budget of $2.5 million.^[11] Filming primarily occurred in Malibu, California, where much of the film is set, with additional photography occurring in Scarsdale, New York, where the first act of the film takes place, as well as New York City.^[11] In order to successfully shoot a transition sequence in Grand Central Station, Frankenheimer hired a Playboy Bunny to pose as an actress filming a scene, during which she stripped down into a bikini in the terminal; this distracted onlookers, allowing Frankenheimer to successfully capture the footage he needed without interruption.^[11] The Dionysian-themed party sequence was shot on location with a handheld camera in Santa Barbara, California during an actual annual wine festival held there.^[11]

The director of photography for Seconds was James Wong Howe, who pioneered novel techniques in black-and-white cinematography, and whose career spanned nearly five decades. While shooting the sequences inside the Company's headquarters (which were constructed on the Paramount Studios lot), Howe employed an innovative system, which featured "complete lighting of sets for closeups, longshots, etc., sans separate setups, plus the use of ceilinged-sets."^[11] Filming was completed in August 1965.^[11]

In Frankenheimer's commentary on the DVD, he notes:

• The depiction of Hamilton's plastic surgery includes several shots of an actual rhinoplasty operation. Director John Frankenheimer made several of these shots himself after the cameraman fainted.
• The scenes in Tony Wilson's Malibu beach house were shot in Frankenheimer's own home.

Post-production[]

The opening titles of the film were designed by Saul Bass,^[12][13] using Helvetica set in white over optically warped black-and-white motion picture photography. During the editing process, Frankenheimer chose to excise a scene in which Arthur meets with his daughter in California after his transformation into Tony.^[10] Frankenheimer's wife, Evans Evans, portrayed Arthur's daughter in the scene.^[10] Frankenheimer later lamented his decision to remove the scene from the film, suggesting that it weakened the second act.^[11]

Additionally, a sequence in which Arthur encounters a father and his young daughter on the beach was also removed from the final cut.^[10] A brief portion of the sequence appears as the film's final shot, which Arthur recounts as he dies.^[10] The film's screenwriter, Lewis John Carlino, confirmed this in a 1997 interview: "That refers to a previous scene that was also cut,. Hudson encounters a father and his young daughter on the beach. It’s the key scene for me. Without it, the last image doesn’t make sense."^[10]

Release[]

Seconds premiered at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 1966, where it was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or.^[14][15] Despite the nomination, the film was not well-received by the audience, and its screening ended with boos of disapproval.^[15]

The film premiered in the United States in New York City on October 5, 1966, and opened in Los Angeles the following month, on November 9, 1966.^[11]

Censorship[]

Paramount Pictures, the American distributor of the film, demanded that Frankenheimer cut approximately seven minutes of the film for its release in the United States.^[10] The footage that was ultimately excised for the American theatrical release consisted of the grape-stomping sequence that occurs at the party Arthur attends with Nora.^[10] The sequence, which features full-frontal nudity from the various extras, was deemed too controversial by the studio after the Roman Catholic Church objected to it.^[10] Frankenheimer recalled: "The Catholic Church objected to the nudity, so it was cut. But it made the grape-stomping [seem] like an orgy. That was not my intention. It was supposed to be a release for [Arthur]."^[10]

The original 107-minute cut of the film had only been shown in Europe until May 1997, when the film was re-released in the United States in its full form to commemorate its thirtieth anniversary.^[10]

Box office[]

Seconds performed poorly on its initial American release, and was considered a box office bomb.^[16][17] The film grossed an estimated $1.75 million in U.S. and Canadian rentals.^[2]

Critical response[]

A reviewer in Time commented: "Director John Frankenheimer and veteran photographer James Wong Howe manage to give the most improbable doings a look of credible horror. Once Rock appears, though, the spell is shattered, and through no fault of his own. Instead of honestly exploring the ordeal of assuming a second identity, the script subsides for nearly an hour into conventional Hollywood fantasy. [...] Seconds has moments, and that's too bad, in a way. But for its soft and flabby midsection, it might have been one of the trimmest shockers of the year."^[18]

Seconds has since gained an overall positive reaction, currently holding an 89% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes' consensus reads: "Featuring dazzling, disorienting cinematography from the great James Wong Howe and a strong lead performance by Rock Hudson, Seconds is a compellingly paranoid take on the legend of Faust."^[19]

Writing in Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston (critic) observed: "Seconds is easily one of the most subversive films ever to have come out of Hollywood: Even as it exposes the folly of selfishly abandoning one's commitments, it also makes a passionate case for following one's heart and rejecting conformity....This chilling portrayal of a well-meaning guy stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare is unlike anything else he [Hudson] did."^[20]

Accolades[]

Institution	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	Best Cinematography	James Wong Howe	Nominated	[15]
Cannes Film Festival	Palme d'Or	John Frankenheimer	Nominated	[15]

Home media[]

Seconds was released on home video for the first time in May 1997.^[21] The film was released on DVD on January 8, 2002,^[22] and later went out of print.^[23] The Criterion Collection released a newly restored version of Seconds on DVD and Blu-ray on August 13, 2013.^[9][24]

Legacy[]

In the years since its release, Seconds has earned a reputation as a cult film.^[25][26][27]

Seconds became known for its connection to the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. The story, which originated in the October 1967 magazine article "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!",^[28] goes that when he arrived late to a theater showing of Seconds, he appeared to be greeted with the onscreen dialogue, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." He was convinced for some time that rival producer Phil Spector (one of the film's investors) was taunting him through the movie, and that it was written about his recent traumatic experiences and intellectual pursuits, going so far as to note that "even the beach was in it, a whole thing about the beach."^[29] He later cancelled the Beach Boys' forthcoming album Smile, and the film reportedly frightened him so much that he did not visit another movie theater until 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.^[30]

See also[]

• List of American films of 1966
• Body swap appearances in media
• Mind uploading
• Mind uploading in fiction
• Whole-body transplants in popular culture

References[]

Sources[]

• Booker, Keith M. (2011). Historical Dictionary of American Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-810-87459-6.
• Dillon, Mark (2012). Fifty Sides of the Beach Boys: The Songs That Tell Their Story. Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-1-77090-198-8.</ref>
• Hurley, Neil P. (1970). Theology Through Film. New York City, New York: Harper & Row. OCLC 1245821053.
• Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. (2008). 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Quintessence Editions. Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 978-0-7641-6151-3.
• Wilson, Brian; Gold, Todd (1991). Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story. New York City, New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-018313-4.

External links[]

• Seconds at IMDb
• Seconds at AllMovie
• Seconds at the TCM Movie Database
• Seconds at Rotten Tomatoes
• Movies You May Have Missed – Ep 13: Seconds
• Three Reasons: Seconds video on the Criterion Collection