On Criterion, I watched John Frankenheimer’s 1966 sci-fi thriller Seconds, starring Rock Hudson, and liked it a lot. I had heard recommendations of it a few times, and I liked how it felt like a feature length version of a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode, with a lot of artsy tilted camera angles from cinematographer James Wong Howe. A middle aged banker named Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) feels bored and unfulfilled in his life, with his love for his wife dwindling, and missing his adult daughter, who lives far away and started a family of her own.
He gets a call from a friend who was long presumed dead, and sets him off on a journey that leads him to a secret place that offers him the opportunity to fake his death, get plastic surgery, and become a whole new identity to live his life anew. He takes the offer, and is remade into Antiochus 'Tony' Wilson (Rock Hudson), a successful visual artist. He is moved into a community of other “reborns,” and learns that even with a new face and name, he’s still essentially the same person mentally, with only superficial signs of glamour and success, and feeling like this new identity isn’t him.
I really liked this movie, and appreciated how Rock Hudson was trying to break out of his romantic comedy roles and being taken more seriously. He’s really good in this as a man who is conflicted over having a handsome face but still having insecurities over his identity and feeling content in life. The film was really interesting to watch, and I’m glad I checked it out.
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