• Seconds

6/5/22 (Sun)

A bizarre SF offering of 1966 by John Frankenheimer that is known popularly as the last of his “paranoia trilogy” with The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May. The film was not a success on its initial release – it was actually booed at Cannes – but has gained growing cult status over the years. A tired banker receives a call from a friend who he thought had died. The friend reveals that he has been given the chance at a “rebirth” by a mysterious company — known as The Company — that offers a new appearance and identity through plastic surgery. He  raves about his reenergized life and offers to introduce the banker as well. The banker reluctantly accepts. Having been an amateur painter, he is given the identity of a noted artist and relocated to an upscale community in Malibu. He meets a beautiful bohemian woman and initially enjoys a wild ride. But, as these things go, he soon discovers that not all is as it seems and wants out. Unfortunately, that proves easier said than done. A shocking betrayal at the end brings his dream to a vicious close.

Some questionable developments occur early on to get the story moving. The bank executive’s boredom with what seems an ideal life is well portrayed, including his daydreaming on the job and his limp disinterest when his wife tries to get frisky. But his acquiescence to subsequent events seems way too passive, especially for someone who deals all the time with negotiating contracts. It’s also not quite clear what he dislikes about his new life, having awakened as a famous artist who looks like Rock Hudson. The film asks us to take significant leaps of judgment in a Rod Serling-like way. Heaven Can Wait did this much better (and Warren Beatty is an ample substitute for Rock).

They did save the best for last with a powerhouse ending. Rock has already discovered that his supposed lover is a plant by the Company and that his neighbors are all similarly repurposed old souls. When he demands to go back to his former life, he is shocked to realize that he’s been betrayed by his best friend from the former world. Rock refuses to do the same to someone else, thus making him of no value to the profit-seeking Company, which summarily disposes of him (doctor: “It’s a shame. You were my best work”). In the unforgettable last scene, Rock is strapped to the gurney, muffled and wheeled into the operating room, struggling mightily, as a priest reads his last rites. That alone made the rest of the film worth watching. The final image of a man and daughter on the beach, though referring to a cut scene, was beautiful if disturbing in context.

The film with its philosophical musings on having a second chance in life is very 1960s in its structure, theme and filming. There’s a mixed supernatural element; everyone is surgically altered in a realistic manner and carefully balanced with those who have actually died, but the situations, such as the executive’s supposed death in a hotel fire, are manipulated presumably by other-world forces. The camerawork by James Wong Howe is effectively jarring, especially the opening scene as the executive walks through the train station (actor had a bodycam attached) and the Bacchanalian event. The director says he removed some filmed scenes related to Rock’s return to his family, which explains some lack of continuity.

Rock, an unusual choice for the role of the reborn man, was terrific. The director had reportedly wanted Laurence Olivier for both the original and reborn man, which would have been interesting; I wonder what they would have done with the surgery scenes, which were among the most notable parts of the film. The idea of waking up as Rock Hudson definitely gives a different take to the material. In any case, while the material often let him down, Rock was utterly convincing in the role. His interaction with his former wife and his desperation in the final devastating scene were especially memorable. John Randolph was very fine as well as the pre-Rock executive. He, along with several other cast members, had apparently been blacklisted during the McCarthy Era, which gives a frightening perspective of the notion of creating a new life. Will Geer as the old man, Salome Jens as the lover, and Frances Reid as the wife (“We had a celibate truce” “He fought so hard for what he’d been taught to want”) were also excellent.

My friend called this a B movie, and maybe he’s right. But the final ten minutes justify the wait – they apparently gave him nightmares that night. An oddity of a film.