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• Seconds (1966)

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Director John Frankenheimer’s Seconds is a psychologically chilling science fiction, modern Faustian tale of a bored middle aged banker who makes clandestine connections with a secretive group. This group, called The Company, makes a second lease on life literally possible. With the mysterious narrative style of a Twilight Zone episode, and stunning black and white visual techniques of veteran cinematographer James Wong Howe, Seconds was one of the most compelling and disturbing films of the 1960s.

Arthur Hamilton’s (John Randolph) is a successful banker, who lives in a New York suburb that has all the trappings of an ideal existence. Despite a loving wife, and an adult daughter who is married to a successful young doctor, his life is devoid of meaning and fulfillment. He thus capitalizes on The Company’s opportunity to be reborn through a detailed process of a false death, plastic surgery and a completely new identity. After surgery and rehabilitation, Hamilton emerges as Tony Wilson (now played by Rock Hudson), a handsome, single, successful California painter. But Wilson soon discovers his second chance on life isn’t all that different, and questions about his past haunt him, as well as the controls the Company has over their so-called ‘reborns’. Will Geer is completely creepy as the manipulative and devilish head of The Company.

From its surreal opening credit sequence, which includes bizarre, distorted close up views of a man’s facial features, and Jerry Goldsmith’s eerie musical score, Seconds is not the typical Rock Hudson star driven film of that decade. Seconds is a haunting film that lingers with the horrifying possibilities a man trying to cheat life and death, with a second chance.