merklekranz I cannot jump on board the positive review bandwagon for "Seconds". Although the acting is good, Frankenheimer stretches scenes that just plain lack interest. One example would be the grape stomping orgy. It goes on and on without moving the story forward. The concept of leaving one life for another is nothing that hasn't been seen before, so to have the audience basically in neutral for what seems like at least ten minutes is unacceptable. In other words, let's get on with it, especially since the story is not unpredictable. Frankly I was disappointed, not with the acting, or the black and white photography, or even the musical score. I just thought the story played like nothing more than a "Twilight Zone" episode that had been padded with over long scenes. - MERK

capone666 SecondsThe downside to getting a new face is that all your old selfies are now meaningless.However, the recipient in this sci-fi thriller could care less about his old face.Fatigued with his middle-aged existence, Arthur (John Randolph) abandons his loveless marriage for an opportunity being offered by a clandestine organization able to give you the life you've only dreamed of.Surgically altered, rechristened Tony (Rock Hudson) and presented with a new apartment, Arthur enjoys his new life as a successful artist with many well-to-do friends. But when a drunken Tony relapses into Arthur, he learns quickly that The Company doesn't tolerate such regression.A paranoid thriller that is both visually stunning - thanks to director John Frankenheimer - and highly suspenseful - thanks to its Twilight Zone-esque narrative and social commentary on modern medicine, Seconds is a landmark cinematic achievement.Incidentally, Arthur's sexual preference also changes when he becomes Rock Hudson.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

begob A middle-aged man accepts a creepy offer of a change of identity and a new life, but turns out it ain't that simple.Hmmm. Lots of interesting stuff going on with the camera, but the story is muddled and lacking motivation. I suppose it's about the search for an identity always beyond the individual's grasp, so the distortions and off-kilter close ups play a role.Starts off with Hitchcock mystery menace, switches to Kafka paranoia, followed by stick-it-to-the-Man liberation mixed with free-love silliness, then back to Kafka. The hero's final line is not, "Just like a dog", but a muffled aaarrrggggh! All along the dialogue is never really engaging, and gets daft in the California scenes where the actors seem to be in a panic over the weakness of the material. Hudson is well cast, because you get the uncertainty and lack of direction in his face, and there are some other interesting actors in there too - although the love interest is unconvincing. And I really would not recommend quaffing the wine - earthy with a hint of cum and ... touches of jam and chocolate? Music is good. Pace is OK, but the whole thing feels odd because the second act is so different.Overall - laboured historical oddity, worth a viewing.

spelvini The movie that Rock Hudson considered to be a horror story and a big gamble for his otherwise steely screen persona, Seconds from 1966 is a stark black-and-white parable o the dangers of wishful thinking. A dark side to the same theme that made It's a Wonderful Life so potent a story for the working class, Seconds makes the same statement for the urban professional who after climbing the corporate ladder to succeed finds himself deplete of the very thing he was competing for, namely his vitality.Next in line for the top job at his bank, Antiochus 'Tony' Wilson (Rock Hudson) is disturbed when he gets a late night phone call from his old tennis buddy and school chum whom he thought was dead for many years. What he discovers is an organization that will give him a new youthful life and lifestyle for a fee, and he accepts after some coercion. Tony gets a new life but finds an empty existence inside him after he has left his wife and old comfortable surroundings. When he requests to return to his former life and start over he finds that those in charge demand an even higher sacrifice than he had imagined.This is one of those dark films that stand today as one of the landmarks of the sixties, when real disappointment was rising in the working class, and those dropouts from society who saw the formal institutions of home and family and career as vapid social constructs. It's a bold statement, a protest film in a way because it highlights how society functions on a base of empty values, yet the filmmakers offer no real alternative. When Tony attempts to recover his place and start again, the organization demands severe loyalty.There's also the supposedly "new" community that Tony enters. As an artist, he lives the free-spirited life admired by all his neighbors. The real test comes when he is required to follow though with his new identity, something in which he discovers is to demanding to support. Knowing what we know today about Rock Hudson, the layers of meaning in the film run deep making this one of those quintessential Hudson vehicles for any academics classroom.The stark imagery highlights the noir qualities of the film. This is certainly film noir at it's most existential, as the fantasy-like atmosphere of the world of the film contains enough everyday trappings to keep us identifying with the characters, even as the action veers off kilter and meta-horror situations occur.