back

Seconds

Der Mann, der zweimal lebte
Retrospective 2017
© Courtesy of Park Circus / Paramount
A middle-aged banker in New York is contacted by a friend he believed dead who introduces him to a company that offers to provide him with a new identity – a younger body and a new name. So Arthur Hamilton becomes Tony Wilson, a handsome artist living in Malibu. A young woman soon falls in love with him, but Tony is not happy with his new existence. He feels his life as a “reborn” is as much determined by outside forces as his previous life. His attempted escape from his golden cage, however, has dramatic consequences ... Is it possible to remain forever young? The American Dream becomes a nightmare in this, the third in John Frankenheimer’s “paranoia trilogy” made in the wake of the McCarthy era. Using high-contrast, wide-angle lenses and distorted perspective, cinematographer James Wong Howe conjures up the Kafkaesque atmosphere of a “brave new world”, in which individual personality appears to be no more than an arbitrary construct of plastic surgery. For three actors who were on the Hollywood blacklist, including the lead John Randolph, Seconds was indeed a “rebirth” and the start of a new career.
by John Frankenheimer
with Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Richard Anderson, Murray Hamilton, Karl Swenson USA 1966 English 107’ Black/White Rating R18

With

  • Rock Hudson
  • Salome Jens
  • John Randolph
  • Will Geer
  • Jeff Corey
  • Richard Anderson
  • Murray Hamilton
  • Karl Swenson

Crew

Director John Frankenheimer
Screenplay Lewis John Carlino adapted from the novel “Seconds” (1963) by David Ely
Cinematography James Wong Howe
Editing Ferris Webster, David Newhouse
Music Jerry Goldsmith
Sound Joe Edmondson, John Wilkinson
Art Director Ted Haworth
Make-Up Jack Petty, Mark Reedall
Producer Edward Lewis

Produced by

Douglas & Lewis Productions/Gibraltar Productions/Joel Productions