Comments on: Seconds (1966)

By: ‘…one hitchhiker goes on what is presumably a states-long rant about consumerism, the environment, and the hidden costs of late capitalism’ | Five Feet of Fury

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:10:38 +0000

[...] African foster child, which contains the child’s primitive drawing. Did anyone else flash on the haunting last shot of Seconds? (Which will probably be the last thing I think of when I die, it’s so [...]

By: TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

TCM’s Classic Movie Blog — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:05:55 +0000

[...] http://moviemorlocks.com/2008/09/11/seconds-1966/ [...]

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:13:45 +0000

The rumor on the street was that the archive print Telluride screened of SECONDS had been put together and cleaned-up, in part, as preparation for a new dvd release. Keep your fingers crossed!

By: tracy powe

tracy powe — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:21:27 +0000

i too love the movie. i’ve been having a hard time trying to find it for purchase. does anyone have any suggestions that don’t involve me paying an arm and a leg to buy it.
i don’t know why, but i heard paramount discontinued the title.

By: Jody Rope

Jody Rope — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:20:06 +0000

I was able to see the film–at a drive in theater–only on its release and never since. I seem to reacll Jeff Corey eating a fried chicken leg while first talking to John Randolph and making the act a wonderful bit of business–kind of fascinating and ghoulish both. Could be wrong. My favorite Geer role. That menacing terrifying sweetness.

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:01:27 +0000

Al: Thanks for sharing info from the Pratley book. Brenda Scott Royce touched on some of those same details in her biography of Rock Hudson, and adds that “Kirk Douglas and John Frankenheimer jointly bought the rights to David Ely’s novel for $175,000 prior to its 1963 release. The sale set records at the time for a pre-publication purchase of film rights.”

She notes other first too: “SECONDS was the first major film to be shot in black-and-white after the advent of color.” And the flight sequence aboard the TWA was “a first in cinema history, as sequences aboard planes were actually filmed using plane mock-ups and process photography.”

By: Tony Dayoub

Tony Dayoub — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:03:17 +0000

Salome Jens also came back into the sci-fi mainstream when she took on the role of the female shapeshifter, leader of the Dominion (and arch-enemy of the Federation), on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, in the late nineties.

By: Al Lowe

Al Lowe — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:53:58 +0000

In 1969 Gerald Pratley wrote a book called “The Cinema of John Frankenheimer,” featuring his analysis of the director’s work and interviews with Frankenheimer.
Kirk Douglas was originally scheduled to play the lead, although the director had doubts about being able to alter his appearance as much as the role required. Then he became unavailable due to prior commitments.
Frankenheimer wanted Olivier but thought Paramount, which didn’t want to make the film anyway, wouldn’t go for it.
Frankenheimer said he spent a year of his life making The Train and didn’t care about the subject at all and was drawn to Seconds because it was something he wanted to make.
Interestingly enough Frankenheimer laments that he wasn’t able to make the second half of the movie work and Pratley writes the film off as a failure.
Frankenheimer convinced Paramount to enter it at Cannes and it was a disaster. He said critics were unfair to Rock Hudson. “They were laying in wait for old Rock. I was sorry to see it because he really gave so much of himself.”
But Grand Prix was released two months later and Frankenheimer was a success again.

By: David

David — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:59:43 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. The first time I saw this was in film class some years ago. I was confronted by one of the most stunning and powerful films I have ever seen. As soon as the DVD came out, I snagged it. Frankenheimer was a great filmmaker. The ending of the film still leaves a lump in my throat.

By: keelsetter

keelsetter — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:53:12 +0000

Tony: I’ve always been curious to what extent Hudson’s sexuality contributed to his taking on this role, and I suspect it is a pivotal reason he said SECONDS “was the best thing he ever did.” I also find all the blacklisted actors in the film add a fascinating dimension to this whole issue of lost identities.

Medusa: Thanks for that clip for Salome – I knew I recognized her from somewhere else, and that Outer Limits episode is exactly it. Speaking of haunting TV shows, David Ely also wrote a short story (The Academy) that was used for Rod Serling’s NIGHT GALLERY series.

Jeff: That last image is wrenching for so many reasons. How many films end with the last thought of the protagonist, where viewers are literally in the mind of the person dying and you witness that consciousness stretch, distort, and go to black? I’ll jump in to add that another one of my all-time favorites, BRAZIL, echoes many of the passages seen here in SECONDS. I’m clearly a nut for Kafkaesque nightmares.