Classic Cinema Spotlight: Seconds (1966)

I didn't realize how many James Wong Howe films I have seen before until I went home and started researching him. He was the cinematographer on Baby Face (1933), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Bell, Book, and Candle (1958) just to name a few. He had an incredible career in film and I only wish he was able to make more in the 1970's before his passing in 1976.

Seconds (1966) stars John Randolph as Arthur Hamilton who is a mild mannered, middle aged banker who despite all of his success still feels unfulfilled. One day he gets a phone call from his long dead friend Charlie who explains to him that he is alive but has a different identity. Arthur struggles with this new found truth and enters a state of deep contemplation. John Randolph's portrayal of Arthur was powerful as you can visibly see sweat dripping off his face as you watch him delve into this other unknown world. 

The first step in the process in changing his identity begins with his death being faked. Afterwards he is slowly  sculpted into becoming a new man named Antiochus Wilson aka Rock Hudson. Antiochus (also known as Tony) is given a new life as a successful artist who lives by the beach. Eventually he meets a woman and is thrust into a semi bohemian lifestyle. Tony finds it extremely difficult to adjust and his dissatisfaction with his new identity lands him back to the mysterious compound where he first started.

As you watch Randolph and then Hudson portray a man who seems to live in a perpetual state of unhappiness you start to question if he is ever going to get what he really wants. I cannot give away the ending because it is worth diving into this film and allowing yourself to go on this cinematic journey that both the director John Frankenheimer and the cinematographer James Wong Howe take you on. It is a visual and surreal view of one mans life which reminds us that the work we have to do on ourselves is not always on the outside but many times it is more importantly done on the inside.