Rent Seconds (1966)
3.8 of 5 from 129 ratings
1h 47min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
To the enigmatic question "Who are Seconds?", the film's original poster responded: "The answer is almost too terrifying for words.... The story of a man who buys for himself a totally new life. A man who lives the age-old dream - If only I could live my life all over again." John Frankenheimer directs Rock Hudson as a "second": that is, the newly plastic-surgery altered "reboot" of, in this instance, a listless banker named Arthur Hamilton. Such procedures are carried out by a secret organization known only as "The Company," with the promise of giving an individual a chance at making a fresh start at life... but at what cost? Master lighting cameraman James Wong Howe provides the paranoiac atmosphere to the skewed reality of what came to be widely considered one of Frankenheimer's very best films. - Actors:
- Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Richard Anderson, Murray Hamilton, Karl Swenson, Khigh Dhiegh, Frances Reid, Wesley Addy, John Lawrence, Elisabeth Fraser, Dodie Heath, Robert Brubaker, Dorothy Morris, Barbara Werle, Frank Campanella, Edgar Stehli, Aaron Magidow
- Directors:
- John Frankenheimer
- Producers:
- Edward Lewis, John Frankenheimer
- Writers:
- Lewis John Carlino, David Ely
- Others:
- James Wong Howe
- Studio:
- Eureka
- Genres:
- Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Cinema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 1, Top 10 Films About Trains: Thrillers
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 26/10/2015
- Run Time:
- 107 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- None
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.75:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Feature-Length Audio Commentary with Director John Frankenheimer
- Feature-Length Audio Commentary with Film Scholar Adri Martin
- Video Appreciation of the Film by Critic and Novelist Kim Newman
- Theatrical Trailer
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Reviews (1) of Seconds
Conspiracy Sci-Fi. - Seconds review by Steve
The final part of Frankenheimer's paranoia trilogy. Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a middle aged banker who feels life has passed him by. He pays a shady organisation a huge sum for a second chance. He gets extensive cosmetic surgery, a phoney back story and the company provides a corpse to allow the Arthur to shed his old life. He becomes Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson!).
Hamilton was one of the generation born into the depression, sent to fight in WWII and who returned to the sexually and socially inhibited America of the fifties. In the sixties, young people reject those values, get the contraceptive pill and discover free love. Who wouldn't want another go around?
Only Arthur doesn't change. Tony is just a frightening, unknowable mask. In his new identity, he begins to question who he used to be. A lot of this feeling of paranoia is created visually with the distorting lenses, and by the gloomy progressive score.
It is a chilling story of a rapacious organisation whose mission, to provide a service to the rich, has been swallowed by its corporate objective, the obligation to create wealth. Anything can be justified in the pursuit of profit. Arthur's self doubt is exploited and he becomes paralysed in a terrifying web of ruthless, inexorable business ethics.
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