--- title: "Seconds" year: 1966 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/seconds" fi1m_id: "seconds" imdb_id: "tt0060955" tmdb_id: 20620 wikidata_id: "Q1195447" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-26T16:07:51.340059+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T16:07:51.968199+00:00" region: "BE" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Seconds (1966) Directed by John Frankenheimer · 1h 47m · Science Fiction, Thriller, Horror ## Identity Seconds - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/seconds - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** seconds - **IMDb ID:** tt0060955 - **TMDB ID:** 20620 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1195447 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060955/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/20620, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1195447 **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 75 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Rock Hudson, of all people, as the man who bought Rock Hudson’s face and could not wear it > Frankenheimer’s story of a banker who buys a new face and a new life is as frightening as anything from its decade, with James Wong Howe’s camera doing most of the frightening. The middle hour in California drifts; everything either side of it is exact. ## Synopsis Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is a banker in his fifties who commutes into Manhattan and comes home each night to a wife, Emily (Frances Reid), he has nothing left to say to. Then the phone calls start. The voice is Charlie Evans (Murray Hamilton), an old friend Arthur believes is dead, and he has an address. The address sends Arthur to a dry cleaner’s, then a meat-packing plant, then a set of offices with no name on the door. There Mr. Ruby (Jeff Corey) and a gentle Old Man (Will Geer) explain the service: a new face, a new name, a corpse to leave behind, and a fresh start somewhere warm. Arthur wakes up as Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson), a painter with a house on the California coast. ## Review John Frankenheimer had already made [*The Manchurian Candidate*](https://film.one/film/the-manchurian-candidate) when he took on David Ely’s novel, and *Seconds* is the colder film. Lewis John Carlino’s screenplay asks a plain question: if a company could give you a new face and a new life, would the man inside change with it? The answer is no, and the film spends 107 minutes making that answer hurt. It is a horror film with almost no violence in it, and it frightened us more than most that have a good deal. The first reason to see it is James Wong Howe. He shoots the opening at Grand Central with lenses so wide that the pillars bend and a face a few inches from the camera stretches like something pulled. The camera follows John Randolph’s Hamilton through the crowd at shoulder height, hand-held, so that we are the thing tailing him. Later Howe rigs the camera to the actor so that a corridor lurches and the face in front of it does not. Ferris Webster and David Newhouse cut the early scenes a beat short each time, as if somebody were listening at the door. Randolph plays Hamilton as a man who has stopped noticing his own life. His conversations with Emily (Frances Reid) are held from separate beds, about nothing. When the Company gets hold of him, its people are the politest in the film. Jeff Corey’s Mr. Ruby eats his lunch while he explains the terms. Will Geer’s Old Man speaks softly about a man’s right to his dream, and means it, and that is the most frightening thing in the first hour. They show Hamilton a film of himself doing something he has not done and offer him the choice of signing or not. We watched Randolph’s face during that screening and felt sick, which is what the scene is for. Then Rock Hudson arrives, and the casting is the film’s best idea. Hudson was the handsomest man in American pictures for a decade, and here he plays a middle-aged banker who has been handed that face and does not know what to do with it. For a while he is stiff, and we took it for a weakness before we understood it. Tony Wilson walks like a man in someone else’s suit. The scene that undoes him is a cocktail party at his new house, where he drinks too much and begins telling the guests things a painter from California could not know. Hudson goes from good cheer to panic without the film cutting away, and it moved us more than we thought this film had room for. He is playing a man who has found out that what he wanted was not a new life but the old one, lived properly. The California stretch is where the film slackens. Salome Jens’s Nora Marcus finds Wilson on the beach and takes him to a grape harvest in the hills, where several dozen naked people stamp fruit and shout about freedom. It is meant to show a man failing to let go, and it does, but Frankenheimer lets it run well past that point, and Nora is a way of getting Wilson to the party rather than a woman in her own right. Jerry Goldsmith’s score, an organ and strings that sound like a funeral service played at the wrong speed, is exactly right in the offices and lays it on thick in the sun. The reviews in 1966 were divided, and we can see why: the film changes its manner three times and asks you to trust that the pieces belong to the same story. They do. The last quarter of an hour, which we will not describe, is the place the whole film has been walking towards, and Frankenheimer shoots it with a stillness the opening has taught you to dread. We came out of it quiet. Watch it at night, and do not read about the ending anywhere first. It is one of the few films from its decade that has not softened with age. *Fi1m score 84, published 26 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics admire Seconds, and the praise lands in two places. James Wong Howe’s black-and-white cinematography is named again and again, described as disorienting, stark and agitated, the thing that turns a story about a bored banker into something closer to a nightmare. Rock Hudson’s performance draws nearly as much comment, with several reviews calling it revealing. The words that recur are bleak, unsettling and frightening, and most of the reviews mean them as compliments; one critic calls the film years ahead of its time. The spread is wide. The warmest notices come from later reviews, written after the film was restored, and the one clear dissent is the earliest: Variety finds it intriguing but unsuccessful as thriller, science fiction or fable, and faults the Faustian theme as underdeveloped. Two of the nine reviews could not be read in full, so the middle ground is thinner than the numbers suggest. ## Straight answers **Is Seconds worth watching?** *Seconds* is worth watching for anyone who can take a slow, frightening film about a man who cannot escape himself, and we scored it 84. John Frankenheimer's story of a banker who buys a new face is as unsettling as anything from the 1960s, with James Wong Howe's lurching camera and Rock Hudson's stiff, panicked performance doing most of the work. The California middle hour drifts; watch it at night and read nothing about the ending first. **How long is Seconds, and what is it rated?** *Seconds* runs 1h 47m. It is a science fiction and thriller film. **Where can I watch Seconds in Belgium?** *Seconds* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from €2.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Seconds, and is it suitable for children?** *Seconds* contains almost no violence, but it is a horror film all the same and we would not show it to children. It has no UK certificate and carries an R rating in America; the fear comes from bending wide-angle photography, polite men calmly explaining a sinister service, and a grape-harvest scene with a good deal of nudity. Older teenagers who can sit with dread rather than action should be fine. **How does Seconds compare to Eyes Without a Face?** *Seconds* and [*Eyes Without a Face*](https://film.one/film/eyes-without-a-face) are both quiet horror films about stolen faces, but Franju's is the sadder and more elegant, and Frankenheimer's the colder and more paranoid. Franju's surgeon takes faces for his daughter; Frankenheimer's Company sells them to men who want to disappear. Both slacken in the middle, and we recommend them as a pair, Franju for melancholy and *Seconds* for dread. **Is Seconds based on a true story or a book?** *Seconds* is based on a novel by David Ely and is not a true story. Lewis John Carlino's screenplay keeps the premise, a company that sells a new face and a new life, though we cannot say how closely the film follows the book beyond that. You need not have read it; the film works best on someone who knows as little as possible going in. **What should I watch after Seconds?** After *Seconds*, try [*Eyes Without a Face*](https://film.one/film/eyes-without-a-face) (1960, Fi1m 86): Franju’s surgeon steals faces for his daughter; quiet, elegant and hard to shake. Then [*The Manchurian Candidate*](https://film.one/film/the-manchurian-candidate) (1962, Fi1m 88): Frankenheimer’s earlier paranoia, faster and funnier, with the same distrust of smiling men. ### Reviews we read (9) - **IndieWire**, Max O'Connell (90/100, inferred): O’Connell presents the film as a striking, unsettling work of existential terror and paranoia. He singles out its disorienting cinematography and Rock Hudson’s revealing performance for praise. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/criticwire-classic-of-the-week-john-frankenheimers-seconds-125340/) - **Slant Magazine**, Bill Weber (4.5/5): Weber finds Seconds a bleak, visually striking film whose restoration enhances its Kafkaesque descent. He especially praises James Wong Howe’s disorienting black-and-white cinematography and the transfer’s depth and detail. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/seconds/) - **The AV Club**, Sam Adams (B+): Adams finds the film unsettling, audacious, and stylistically daring. He especially praises John Hudson’s performance and the film’s agitated visual style. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/seconds-1798177673) - **Radio Times**, Tony Sloman (4/5): The critic calls the film brilliant, frightening, and years ahead of its time. They praise its stark black-and-white cinematography and Rock Hudson’s performance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-cf76p6/seconds/) - **The New Yorker**, Brendan Gill (80/100, inferred): Gill finds Seconds exhilarating and ultimately delightful despite its bleak theme. He praises its superb plot and James Wong Howe’s varied, ravishing camerawork. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1966/10/08/in-charge-2) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page content is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. No praise or complaint can be reliably identified from the available text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1966/10/06/archives/screen-seconds-scary-thriller-opens-its-stay-at-3-theaters-faust.html) - **Time Out**, TJ (64/100, inferred): The available page shell identifies this as a review but does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its standfirst highlights the banker’s transformation into a new identity, but provides no specific praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/seconds) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (35/100, inferred): The review finds the film intriguing but ultimately unsuccessful as a thriller, science-fiction story, or philosophical fable. It praises the original treatment of suburban boredom and the yearning for a chance to begin life again, while faulting the underdeveloped Faustian theme. [Read](https://variety.com/1965/film/reviews/seconds-1200421038/) - **The Skinny**, Steve Timms (★★★★★): Timms calls the film possibly the bleakest ever made and says it has become a modern classic. He praises its critique of society’s obsession with youth and success, and celebrates the Masters of Cinema release. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/seconds-rock-hudson-dvd-masters-of-cinema) ## Details - **Director:** John Frankenheimer - **Director:** John Frankenheimer - **Screenplay:** Lewis John Carlino - **Novel:** David Ely - **Cinematography:** James Wong Howe - **Editor:** David Newhouse, Ferris Webster - **Music:** Jerry Goldsmith - **Producer:** Edward Lewis - **Cast:** Rock Hudson as Antiochus 'Tony' Wilson; Salome Jens as Nora Marcus; John Randolph as Arthur Hamilton; Will Geer as Old Man; Jeff Corey as Mr. Ruby; Richard Anderson as Dr. Innes; Murray Hamilton as Charlie Evans; Karl Swenson as Dr. Morris - **Runtime:** 1h 47m - **First release (France):** 16 May 1966 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Thriller, Horror - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $2 million ## Where to watch in Belgium - Amazon Prime Video: rent €2.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy €7.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-26.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, CA, CH, CZ, DE, DK, GB, HU, IE, IN, LT, NO, NZ, RO, RS, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1967: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Face of Another* (1966): Teshigahara’s man in a borrowed face, made the same year and just as cold - *Eyes Without a Face* (1960), Fi1m 86: Franju’s surgeon steals faces for his daughter; quiet, elegant and hard to shake — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/eyes-without-a-face.md) - *The Swimmer* (1968): Burt Lancaster crosses suburbia pool by pool while his life comes apart behind him - *The Manchurian Candidate* (1962), Fi1m 88: Frankenheimer’s earlier paranoia, faster and funnier, with the same distrust of smiling men — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-manchurian-candidate.md) - *The Tenant* (1976): Polanski moves into a dead woman’s flat and slowly stops being himself --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/seconds