SECONDS (1966) Rock rocks!

Famous for breezy ‘50/'60s comedies, Rock Hudson gives the best dramatic performance of his career in this Twilight Zone-ish parable about man's search for identity. A bored banker (character actor John Randolph) buys a totally new identity from a mysterious organization (headed by '40s noir star, Jeff Corey). After various surgeries and procedures, middle-aged Randolph turns to a youthful-looking Rock. Enthusiastically plunging into his new existence, he falls for a beautiful, free-spirited woman; takes up painting; and starts partying. All seems well. But then he finds he has no talent for painting, misses his wife, goes around blabbing his secret to others. The final blow comes when he discovers that his youthful lover has secrets of her own. which forces the "organization" to get rid of Hudson in a most horrifying and depressing way. Though not billed as a film noir, SECONDS certainly feels like one with its stark black and white lighting, off-kilter camera angles, and an average Joe duped by Fate and his own weaknesses. Not to be missed. (Trivia note: Watch for the party scene when Rock and others are drunkenly stomping grapes in a large wine barrel. Hudson, an extremely fastidious man, strongly resisted doing this scene but was persuaded by director John Frankenheimer to do it for the integrity of the story. In the first part of the scene, Hudson is obviously uncomfortable, but soon you can see him really getting into it. And according to reports on the set, he really did.)