Seconds was intended as a sort of second chance for Rock Hudson. Forty years old, his lengthy contract with Universal at an end, and following a career characterized by light romanctic comedies in the early Sixties, Seconds was to be Hudson's transition to more substantial roles. As it turned out, in spite of some critical acclaim, the film was a major box office failure that ended up hurting Hudson in some ways more than Frankenheimer. Grand Prix, Frankenheimer's next film, was a major success, with Frankenheimer's career hurt more by an exclusive contract with MGM which soon afterwards was going through ownership changes. Hudson was still considered a major star through 1970, but made no other films with the artistic aspirations of Seconds. As Frankenheimer explained, the audience for a film like Seconds was almost mutually exclusive to the kind of audience that usually went to films starring Rock Hudson.

If there is a complaint to be made, one can argue that Frankenheimer's style may seem excessively European. Frankenheimer was the same age as many of the directors of the French Nouvelle Vague and probably was itching to have the same kind of artistic freedom seen in those films. Much praise is directed towards cinematographer James Wong Howe, a sixty-six year old Hollywood veteran. Rightly nominated for an Academy Award, much of the film is shot with hand held cameras. Many of the shots were done with the camera mounted on the actors, or with Howe in a grocery cart.

While I had seen the film once before on cable, I strongly recommend viewing Seconds on DVD. As Frankenheimer points out, the DVD version is his preferred version of the film. The cable version, which is the American release version has a several edited scene of revelers at a grape harvest. The DVD contains nudity which was unacceptable for a commercial American film in 1966. Seconds is a creepy, effective film which still looks good viewed more than once.