Seconds

Clive Davis sings the praises of John Frankenheimer’s 1966 movie, Seconds. Clive rates it as better than Frankenheimer’s best-known film, The Manchurian Candidate; I’d list it as (pardon the pun) his second greatest movie, and arguably, Rock Hudson’s best.

While the 1970s are thought of as a renaissance in American filmmaking, it helps to remember just how potent Hollywood could be when it wanted to, long before Coppola or Scorsese arrived on the scene. Early on in college, I perused the library’s collection of 1960s issues of Sight & Sound, the influential British film journal, and was reminded what a great era in moviemaking that decade was. For a great look back at it, Ethan Mordden’s 1990 book, Medium Cool, is certainly a fun read.