When John Frankenheimer was Good, and Bad
DVD Debut
Seconds
Rated R
1966, Paramount
DVD Debut
Prophecy
Rated PG
1979, Paramount
The most original and unnerving film of veteran director John Frankenheimer's career is the 1966 thriller, Seconds. Frankenheimer's most laughable film is the thrill-less, 1979 monster movie, Prophecy. Both movies offer insights into Frankenheimer's roller-coaster career.
Seconds, an avant-garde psychodrama, is truly Frankenheimer's show. The story of Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph), a middle-aged Manhattan banker who chooses a nightmarish escape from his tired, Scarsdale life, Seconds is character-driven, authentically told and richly cynical.
Saul Bass's surreal, opening credits begin Seconds in an arty fashion. There are dazzling moments when cinematographer James Wong Howe pushes the camera lens inside a man's nostril. Eerie music by Jerry Goldsmith completes the experimental package.
Hamilton's journey begins after a stranger hands him a note while boarding a train at Grand Central Station. A pact with a mysterious organization leads Hamilton to a Frankenstein-like surgery that completely remakes his appearance. After he wakes up with the face of a bruised and battered Rock Hudson, it's time to relive the life of a handsome, young bachelor. Of course, his new life comes with an unexpected and horrifying price.
Most film buffs remember Frankenheimer as the creator of 1962's anti-Senator Joe McCarthy thriller, The Manchurian Candidate and 1964's military thriller, Seven Days in May. Frankenheimer's World War II thriller The Train (1965) and his Formula One racing epic, Grand Prix (1966) reveal his ease with large-scale filmmaking and movie chase scenes.
The claustrophobic Seconds has no chase scenes, but all its scenes are richly detailed and inventive. Hudson is believably solemn as a man who regrets his second chance at youth. Ultimately, Seconds is clearly a director's vision. It's also proof that Frankenheimer is capable of telling all types of human dramas.
Prophecy occurred at a time when Frankenheimer's filmmaking status had already faded. A B-grade monster movie that attempts to tell a pro-environment message, Prophecy creates unintended laughs in place of scares and shocks. When a doctor (Robert Foxworth) and his wife (Talia Shire) investigate the impact of Maine's logging industry on its environment, they discover that mysterious monsters are the result of the uncontrolled pollution. When the fake-looking monsters finally make their appearance, it's hard not to laugh out loud.
More recently, the sly, spy thriller Ronin and the caper film Reindeer Games put Frankenheimer back in Hollywood's good graces.
Looking back, Prophecy emerges as a campy horror-comedy that shows how low a filmmaker is willing to sink to make movies. Seconds, an experimental look at a man's midlife crisis, reminds us how skilled and clever a filmmaker Frankenheimer can be.
(Seconds Grade: A)
(Prophecy Grade: D)
And the rest
The most beautiful of all of 2001's animated features is the Shangri-La-inspired adventure Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Disney). Following in the footsteps of Japanese anime legend Hayao Miyazaki's 1980 comic-book adventure, The Castle of Cagliostro, directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale tell the story of a geeky museum mapmaker (voice of Michael J. Fox), who leaves behind 1914 Washington, D.C., to lead a team of quirky adventurers to the lost continent of Atlantis. A high-flying adventure that combines comic book heroism with the Industrial Age imagery of a Jules Verne novel, Atlantis makes full use of its pulpy storytelling. Its array of sea monsters, flying scooters and an exploding volcano is exciting. Still, the stunning look of Atlantis' underwater paradise is what makes this tale so exceptional.
