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Interesting recollection, Bruce. I'm curious ... were Evans Evans and Leonard Nimoy still in the film at that point, or was it closer to the final cut?
It's such a pity that a good chunk of the film appears to be lost to the ages. Along with the aforementioned Evans/Nimoy scene, there was a sequence with a family at the beach that was the source of the brief hallucination at the end of the film. I also found an article describing at least one lengthy additional scene with Barbara Werle, who played Hamilton's secretary at the beginning of the film. Apparently, a dramatic 5.5-minute telephone call between Werle and Rock Hudson garnered applause on the set. This scene was likely meant to occur during the abridged second act, but I wasn't able to find any specifics about its context, nor if it wound up in Frankenheimer's original cut. Regardless, I'd love to have a peek at the shooting script.
Depending on when the trims were made, it seems conceivable that Goldsmith might have written music for some of these excised scenes. Since the only audio source we have for the score is the music stems, anything recorded but not used would not have been on them. A shame his sketches aren't archived at AMPAS.
It was the final cut we all know. I would think if there were those extra sequences that Paramount would have them in the vault.
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Posted: |
May 23, 2022 - 4:30 AM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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... but honestly, this feels like what Seconds should sound like, a gritty, black and white, '60s sci-fi score.
Glad you're enjoying this too, Schiffy. Funny though, just reading your comment "...'60s sci-fi score..." made me realise how much of it actually seems to avoid sounding like that. There are maybe, what, three tracks (?) where it goes all Twilighty Zonish or FREUDian (ha!) but for the most part it's just so incredibly melancholy. I could be pretentious (oh yes, I can be) and say that this is Goldsmith conveying a sense of loss, or a sense of longing. That's what it conveys to me anyway. The liner notes state that the "Love Theme" (as such) is a close cousin of THE BLUE MAX's Love Theme, and that's true, but overall the score which SECONDS is most closely related to is for me THE ILLUSTRATED MAN - one of my favourite scores of all time.
While I'm here I may as well add that I'm not particularly struck by the source cues - and I often love source music, especially for cocktail parties - but there's nothing much of interest in them. In fact the two Jimmie Haskell tracks (especially the last, Wacky Races one) are irritating. I will listen to them again, but never as part of the main prog. Last night I heard the 25-min score (only) and was so enthralled that I as soon as it had finished, I put it on again. One of the joys of 25-minute scores.
I don't agree with you, Mr Wilson. These source tracks are essential to the whole and they underline well certain scenes in which the lead undergoes some dramatic stuff and they create a strong and mad counterpoint.
Moreover, the film doesn't belong to the "science fiction genre" at all but to the social and existential drama: it's more like a philosophical tale camouflaged as a horror story with a political overtone (very anti corporation). It's basically a character's study on old age. An old man refusing his age. From the start Arthur Hamilton has a double life that he hides from his wife: a frustrated painter forced to live a conventional life. Then he physically embraces his private fantasy by becoming Wilson. Do you read me, Mr Wilson? Are you faifthful to the company, Mr Wilson?
Actually, Seconds can be filed with a Twilight Zone segment entitled “A Stop at Willoughby”.
Both see an executive with a wife issue and taking refuge in a fantasy (painting here, a town there) and ultimately dies.
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You're right. I didn't know what to make of it when it came out. Granted, I was two years old.
I was nearly (checks notes) negative two decades old. But at least I got to see it for the first time in theater, completely "blind" with no idea what it was about, just like Bruce. It was amazing. Harrowing, really. The experience has never fully left me. I'm sure if I'd been in Bruce's preview theater I would have been one of the people who stayed, mesmerized.
Yavar
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I agree it's an excellent explanation, John.
Yavar
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I just watched Seconds for the third time this weekend since I was getting the new edition. And since it's a film that has never clicked with me even though I love both Frankenheimer and '60s style paranoia.
And I too kept going back and forth about whether it's science fiction or not. For me, it's mostly just surrealism since so much of what happens doesn't really make any sense. Almost dream like. Especially how Arthur is brought to the company almost passively, and pressured to get the transformation rather than being seduced into it. But also the bacchanalia and the party, the room full of men waiting for... Something, etc....
I really like Wedge's term being on the cusp of science fiction. I think that's just right. Still don't care much for the movie but it's because of the overarching banality of the script, especially clear in the Rock Hudson sections where better writing would have made a much more involving and sad story. I kind of wished for Rod Serling's hortatory but smarter approach to this kind of thing, but his characters are more self aware than this one was meant to be, so ultimately just a matter of personal taste.
It has always felt to me like one of those late, overlong Twilight Zone episodes that felt like a half hour stretched into an hour. Still does. (Um, kind of contradicts my wish for a Serling approach in the last graph, but there you go.) On the other hand, my wife, who didn't watch with me, nevertheless remembered the drill at the end, so indeed some striking and chilling imagery.
I think that Goldsmith's score does feel like sci-fi. There's just no way to avoid it when you hear a weird organ with unusual images. He may have been going for a quasi religious feeling but I just don't hear it that way. Still like the score but don't love it as much as some others do, or as much as Freud or The Illustrated Man, for example. Though I'm grateful for this new edition where it does indeed play much better.
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Ps - I can totally get down with these source cues, especially the last one.
Me, too! I have repeated the CD several times and that last source cue is awesomely addictive.
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My favorite use of the score in the film is the moment of just piano, harp and vibraphone treatment of the main/love/memory theme in Reflections, when Rock goes home (also love the quiet use of the organ in that cue).
That really jumped out at me on this rewatch. Demonstrates how the most minimal instrumentation can add emotion to a scene.
Very grateful that Quartet was able to improve the score presentation - Jerry always did such great work with Frankenheimer.
PS - finally gave all the bonus tracks a chance because of the good words of y'all. I've gotta agree that they play great. Not really what I want to hear when I turn to something like Seconds, but they are fun in their own right (and nostalgic for me, as I was kid in this period).
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If anyone is still on the fence about Quartet's SECONDS release after reading how some of the above have found this music a happy discovery, here's our Goldsmith Odyssey show with album producer, restorer and masterer, Chris Malone, and our Wedge, who wrote the liners. We talk about the music, the release, and the picture itself, and as you might expect, you'll get a real feel for the score, too.
https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/10848209-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-seconds-1966
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