The film begins with a man receiving a random address by a stranger in public who quickly departs. The man being a middle-aged banker played by John Randolph. We follow this man from this initial interaction and already from that Randolph's performance suggests a man of near constant anxiety. This as his whole physical being is both tight and fidgeting. There is an lack of wellness that permeates from Randolph's performance so effectively creates the state of the man. His expression alone, even when nothing is going on yet, has this terrible baseless paranoia as he sits alone as man who is entirely discontent with his own being. An intelligent touch is when he arrives initially back home to his wife, he loses that anxiety, at least overtly, as he speaks to his wife. This with a smile towards her. There is a somewhat detached quality within it as he speaks every little interaction with a care, but not a passion within the discussion. This against as we see him thinking about at home for a phone call, that is from his old friend named Charlie with a strange offer. Randolph captures this powerful combination between a gripping fear and a fascination within the call. This suggesting the hook the offer Charlie is offering for him, is painfully within him. Again though there is a brief tender moment with his wife that really is essential I feel. This as there is the potential for more, but Randolph still grants this distance in Arthur as he refuses to directly connect. This again as though he is lost.
We then follow Randolph as Arthur decides to take up Charlie's offer by following a labyrinthine route to get to the organization that will provide him a service. Randolph's performance granting this sort of of journey an essential reality. This in portraying again both a sense of fear within the prospect but also being quietly intrigued. This until he arrive at the organization where the first thing that happens to him is he is drugged and placed in a purposeful scenario by the organization to blackmail him into proceeding forward with their procedure. After he's regained his composure Randolph is terrific in his attempt in portraying initially the man in any way acting as in control himself. This in speaking with just a minor front to control himself, while his eyes allude towards the still sense of confusion within the man's sudden predicament. His performance though is one that slowly wavers against the man's suggestion to a nearly petrified state, until they show him footage of their staged video to blackmail him with a proposed sexual assault. Randolph is incredible by showing the horror upon seeing his sudden state, until a final conversation from the head of the organization the old man (Will Geer), who tempts him with the prospect of "rebirthing" via changing himself physically while disposing of his old life with a crafted new one for him. As the old man prompts him about what it is that Arthur has, Randolph is heartbreaking as his expression is that hollowness sense of man's life and that anxiety exuding from his every pore. His attempts at explanation to defend himself delivered with either a weak resolve or an entirely heartbreaking emotional exhaustion. Randolph essentially speaks every word of a man condemning his own state, without a single hint of love or tenderness in examining himself. Randolph showing someone who has given himself wholly to pessimism,in turn wholly giving himself to the treatment of being reborn.
Hudson excels in these early scenes by doing something that is entirely the opposite of what he became known for, which is instead of comfort and confidence with have discomfort and lack of confidence. This as he even goes about speaking to someone Hudson matches Randolph's manner initially as the man where he retiring and distant to the men he speaking to. His expression still baring the idea of a man really simply lost in his existence, which the re-birthing organization wishes to provide to him. Although it apparently might've not helped with the film's financial success, I will say it is a masterstroke of casting in bringing Rock Hudson. This in part in terms of being in part sort of the idealized "Reborn" version of the man, but it also makes it all the more striking to see this typically more Adonis like figure to seem so ill at ease within himself. Hudson portrays Arthur as a man still in that state of anxiety, and now perhaps even more unable to simply be comfortable in his own skin, given that skin barely resembles himself anymore. Even as he gets his life set up for him as a bohemian style artist, Hudson portrays the struggle in his manner which is just having a hard time being himself. Hudson though finds just the right degree of sort comfort in his new self and his new manner. He doesn't break from his shell until Arthur comes across a woman Nora (Salome Marcus). This as he finally sees a connection, however I love that Hudson doesn't fall upon his typical romantic comedy charm. He rather plays it in a sincere sense of discovery and seemingly a potential connection finally as he seems to find it through their former mutual disconnection in their personal lives.
This relationship though burgeons quickly past that more intimate state as she basically brings him to a pagan styled orgy. Hudson's terrific though in portraying a natural elderly distaste for the even initial until he is literally thrown into it. In the moment though Hudson is fantastic in showing Arthur just giving into a jubilation purely based on the basic lust filled moment. This doesn't last long as we see Arthur in the throws based on that lust and his material possessions the company has provided to him. This coming to head at a party where Arthur has too much to drink and begins to think about his double life. Hudson, who apparently was actually drunk in the scene, is brilliant in wholly carrying it even within that drunkenness. This as he finds this state of sort of a perfect kind of mental breakdown in the moment. This in that jubilation is there but he offers it as this hyper intensity in his expressions as a man who cannot really accept it. This as he speaks with the sense of a mess of emotions of a man still attached to his past while also seemingly sensing the holes in the future that has been crafted for him. This of course is just it as after the night Arthur begins to see the nefarious nature of the company that is watching over him and the hollowness of it as even Nora was simply a paid employee there to provide for his needs. Hudson's reaction in learning this is heartbreaking in the simplicity of it. This in just finding the quiet anxiety once again in the man, though now a little bit different. This in that Hudson begins to play the part with not more confidence, but a better sense of himself. This not in portraying Arthur becoming this new man, but rather finally a man who is able to reflect upon himself.
This we see as Arthur visits his "widowed" wife to essentially ask her about himself. Hudson is again exceptional by so quietly playing the scene of the man just listening to his wife. This in his eyes sensing both the real affection again that matches Randolph, though now more pointed even if purposefully muted. There is more though as she speaks Hudson finally creates a sense of connection in hearing the words with understanding rather than anxiety. Arthur is sent back to the organization, with the claimed proposition of getting another chance at rebirth. In this time Arthur finally finds his friend Charlie (Murray Hamilton), who too his waiting for "Seconds". Hudson is great though in this scene in the earnest wisdom he brings as he speaks Arthur's final truth of seeing his mistakes both of the past and the present. There's a real poignancy as Hudson delivery grants the sadness of the man seeing the failure but also in that some hope in a man finally seeing what caused his past failures. This earning the moments where Arthur refuses to sponsor more people to the organization as Charlie had done for him. This unfortunately though leading to all the swifter jump for Arthur being set for his chance at "seconds", sadly any personal gains are lost as that means he will be used as a corpse to orchestrate a future "rebirth". This does though lead to an outstanding scene for Hudson, that not only is incredible in terms of his own work, but quite daring for the time. This as Hudson portrays Arthur's realization that he's about to be killed from slow dread to manic intensity of a man writhing in pain and terror. Hudson brings such a visceral edge to the scene as you feel every moment of the man lashing out yet failing to escape his horrible fate. Hudson is wholly convincing in the scene making the ending of the film absolutely unforgettable. He doesn't make it pretty in the least, rather is wholly convincing in showing a man doing anything he can to stave off death in a futile effort. Now John Randolph gives a terrific performance that establishes this man's journey, and Hudson going against his expected type, doesn't waste it in giving an incredible show of range and ability, that frankly I didn't know he had in him. This in creating such a powerful and heartbreaking portrait of a man discovering how he lost purpose and discovery a way though tragically too late.
