Audio Asylum Thread Printer

Ever since I saw this disturbing 1966 John Frankeneimer film on TV in the wee hours I have loved it (maybe partly because an early scene takes place in those wee hours). Shot in widescreen black and white by James Wong Howe, it makes multiple terrifying use of weird camera angles and close ups to add to its overall disorienting effect. In it, a fiftysomething married banker living in the suburbs recieves a telephone call late one night from his best friend, who supposedly died six months ago. It turns out that the friend is recruiting for the company that faked his death and gave him plastic surgery and physical therapy to assume a brand new identity. The banker goes to the company and arranges for a similar fake death and then is changed into a new man, played now by Rock Hudson in what is probably his best role. When the new life as an artist in hippie-filled Malibu grows tiring, he seeks yet another identity, with tragic and horrific results.
A chilling scene for me is when Hudson returns to visit his widow and finds out the truth about her and their long term marriage.
Available on laserdisc and DVD. A vastly underrated masterwork.

Films/DVD Asylum

"Seconds"