The Smiley Smile Message Board

Upon a search of this board I was reminded that back in 2009 I asked a question about the movie Seconds. Now here I am 2 years later with a follow up.

Keith Badman (in his Beach Boys Diary book) writes that BW saw the movie Seconds on October 8th, 1966. Do we believe him on this data? I know he gets some stuff wrong. Where would he have received this info? Jules Siegel apparently saw him later that evening because he writes about it in “Goodbye Surfing, Hello God”. Maybe that is Badman's source. I ask the question because my gut feeling is that he saw the movie later. I don't know why I think this, other than it feels like the events in the rest of Siegel's article take place around late November and mid December. Badman also says the movie was released in the US on Oct. 5th 1966.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

The October 5th, 1966 release date appears to be accurate and there is a Time magazine review from the "Oct. 14th, 1966" issue. Reportedly, the film didn't do especially well at the box office upon first release, so Brian would have had to see it within the first couple of weeks of release since the film would not have been kept around for a longer engagement.

As I recall others confirm the date and event too.  Brian actually may have walked into it late, if (as he claims) the first thing he heard was "Ah, Mr. Wilson!", some 15 minutes in, and then went off from there.  From what he said about it, he certainly saw the ending.   I have always wondered why Brian went to see it, or who would have touted it to him; over forty-five years later, it is still one of the creepiest sci-fi-type movies ever made, with an unbelievably bleak finish.

As has been said elsewhere, the reputation of Seconds grew over the years.  Rock Hudson thought it was his best work and the director was proud of it, doing his own commentary on the DVD reissue of the "European" version, which had significant nudity in it.