Duel

Made for US television by a 20-something Steven Spielberg, this thriller proved such a hit that it enjoyed a theatrical release in Europe and launched the young director's career in movies. The pitch is simplicity itself: businessman Dennis Weaver in his red Plymouth Valiant is terrorised by an anonymously driven truck on a stretch of Californian desert highway. Shot on a budget in 13 days, there's barely any dialogue - it's all palm-moistening, tyre-squealing action - but once you've seen it, you'll never forget it. Adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, it works as a parable about urban paranoia or as a rollercoaster thriller that never lets up. The truck itself prefigures Spielberg's shark in Jaws as a marauding screen monster with a personality of its own.