Seconds

As a warm-up to Rock vs Doris, Seconds is proof that Hudson was much more than a light romantic character actor. Here he gives a strikingly intense performance as a man desperate for an alternative existence, in a potent evocation of corporate paranoia and the loss of identity. Booed when it debuted at Cannes, viewers in 1966 weren’t quite ready for this dark vision of a technological future. Today however, it’s regarded as a brilliant, harrowing masterpiece.