greatest-ever-made's - Favourites List
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Overworked true crime magazine editor George Stroud (Ray Milland) has been planning a vacation for months. However, when his boss, the tyrannical media tycoon Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), insists he skips his hols, Stroud resigns in disgust before embarking on an impromptu drunken night out with his boss's mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson). When Janoth kills Pauline in a fit of rage, Stroud finds himself to have been the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time: his staff have been tasked with finding a suspect with an all too familiar description...Stroud's very own! - Director:
- John Farrow
- Cast:
- Ray Milland, Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Laughton
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Lieutenant Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is determined to bring down mob boss Mr Brown (Richard Conte), even if it means jeopardising his own career, but the feeling is mutual and the unscrupulous gangster is more than willing to operate outside the law to get his man. The confrontation escalates, leading to some wince-inducing set-pieces involving such handy props as a radio and a hearing aid. - Director:
- Joseph H. Lewis
- Cast:
- Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Cornel Wilde
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Sweet Smell of Success (1957)La mentira maldita
A powerful film about a ruthless journalist and an unscrupulous press agent who'll do anything to achieve success, this fascinating, compelling story crackles with taut direction and whiplash dialogue. Bristling with vivid performances by Curtis and Lancaster, this gutsy expose of big-city corruption is a timeless classic that cuts deep and sends a chilling message. It's late at night in the steamy, neon-lit streets of New York's Times Square, and everything's buzzing with nervous energy. But press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is oblivious to the whirlwind of street vendors, call girls and con men bustling around him as he nervously waits for the early edition of The Globe. Whose career did gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) launch today…and whose did he destroy? - Director:
- Alexander MacKendrick
- Cast:
- Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison
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An ambitious but unscrupulous lawyer (John Garfield) works for the mob, and scents the prospect of a personal fortune when he helps concoct a plan that will merge all of New York City's numbers rackets into a single powerful and unbreakable operation. But one of them is run by his own brother (Thomas Gomez), who is much happier as an independent, mainly because it allows him to apply his own ethical standards to prevent innocent people from being corrupted by his shady activities. And it's the Cain-and-Abel clash between them that gives the film its tragic dimension. - Director:
- Abraham Polonsky
- Cast:
- John Garfield, Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor
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Metropolis (1927)Metrópolis
Shortly after that 1927 release, an entire quarter of Lang's original version was cut by Paramount for the US release, and by Ufa in Germany, an act of butchery very much against the director's wishes. The excised footage was believed lost, irretrievably so - that is, until one of the most remarkable finds in all of cinema history, as several dusty reels were discovered in a small museum in Buenos Aires. Argentina in 2008. Since then, an expert team of film archivists has been working at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Germany to painstakingly reconstruct and restore Lang's film. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich
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A group of weary travellers, a spooky mansion, and a madman on the loose upstairs! Director James Whale's 'The Old Dark House' is one of the best and most entertaining horror films of the 1930's. Caught in a storm whilst journeying through a remote region of Wales, a group of travellers take refuge in a sinister mansion inhabited by the bizarre Femm family and their mute butler, Morgan (Boris Karloff). Trying to make the best of a bad situation, the group settles in for the night, but the Femm family have a few skeletons in their closet, and one of them is on the loose... - Director:
- James Whale
- Cast:
- Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton
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Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), a middle aged, world-weary, psychology professor, who finds himself suddenly captivated by a portrait of a beautiful young woman in the window of a local gallery. In a strange twist of fate the woman in the picture (a radiant Joan Bennett) appears before Richard and invites him back to her apartment. Everything seems to be going fine until Wanley is attacked by her possessive boyfriend and ends up murdering him in self-defence. Alice convinces Richard to cover up the crime, but as Richard's district attorney friend (Raymond Massey) investigates and the boyfriend's bodyguard (Dan Duryea) begins to apply pressure to Richard, the walls begin to close in... - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Raymond Massey
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Le Samouraï (1967)The Godson / The Samurai
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville, 'Le Samourai' is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940's American gangster cinema and 1960's French pop culture - with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology. - Director:
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast:
- Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon
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Out of the Past (1947)Build My Gallows High
Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas star in this quintessential film noir which catapulted Mitchum into superstardom and set the standard for the genre for years to come. When Kathie Moffett (Greer) shoots her admirer, Whit Sterling (Douglas), a big-time gambler, and absconds with $40,000 of his money, Starling hires private detective Jeff Bailey (Mitchum) to find her. Bailey leaves New York and catches up with Kathie in Mexico. Kathie denies taking the money and after falling for her charms, Bailey notifies Sterling that he could not find her. - Director:
- Jacques Tourneur
- Cast:
- Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
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Journeyman boxer Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan) thinks that he has one last good fight in him in order to get a payout and retire from the ring. His wife Julie (Audrey Trotter) pleads for him to quit whilst his manager Tiny (George Tobias) is so convinced that his man is going to lose that he has taken money from the mob in exchange for his man taking a 'dive'. Unaware that his manager has double-crossed him and that he will be a target for the mob if he wins, Stoker strains every sinew of his raw courage to knock out his opponent. - Director:
- Robert Wise
- Cast:
- Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias
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Dr. Luther Brooks (Sidney Poitier) is assigned to treat two prisoners, the Biddle brothers, who were shot during an attempted robbery. Ray Biddle (Richard Widmark) refuses to be treated by the black doctor, and when his brother John dies under Luther's care, Ray becomes consumed with vengeance. His anger and hatred ignites racial tensions within the community, and events quickly spiral out of control. - Director:
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Cast:
- Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally
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Petty crook Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) is arrested at the scene of a robbery and takes the rap without squealing. When he learns that his accomplice has betrayed him, he decides to go against the criminal code and become an informant. But when his testimony against psychopathic killer Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) puts his family in danger, Nick is forced to take matters into his own hands. - Director:
- Henry Hathaway
- Cast:
- Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray
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Scarface (1932)Scarface: The Shame of the Nation
Generally regarded to be the best of the classic gangster films, 'Scarface' tells the exciting story of organised crime's brutal control over Chicago during the Prohibition era. Paul Muni gives an electrifying performance as Tony Carmonte, an ambitious criminal with a ruthless drive to be the city's top crime boss. Directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, 'Scarface' was a groundbreaking film which established both Paul Muni and George Raft as major Hollywood stars, while influencing all gangland films to follow. - Director:
- Howard Hawks
- Cast:
- Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley
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Nineteen-year-old Lauren Bacall makes her sizzling screen debut in the first of 4 films she made opposite Humphrey Bogart. he plays a cynical American expatriate swept up in the fighting of the French resistance - and swept off his feet by an alluring young drifter - Bacall. Set on the island of Martinique in 1940, the film features smouldering performances from the legendary couple. - Director:
- Howard Hawks
- Cast:
- Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan
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Louis Mazzini's mother belongs to the aristocratic family D'Ascoyne, but she ran away with an opera singer. Therefore, she and Louis (Dennis Price) were rejected by the D'Ascoynes. Once adult, Louis decides to avenges his mother and him, by becoming the next Duke (Alec Guinness) of the family. Murdering every potential successor is clearly the safest way to achieve his goal. - Director:
- Robert Hamer
- Cast:
- Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson
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