greatest-ever-made's - Rented List
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Isle of the Dead (1945)Camilla
It's 1912 and Greece is beset by war and pestilence. As his troops bury their dead after another bloody battle, stern General Pherides (Boris Karloff) goes to visit the grave of his wife, buried on an island nearby. He's horrified to see her tomb has been looted and learns grave robbers are to blame for the desecration but there is worse news to come: plague has come to the island. The doctors are powerless but perhaps the sickness has another cause. Could it be that a 'Vorvolaka' - a vampiric demon - is at large on the island? And is there anything that can stop it? - Director:
- Mark Robson
- Cast:
- Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer
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Die Nibelungen (1924)Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
Perhaps the most stately of Fritz Lang's two-part epics, the five-hour Die Nibelungen (The Nibelungen) is a courageous and hallucinatory work, a film in which every single shot might alone endure as an exemplar of visual art. Its extraordinary set-pieces, archetypal themes, and unrestrained ambition have proven an inspiration for nearly every fantasy cycle that has emerged on-screen since - from 'Star Wars' to 'The Lord of the Rings'. In Part One, 'Siegfried', the film's eponymous hero acquires the power of invincibility after slaying a dragon and bathing in the creature's blood. Later, an alliance through marriage between the hero and the royal clan of the Nibelungen turns treacherous, with Siegfried's sole weakness exploited. Adapted from the myth that served as the basis for Wagner's Ring cycle (though not an adaptation of the operas themselves), Lang's picture employs its own counterpoint through a systematic, viral series of deranged geometrical patterns and the arresting, kabuki-like quality of the actors' performances. The result is a film of startling expressionistic power, and a summit of Fritz Lang's artistry. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Paul Richter, Margarete Schön, Theodor Loos
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The Trollenberg Terror (1958)Creature from Another World / The Creeping Eye / The Flying Eye
Scientific investigator Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) is summoned to the remote Alpine village of Trollenberg following the recent decapitation of a mountain-climber. On the way to Trollenberg he encounters a mind-reading act, Sarah and Anne Pilgrim (Jennifer Jayne and Janet Munro). Anne suffers a powerful psychic experience and insists that she and her sister follow Brooks to the village. At a mountainside observatory Brooks discovers a sinister radioactive cloud below the summit. What is the horrifying alien secret that lurks within the poisonous fog? And why does Anne represent such a threat to it? As the cloud descends the mountain, the besieged humans confront the horror of the crawling eyes... - Director:
- Quentin Lawrence
- Cast:
- Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne
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Against the Law (1950)Contro la legge
A middle class man who launders money for the mob to make ends meet witnesses a murder during a currency exchange. Identified as the murderer by police, he embarks with his girlfriend on a mission to clear his name. A Hitchcockian wrong man thriller in a crime framework, Pietro Germi's scenario echoes the American noir. With a screenplay co-authored by the former head of Rome's flying squad, 'Against the Law' was noted for its realism on release, where it proved a hit with audiences and critics. Starring a charming Marcello Mastroianni in his first leading role, Flavio Calzavara's under-seen gem... - Director:
- Flavio Calzavara
- Cast:
- Tino Buazzelli, Manlio Busoni, Angelo Canova
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Crime Thief (1969)Le voleur de crimes
Nadine Trintignant (Défense de savoir) directs her husband, Jean-Louis Trintignant (Merci la vie), in 'Crime Thief' (Le Voleur de crimes), a complex examination of obsession and alienation. When disaffected everyman Jean (Trintignant) witnesses the suicide of a young woman, he decides to anonymously claim that he has murdered her. Leaving his family behind, he becomes consumed by his own delusions, descending into neurosis as the lines between fantasy and reality become increasingly blurred. Also starring genre-film legend Florinda Bolkan (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin), cult actor-director Robert Hossein (Cemetery Without Crosses), and Nadine Trintignant's brother, the hugely prolific Serge Marquand (The Grapes of Death), 'Crime Thief' is a stylish and masterful psychological drama. - Director:
- Nadine Trintignant
- Cast:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Robert Hossein, Giorgia Moll
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Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924)Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache
Perhaps the most stately of Fritz Lang's two-part epics, the five-hour Die Nibelungen (The Nibelungen) is a courageous and hallucinatory work, a film in which every single shot might alone endure as an exemplar of visual art. Its extraordinary set-pieces, archetypal themes, and unrestrained ambition have proven an inspiration for nearly every fantasy cycle that has emerged on-screen since - from 'Star Wars' to 'The Lord of the Rings'. In Part Two, "Kriemhilds Rache (Kriemhild's Revenge)", Siegfried's widow travels to the remote land of the Huns to wed the monstrous Attila, and thereby enlist his forces in an act of vengeance that culminates in massacre, conflagration, and, under the auspices of Lang, one of the most exhilarating and terrifying end-sequences in all of cinema. Adapted from the myth that served as the basis for Wagner's Ring cycle (though not an adaptation of the operas themselves), Lang's picture employs its own counterpoint through a systematic, viral series of deranged geometrical patterns and the arresting, kabuki-like quality of the actors' performances. The result is a film of startling expressionistic power, and a summit of Fritz Lang's artistry. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Margarete Schön, Gertrud Arnold, Theodor Loos
- Formats:
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The Secret Agent (2025)O Agente Secreto
The Secret Agent is a gripping, mischievous political thriller that entertains as much as it provokes. Set amid the vibrant cultural landscape of 1970s Brazil, the film immerses audiences in the nation's charged atmosphere, capturing the grandeur of the period's golden-age cinema. Wagner Moura stars as Marcelo, a father on the run from a mysterious past. Arriving in Recife during Carnival, Marcelo is swept into a dizzying world of colour, noise, and unforgettable characters. As the city's sights and sounds intensify, Marcelo's true place within Recife's intricate web of secrets begins to emerge. - Director:
- Kleber Mendonça Filho
- Cast:
- Robson Andrade, Rubens Santos, Licínio Januário
- Formats:
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Samson and Delilah (1949)Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah
Though his people, the Israelites, are enslaved by the Philistines, Samson (Victor Mature), strongest man of the tribe of Dan, falls in love with the Philistine Semadar (Angela Lansbury), whom he wins by virtue of a contest of strength. But Semadar betrays him, and Samson engages in a fight with her real love, Ahtur (Henry Wilcoxon), and his soldiers. Semadar is killed, and her sister Delilah (Hedy Lamarr), who had loved Samson in silence, now vows vengeance against him. She plans to seduce Samson into revealing the secret of his strength and then to betray him to the Philistine leader, the Saran (George Sanders). - Director:
- Cecil B. DeMille
- Cast:
- Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders
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Intriguing film noir about a novelist (Dana Andrews) out to expose the injustices of capital punishment. Working with his fiancee's (Joan Fontaine) father, a newspaper publisher (Sidney Blackmer), he frames himself for murder, intending to produce exonerating evidence at the last moment. But the publisher suddenly dies, the evidence is lost...and that's only the first twist in a brilliantly layered plot ideally suited to Lang's talents. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer
- Formats:
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Woman in the Moon (1929)Frau Im Mond
In this, Lang's final silent epic, the legendary filmmaker spins a tale involving a wicked cartel of spies who co-opt an experimental mission to the moon in the hope of plundering the satellite's vast (and highly theoretical) stores of gold. When the crew, helmed by Willy Fritsch and Gerda Maurus, finally reach their impossible destination, they find themselves stranded in a lunar labyrinth without walls - where emotions run scattershot, and the new goal becomes survival. A modern Daedalus tale which uncannily foretold Germany's wartime push into rocket-science, Frau im Mond is as much a warning-sign against human hubris as it is a hopeful depiction of mankind's potential. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Klaus Pohl, Willy Fritsch, Gustav Von Wangenheim
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When Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) witnesses the arrival of alien ships from a distant world, an incredible series of events begins- planes which disappeared during the Second World War are found intact in Mexico, long lost ships mysteriously re-appear in the middle of the desert and people from all around the world, including Neary are convinced that someone is trying to communicate with them. Nearys search to find an answer leads him to take part in the ultimate encounter with the extra-Terrestrials and to board the vast, beautiful Mothership. - Director:
- Steven Spielberg
- Cast:
- Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr
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Laurel and Hardy: The Silent Years 1929 (1929)Liberty / Wrong Again / That's My Wife / Big Business / Double Whoopee / Bacon Grabbers / Angora Love / Unaccustomed As We Are / Berth Marks
Two of the most talented comedians to ever grace the silver screen, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had firmly established their enduring partnership by the time the age of talking pictures loomed at the end of the 1920s. As they made their final silent shorts together in 1929, they continued to build upon the double act forged in earlier films such as 'You're Darn Tootin', 'Should Married Men Go Home?' and 'We Faw Down' - and prepared themselves for success in the sound era. This collection brings together the silent Laurel and Hardy shorts produced in 1929, as the Boys reached new levels of fame and success: Libertycasts Stan and Ollie as fugitives on the run; in 'Wrong Again', the Boys try to claim a reward by returning a lost horse to a bewildered millionaire seeking a stolen painting; 'That's My Wife' sees Stan pose as Ollie's spouse; in 'Big Business', the Boys go door-to-door selling Christmas trees; 'Double Whoopee' sees them take jobs at a fancy hotel; in 'Bacon Grabbers', Stan and Ollie are bailiffs tasked with recovering a radio; in 'Angora Love', they try to conceal a goat that has become very, very attached to them; in 'Unaccustomed As We Are', Ollie invites Stan over for dinner and attracts the ire of Mrs Hardy; and, finally, 'Berth Marks' has the pair cause abject chaos on a sleeper train. - Director:
- Lloyd French
- Cast:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jimmy Aubrey
- Formats:
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Nuclear physicist Alvah Jesper (Gary Cooper) is recruited by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services to become a reluctant undercover agent, traveling to Switzerland to meet with a fellow scientist regarding information on Germany's plans to construct an atomic bomb. After this colleague is assassinated, Jesper must sneak into Italy via the underground resistance, to contact another scientist. While there, Jesper falls in love with resistance fighter Gina (Lilli Palmer, in her first Hollywood role), and the two must battle shootouts, double crosses, and narrow escapes to smuggle the scientist out of Italy. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Gary Cooper, Lilli Palmer, Robert Alda
- Formats:
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Rancho Notorious (1952)Chuck-a-Luck
Frontiersman Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) wanders the West obsessed with finding the men responsible for murdering his fiancee. His quest leads him to 'Chuck-a-Luck' - the film's original title - a combination horse ranch and criminal hideout overseen by saloon chanteuse Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich). Posing as an escaped criminal, Haskell falls in with murderous gunslinger Frenchy Fairmont (Mel Ferrer) and slowly but surely becomes indistinguishable from those he is hunting. Adapted from a story the director had developed with Sylvia Richards, Lang and screenwriter Daniel Taradash fashioned a highly moral and distinctly feminist tale that innovatively re-worked his quintessential themes of love, betrayal and retribution. A troubled production due to the interventions of studio head Howard Hughes and the fiery relationship between Lang and the iconic Dietrich - seldom better - 'Rancho Notorious' is now justly celebrated as a unique and visionary classic. - Director:
- Fritz Lang
- Cast:
- Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer
- Formats:
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"Why do you make me do it?" New York cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) asks the hoodlum he's about to smash senseless. Jim has seen it all on the city's shadowy streets: killers, thugs, pimps, sadists. And the experience has cost him his soul. Ironically, his redemption may come in his next case, a brutal murder that brings him into the open sky and white light of the countryside...and into the arms of a beautiful blind woman. - Director:
- Nicholas Ray
- Cast:
- Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond
- Formats:
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