greatest-ever-made's - Rented List
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Movie producer Max Poulton (Stewart Granger) is having an on again, off again affair with Gina Bertini (Gianna Maria Canale), the temperamental leading lady in his latest movie which is filming in the French Riviera. Gina and Max's current off again status is due to Max vowing to make a go of his marriage to his loving wife, Carol Poulton (Donna Reed), with who he has had a sometimes strained relationship. Gina and Max's relationship moves into another realm when she threatens to tell Carol of the the affair. That's why Max is hesitant to divulge the full nature of his relationship to Gina when she is found murdered. He is certain that the murderer is a man named Carliss (George Sanders), who introduced himself to Max earlier as being with Scotland Yard, he assisting the local French authorities in the investigation into Gina's murder, this before Gina was actually murdered. Carliss seemingly is trying to frame Max for the murder. Max understands more when he learns who Carliss is. Despite the authorities being after him, Max does whatever he can both to clear his name and protect Carol, who he believes is in danger herself. - Director:
- John Guillermin
- Cast:
- Stewart Granger, Donna Reed, George Sanders
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Blow Out (1981)Personal Effects
Jack Terri (John Travolta) is a talented audio technician who makes his living by recording unique sounds for horror movies. But when he accidentally tapes an automobile crash that kills a presidential candidate and injures his young mistress, Sally (Nancy Allen), Jack is hurled into a mystery far more terrifying than any of his films! Soon he and Sally must fight to stay alive as they uncover an explosive political conspiracy that will send shockwaves to the highest levels of government. - Director:
- Brian De Palma
- Cast:
- John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow
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San Francisco - Crime novelist Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forrest) is investigating the mysterious disappearance of beautiful Chinese cabaret actress Crystal Ling (Lydia Lei). Hammett shortly realises that he's not the only one looking for her and that his investigation could compromise local figures linked to pornography traffic. - Director:
- Wim Wenders
- Cast:
- Frederic Forrest, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner
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Adapted from a hit radio series, each episode has the Whistler emerge from the shadows to introduce a nightmarish, twisting tale in his own sardonic manner, with the first seven films starring Richard Dix
The Power of the Whistler (1945)
A woman uses a deck of cards to predictdeath within 24 hours for a stranger sitting at a bar, then tries to help him remember who he is based on items in his pockets.
Voice of the Whistler (1945)
The 4th film of the Columbia series based on the CBS radio program, "The Whistler", finds wealthy John Sinclair (Richard Dix), with no health or friends, being advised by his doctor to take a long vacation. Heading for the Great Lakes, he becomes ill in the cab operated by Ernie Sparrow (Rhys Williams) an is taken to a linic where he meets nurse Joan Martin (Lynn Merrick), who is engaged to intern Fred Graham (James Cardwell). Doctors now tell him he has only a few months to live and advise him to go to Maine (where, evidently, it will seem longer). He asks Joan to marry him, promising to leave her his fortune. She, no dummy, accepts but hard-loser Fred doesn't like it even though she says she is doing it for him. After six months of living in a lighthouse with only Joan and Sparrow, whom he has hired as his aide, Sinclaie seemingly regains his health and has really fallen in love with Joan. She tells him she can no longer tolerate the loneliness just as Fred arrives for a visit, and John invites him to stay. In a chess game, John facetiously outlines to Fred how he would murder him if he chose to. Fred, decides to beat him to the punch and enters his bedroom that night and attempts to kill John with a poker. The figure in the bed turns out to be a dummy and John, who has been hiding, clubs Fred to death. He tries to throw the body from the bedroom window but it won't open and, planning to return and force it open later, he carries the body to the rocks and then hits Fred's head with a stone. Returning to the lighthouse, John meets Sparrow and tells him that Fred fell from a window but Sparrow knows all the windows have been nailed shut. And Joan, who saw John carry the body out, has summoned the police.- Director:
- Lew Landers
- Cast:
- Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell
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Intolerance (1916)Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
After shaking the world with his hugely controversial epic 'The Birth of a Nation', pioneer filmmaker D. W. Griffith spared no expense in putting together his next project: a powerful examination of intolerance as it has persisted throughout civilisation, set across four parallel storylines that span 2500 years. There is the Babylonian story, depicting nothing less than the fall of Babylon; the Judean story, which revolves around the crucifixion of Christ; the French story, which presents the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in all its horror; and a modern American story of class struggle, crime, and the plight of life in the early 20th century set within urban slums and the prison system. Starring such luminaries as Lillian Gish, Constance Talmadge, and Miriam Cooper, who share screentime with an enormous main cast and some 3,000 extras, Griffith's film - the most expensive motion picture ever produced at the time - went on to become a critical success whose influence has only grown in the decades since. - Director:
- D.W. Griffith
- Cast:
- Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks, Spottiswoode Aitken
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Miller's Crossing (1990)De paseo a la muerte
Leo (Albert Finney), a likeable Irish gangster boss, rules an Eastern city along with Tom (Gabriel Byrne), his trusted lieutenant and counsellor. But just as their authority is challenged by an Italian underboss and his ruthless henchman Leo and Tom also fall for the same woman (Marcia Gay Harden). Tom, caught in the jaws of a gangland power struggle, walks a deadly tightrope as he tries to control and manipulate its violent outcome. - Director:
- Joel Coen
- Cast:
- Gabriel Byrne, William Preston Robertson, Albert Finney
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It's the story of Jason (Todd Armstrong), a fearless sailor and explorer, who returns to the kingdom of Thessaly after a 20-year voyage to make his rightful claim to the throne. But to do so, Jason must first find the magical Golden Fleece. He selects a crew and with the help of Hera, Queen of the Gods, sets sail in search of the Fleece - Jason and his crew must overcome incredible obstacles including a 100-foot bronze giant, the venomous Hydra - a huge creature with the heads of seven snakes - and a spectacular battle with an army of skeletons. - Director:
- Don Chaffey
- Cast:
- Todd Armstrong, Eva Haddon, Nancy Kovack
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In one of his most chilling performances, Richard Widmark stars as Stiles, an up-and-coming crime boss trying to stake his claim in the criminal underworld. The FBI files are filled with lurid crime stories. One case in particular baffles FBI Inspector Briggs. It involves the murders of a housewife and a bank guard. Both were killed by the same gun, yet there isn't any connection between the victims. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime, Briggs sends his best agent undercover to penetrate the inner circle of the notorious Stiles gang. Everything goes according to plan, until an informant inside the police department tips off Stiles. Now the enraged crime boss targets the agent for murder. - Director:
- William Keighley
- Cast:
- Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Nolan
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Philip Hannon (Van Johnson) is a playwright, newly relocated from New York to London. Drowning his sorrows in a pub one night, Philip is disturbed to overhear a crime being plotted. The police don't believe his story and so, aided by his faithful batman Bob (Cecil Parker) and ex-fiance Jean (Vera Miles), Philip resolves to stop the villains. But it will not be easy: Philip, you see, is blind... - Director:
- Henry Hathaway
- Cast:
- Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker
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La Grande Illusion (1937)The Grand Illusion
Set in the German prison camps of WW1, the film stars Jean Gabin as Marechal, and Marcel Dalio as Rosenthal. Like the charming aristocrat Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), these two French aviators were shot down and now spend most of their time escaping from German prison camps before inevitably being recaptured. Between escapes, they do what they can to amuse themselves, but after a tunnel they've dug is discovered, the three are sent to Wintersborn, a forbidding fortress of a prison commanded by former ace pilot Von Rauffenstein (Erich Von Stroheim). Von Rauffenstein cannot help but strike up a friendship with Captain de Boeldieu, a kindred spirit from the doomed nobility. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay
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The Whistler / The Mark of the Whistler (1944)The Whistler / (The Marked Man / The Mark of the Whistler / Dormant Account)
Adapted from a hit radio series, each episode has the 'Whistler' emerge from the shadows to introduce a nightmarish, twisting tale in his own sardonic manner, with the first seven films starring Richard Dix (It Happened in Hollywood).
The Whistler (1944)A man, despondent over the death of his wife, wants to commit suicide but can't bring himself to do it. He hires a man to hire a professional killer to do the job. However, he soon finds out that his wife isn't really dead - but the man he paid to hire the hitman is, and he has no idea who the man hired or how to get him to call off the hit.
The Mark of the Whistler (1944)
A drifter claims the money in an old bank account by impersonating someone else with the same name. Soon he finds himself the target of a man who turns out to be the son of the old partner of the impersonated man's father, who caused his partner to do time in prison.- Director:
- William Castle
- Cast:
- Richard Dix, Gloria Stuart, J. Carrol Naish
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Something to Sing About (1937)Battling Hoofer
James Cagney is at his best as Terry Rooney, a Manhattan bandleader who journeys to Hollywood, where he is offered a lucrative film contract, but he is determined to do things his way and not theirs. Mr. Regan (Gene Lockhart), the head of the studio, believes that Rooney's true lack of desire for stardom is arrogance on the band leaders part. When his first film is huge success and hit for the studio, Regan tries to hide the truth from Rooney. Feeling a need to get away from Hollywood, Rooney takes his wife on a South Seas cruise, only to return to the real truth of his fame. - Director:
- Victor Schertzinger
- Cast:
- James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, William Frawley
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We're No Angels (1955)No somos ángeles
Humphrey Bogart plays one of his rare comedy roles in this jaunty excursion about three convicts - Joseph (Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) - who are plotting their escape from Devil's Island. Fate intervenes when they hide out with the kindly but inept Felix Ducotel (Leo G. Carroll) and his family. Felix manages a store for his demanding, arrogant cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone), who decides to make the fatal mistake of stealing Albert's beloved pet, a poisonous snake! For the Ducotels, it will be a Christmas to remember - shared with a trio of rogues who turn out to be three "wise men" after all! - Director:
- Michael Curtiz
- Cast:
- Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray
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Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)Battle of City Hall
Off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O'Brien teamed for the sixth time in this enduring gangster classic. Cagney's Rocky Sullivan is a charismatic ghetto tough whose underworld rise makes him a hero to a gang of slum punks. O'Brien is Father Connolly, the boyhood chum-turned-priest who vows to end Rocky's influence. Other ace talents join them: Humphrey Bogart as a scheming lawyer, Ann Sheridan as Rocky's hard-edged girlfriend and the Dead End Kids as worshipful street urchins, all ably directed by Michael Curtiz. - Director:
- Michael Curtiz
- Cast:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart
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Gene Tierney, Bruce Cabot and George Sanders star in this classic war film set in a small African outpost during the Second World War. As the British fight to control East Africa word reaches them that a vicious local tribe are being smuggled guns from a unknown source. When the soldiers encounter the exotic and beautiful Zia, the leader of attaining trader caravan, she is assumed to be the supplier of the illicit firearms. But in this thrilling drama the African desert hides many secrets beneath its ancient sands. - Director:
- Henry Hathaway
- Cast:
- Gene Tierney, Bruce Cabot, George Sanders
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