greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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"We are friends for life". The man speaking: Micawber, played by W.C. Fields with great comedic charm and human warmth. The child addressed: David, played by Freddie Bartholomew in his Hollywood debut.

The movie: David Copperfield, still one of the best-ever screen adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel. "To call the casting inspired is to underrate it", historian David Shipman wrote in his 'The Story of Cinema'. Lionel Barrymore, Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan, Basil Rathbone and more joined Fields and Bartholomew in portraying the eccentrics, cads and loving family of this film directed by George Cukor. David O. Selznick produced, insisting on an attention to Dickensian detail that included matching the sets to the first edition's illustrations. The result: one of the greatest page-to-screen adaptations ever.

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HMS Bounty sails for Tahiti by way of Cape Horn...and into movie lore as an American Film Institute Top-100 American Films selection. Grandly filmed, 'Mutiny on the Bounty' captured the 1935 Best Picture Academy Award and eight nominations total.

Charles Laughton portrays Captain Bligh, a seafaring monster ruling with the law of fear. Solidifying his status as Hollywood's No. 1 male star, Clark Gable is first officer Fletcher Christian, whose will to obey erodes under Bligh's tyranny. And Franchot Tone plays idealistic midshipman Byam, torn by his allegiance to both. That all three portrayals are vividly memorable is accented by the fact that for the only time in Oscar history, three stars from the same actor were Best Actor nominees.

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Intense, fraught and simmering with passion, Married Life is the tale of Harry (Chris Cooper), a man whose faithful but emotionally-cold wife (Patricia Clarkson) has become all-but-impossible to love.

Smitten by the young & beautiful Kay (Rachel McAdams), but terrified at the prospect of exposing his wife to the social humiliation of divorce, Harry opts to poison her so the marriage can end with his wife's pride still intact. Harry's scheme soon goes horribly awry, however, after he reveals the plan to his best friend, Richard (Pierce Brosnan). Richard too falls in love with Kay and sets in motion cunning plan all of his own...

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The woman is wealthy Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes), fresh from the mental institution and ticked off. Her rat of a husband (William Hudson) has been at play while the cat's been away, putting the moves on Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers) and scheming about the day when Nancy's fortune will be theirs.

That day will never come - not after Nancy has an alien encounter that zaps her body into overdrive. Soon, Nancy's size matches her rage. She'll prove big girls don't cry...they get even.

Wall Street trader Jerry (Fredric March) is in love with his secretary, Julia (Claudette Colbert), but she turns him down to marry Philip (Monroe Owsley). A year later, realising the mistake she has made, she borrows money from Jerry, leading Philip to become dangerously jealous...

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One of Britain's leading psychiatrists has committed suicide. His teenage daughter (Pamela Franklin) is convinced that her father was murdered - and enlists the help of one of her father's patients, news reporter Alex Stedman (Stephen Boyd) to uncover the truth.

As Stedman delves into the lives of his three suspects - a tormented art dealer (Richard Attenborough), a beautiful, lonely woman (Diane Cilento) and one of Britain's most respected judges (Jack Hawkins) - he has to battle with his own, re-emerging psychological terrors - and unravel 'The Third Secret'...

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After the war, Matt Gordon (Fred MacMurray) returns to Singapore to retrieve a fortune in smuggled pearls. Arrived, he reminisces in flashback about his prewar fiancée, alluring Linda (Ava Gardner), and her disappearance during the Japanese attack. But now Linda resurfaces...

with amnesia and married to rich planter Van Leyden (Roland Culver). Meanwhile, sinister fence Mauribus (Thomas Gomez) schemes to get Matt's pearls.

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Wyatt Earp has long fascinated filmmakers. The legendary lawman been portrayed across the years by many great actors, from Henry Fonda, Burt Lancaster and James Stewart to Kurt Russell, James Garner and Kevin Costner.

His very first appearance in a motion picture came in 1939 with 'Frontier Marshal', played by Western icon Randolph Scott. 'Frontier Marshal' tells the infamous tale of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corrall and Earp's friendship with Doc Holliday (Cesar Romero), providing plenty of inspiration for John Ford's classic 'My Darling Clementine'.

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Traversing the criminal underworld of the north-east of England some ten years before 'Get Carter', Johnny Mellor's band of ruthless criminals attempt to get away with murder, but as the police close in, the gang begins to fall apart, with each member seeking a way out - and in their panic, no one

realizes there is one adversary they have all overlooked.

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Stand and pledge loyalty - or prepare to lie cold beneath your shields. Chivalrous knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe is determined to restore Richard the Lion-Hearted to England's throne. Gallantry and costumed pageantry combine in this crowd-pleasing nominee for 3 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Robert Taylor plays the title role, and Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Fontaine also star in a rousing adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's novel. The film's jousting tournament is a galloping display of steeds and stouthearted men. Most spectacular of all is the siege of Torquilstone Castle, a wave-after-wave onslaught of arrows, fire, boulders, battering rams and blades. To the battlements!

Amid accusations of talent-wasting, composer Arthur Sullivan (Maurice Evans) joins forces with dramatist W.S. Gilbert (Robert Morley) and impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte (Peter Finch) in a partnership to create what ultimately became some of the most innovative and successful music ever created.

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"The Colditz Story" is an outstanding factual prisoner of war film directed by Guy Hamilton, starring John Mills as Officer Pat Reid and Eric Portman as Colonel Richmond.

It is based on the book written by Pat Reid, a British army officer who was imprisoned in Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, in Germany during the Second World War and who was the Escape Officer for British POWs within the castle. Colditz Castle in the heart of Saxony, was the fortress to which the German High Command sent officers who had attempted to escape from conventional prison camps. They regarded it as impregnable yet they threatened the death penalty for anyone attempting to break out. British officer Pat Reid leads an escape through one of the castle's subterranean tunnels. Only three of the prisoners survive; the next step is to get out of Germany itself.

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Any Johnny Reb who tries to escape the Union prison outpost of Fort Bravo faces the unforgiving Arizona Territory desert stretching before him…and the even more unforgiving pursuit of Bravo's resolute Captain Roper (William Holden).

Yet there's a common foe that may unite the Civil War rivals: the fierce Mescalero horsemen waging guerilla war against Blue and Gray alike.

Fatherless Bartholomew Collins (Tommy Rettig) dreams that his nefarious piano teacher, Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried) plans to enslave 500 boys and force them to play an enormous piano with 5,000 keys. He enlists the help of a plumber to convince his brainwashed mother of Dr. T.'s frightening agenda.

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Tortured by thoughts that her husband Jake (Peter Finch) may be having an affair Jo Annitage (Anne Bancroft) has a nervous breakdown in Harrods and her life begins to crumble all about her.

But is her husband's infidelity really to blame? Or does Jo have deeper, more complex problems? Why does she have so main children - and is her seemingly perfect life all it appears on the surface?