greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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Glasses are smashing, fingers are snapping and everyone's dancing to the sultry music of the bouzoukies! It's just another glorious moment in the carefree world of Illia (Melina Mercouri), Greece's most radiant lady of the night.

Sensuous Illia adores her life, and every man in her seaport paradise adores her. But when Homer (Jules Dassin), a stuffy American intellectual, sails into town and tries to reform her, Illia shows him that she's one free spirit who's happy with her wild life and not about to be tamed.

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On the Boardwalk of Dreams, everyone has a fantasy. Once the Queen of Resorts, Atlantic City has become the seedy Queen of Rackets. And with the legalisation of gambling, small-time gangsters like Lou (Burt Lancaster) are the losers; running numbers for the Mob can no longer offer a livelihood.

But aging Lou's life changes abruptly when he becomes involved with Dave (Robert Joy), a young dope dealer, and his estranged wife, the beautiful and ambitious Sally (Susan Sarandon). Working at the Casino oyster bar whilst taking a rigorous course in blackjack dealing, she dreams of a glamorous new life in the casinos of Monte Carlo. When Dave is killed, Lou and Sally find themselves thrown together in a real-life escapade involving love, money, dope and danger.

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From the legendary filmmaking duo Powell and Pressburger, 'The Small Back Room' is the story of the troubled love affair between a tormented back room scientist and a beautiful secretary, told against a background of ministerial intrigue and empire building.

Sammy Rice (David Farrar) was the army's finest bomb disposal officer until he was injured in the war and left with a false foot. Now part of a specialist 'back room' team, he dismantles the booby-trapped devices being dropped by Nazi bombers. He falls in love with Susan (Kathleen Byron), a colleague, and the two begin a secret affair. However, embittered by life, he feels inferior; inferior as a lover, inferior as a man unable to wear uniform; inferior in his work for, although a brilliant scientist, he allows himself to be exploited by his power-hungry boss. Haunted by his past, he drowns his sorrows in whiskey. Sammy's life is descending into disarray when the news comes; a bomb has exploded with catastrophic consequences, and another has been found. Faced with the biggest challenge of his career, Sammy must confront his demons and take his own life in his hands to solve the mystery of the bomb's lethal mechanism.

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In this classic cold war spy spoof, Anthony Perkins plays a Russian spy sent out to steal sensitive information from NATO about military mobilization.

Without much intelligence of his own, he falls head over heels in love with Penelope Lightfeather (Brigitte Bardot) also known as agent 0038-24-36 who aides him as they scamper through the French countryside trying to avoid counter-intelligence agents and distrustful communist operatives. Confusion reigns supreme.

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Jacques (Gérard Oury), a rich industrialist, sneaks around an apartment where he bundles up and disposes of a dead body. His troubles started three months ago, his wife, Gloria (Jeanne Moreau), was having an affair...

To get his revenge he sends Gloria anonymous letters in a scheme to turn her against her lover, a scheme that leads to murder. Ingeniously plotted, this methodical noir by Édouard Molinaro (Witness in the City) bathes in atmospheric chiaroscuro while its pulpy thrills, adapted from the novel by Frédéric Dard (Paris Pick-up), keeps the audience guessing until the final moments.

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Insurance inspector Oliver Branwell (Jack Hawkins) arrives at Lowis Manor to investigate a fire that broke out there on Christmas Eve.

He rings the bell and to his amazement he is face-to-face with Sarah (Arlene Dahl), the woman he once loved in Hong Kong and who one day disappeared from his life for no apparent reason. Love resurfaces and when Tracey (Dennis Price), the owner of the manor and Sarah's husband, dies in a second fire, the couple is reunited. Nevertheless, Oliver suspects Sarah of having tricked him and murdered Tracey with a view to attaining her ends. Fortunately his suspicions are allayed and he can marry Sarah and they are very happy - until a blackmailer starts to prey on them.

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Screen legends Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray star in this timeless, heart-warming Christmas classic that can be enjoyed any time of year! Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is a pretty shoplifter on trial for swiping an expensive bracelet from a local jewellery store.

When her trial is postponed until after New Year, the sympathetic Assistant District Attorney John Sargent (MacMurray) bails her out of jail. When he invites her to his family's home for the holidays, she discovers the warmth and love she's never had but always wanted. Featuring a wonderful supporting cast of Beulah Bondi, Sterling Holloway and Elizabeth Patterson, plus a charming script by Preston Sturges and superb direction by Mitchell Leisen, 'Remember the Night' is a not to be missed classic.

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On a trip to Europe, her prize in a "fixed" beauty contest, Kathy Allen (Arlene Dahl) meet advertising man Tim O'Bannion (Philip Carey), who is attracted by her beauty but repelled by her ruthlessness towards men.

In London, she ruins the career of photographer Larry Buckham (Michael Goodliffe) and compromises Tim's boss Stephen Collins (Herbert Marshall). About to steal Collins from his wife, Kathy learns that the wife's father, elderly John Dowling (Ralph Truman), owns the world-wide advertising agency, so she marries him. Later she accidentally kills him when she mistakes him for a prowler, but she is found guilty of murder and sentenced to die. Will this innocent gold-digger be executed?

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Mark Twain’s unforgettable boyhood hero, is sure to please young and old alike. This vividly nostalgic tale of boyhood adventures in Missouri is timeless, combining danger, young romance, and suspense into one memorable story and outstanding classics.

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Wendy Hiller stars in Powell and Pressburger's classic romantic comedy about a young woman who discovers the true meaning of wealth. Joan Webster has her life mapped out, beginning with marriage to a rich industrialist.

Her plans go wrong when she finds herself stranded on the way to a remote Scottish island and falls in love with a penniless young sailor.

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Criminal mastermind Fantômas (Jean Marais), a man of a thousand faces, is unhappy with Fandor (also Jean Marais), a journalist who's written a fictive interview of him.

He kidnaps Fandor, threatens to kill him, but first goes about ruining the journalist's reputation by committing a sensational crime in Fandor's guise. Hot on the trail is police Commissaire Juve (Louis de Funès), so Fantômas commits a crime looking like him. Soon, our intrepid heroes, Fandor and Juve, with the help of Fandor's girlfriend Hélène (Mylène Demongeot), are on the mastermind's trail, but who's in control?

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The production began in 1948 but would not be completed untill four years later due to financial difficulties.

Without full financing in place Welles would shoot until the money ran out, shut down production while he tried to raise more in acting roles, then reassemble the cast and crew months later. But typically the challenges presented by budgetary constraints only heightened Welles technical flair and imagination behind the camera, resulting in some of the most dramatic scenes and atmospheric scenes he ever shot. In front his portrayal of the doomed Moor was another powerful and charismatic performance. For many years the film was only available in poor prints until 1992 when an original negative was discovered and a $1 million restoration began.

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A group of bombers announce that they have placed speed-triggered bombs aboard a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Hakata, the "Hikari 109". If the train slows below 80km/h, it will be destroyed.

When the terrorists demand five million dollars, the police find themselves in a frantic race against time to find the bombers, defuse the bomb and save the innocent passengers. Pre-dating Speed by almost two decades, The Bullet Train is a gripping, edge of your seat thriller that as well as boasting blistering action sequences also focuses on the simmering political tensions between the civilians, the government and the surprisingly sympathetic bombers. Cult action star Sonny 'Street Fighter' Chiba features as the train operator who must find the device and there's a characteristically stirring performance from Ken Takakura (dubbed the Japanese Clint Eastwood) as a bomber with a serious grudge.

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A key work of German silent cinema and an international smash on its release, E.A. Dupont's Variete (Variety) is an audacious revenge melodrama set under the canvas of the big top.

When Boss Huller (the iconic Emil Jannings) meets the young emigre Berta-Marie (Lya De Putti), it kindles his desire to relaunch his career as a trapeze artist, stalled due to an injury and the pressures of domestic life. But with passion comes obsession, and with the involvement of the famed Artinelli into their act, tensions rise to a fever pitch. Visually astonishing, with some of the most inventive camerawork of the 1920s, and a typically intense and vivid central performance from Jannings.

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Recently released ex-convict Robert Herbin (Robert Hossein) meets Marthe (Lea Massari), a beautiful Italian woman and her daughter. They share some flirtatious glances and then she invites him back to her home where they discover her husband's dead body.

Unable to bear witness to a crime due to his parole Robert flees. Guilty about her situation Robert stays close by where he discovers the body has inexplicably disappeared. With its tender depiction of character and relationships director Marcel Bluwal engineers gripping tension with the expertise of Hitchcock or Clouzot. Adapted from the novel by celebrated crime writer Frédéric Dard (Back to the Wall), 'Paris Pick-up' is released for the first time outside of France.