greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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From director Vincent Sherman (Affair in Trinidad) comes the classic drama Harriet Craig, starring Joan Crawford (Strait-Jacket) and Wendell Corey (Rear Window).

Manipulative and possessive Harriet (Crawford) controls every aspect of the lives of her husband Walter (Corey) and cousin Clare (K T Stevens, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice), and schemes to destroy their chances of happiness. However, when they become aware of her treachery, her world begins to fall apart...Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Craig's Wife by George Kelly (The Show-Off), 'Harriet Craig' boasts one of Joan Crawford's most devastating performances.

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The Most Beautiful (1944)
(Ichiban Utsukushiku)
An artful propaganda film that provides a fascinating portrait of female volunteers in the Japanese war effort.

They Who Step On The Tiger's Tail (1945)
(Tora no o ofumu otofeotachi)

A lord and his bodyguard disguise themselves as monks in this classic tale of deception.

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Assistant District Attorney, Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) loves his wife Amanda (Katharine Hepburn), but doesn't care much for his opposing counsel in a sensational attempted-murder trial - an opponent who happens to be Amanda.

Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn were never more evenly matched than when they brought their sharpened wits and prickly affection to this George Cukor-directed comedy written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Judy Holliday co-stars as the woman whose shooting of her philandering spouse becomes a feminist cause for Amanda. Hepburn generously saw Holliday's' work as a screen test for casting the film of Holliday's stage vehicle Born Yesterday. Hepburn's ploy worked. So does this fine, funny movie.

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A masterful mix of film noir and police thriller set on the sweltering mean streets of occupied Tokyo.

When rookie detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) has his pistol stolen from his pocket while on a bus, his frantic attempts to track down the thief lead him to an illegal weapons market in the Tokyo Underworld. But the gun has already passed from the pickpocket to a young gangster, and Murakami's gun is identified as the weapon in the shooting of a woman. Murakami, overwhelmed with remorse, turns for help to his older and more experienced senior, Sato (a superb performance by Takashi Shimura). The race is on to find the shooter before he can strike again...

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Based on the Ed McBain novel, 'High and Low' is a gripping police thriller starring Toshiro Mifune.

Wealthy industrialist Kingo Gondo (Mifune) faces an agonising choice when a ruthless kidnapper, aiming to snatch his young son, takes the chauffeur's boy by mistake - but still demands the ransom, leaving Gondo facing ruin if he pays up. An anatomy of the inequalities in modern Japanese society, High and Low is a complex film noir, where the intense police hunt for the kidnapper is accompanied by penetrating insight into the kidnappers state of mind. Kurosawa's virtuoso direction provides no easy answers, and in short, intense sequences, he portrays the businessman, the police and the criminal as equally brutal but nonetheless human.

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A legendary early masterpiece of French cinema, 'Les Vampires' follows the exploits of a nefarious band of master criminals led by the seductive femme fatale Irma Vep, alluringly played by Musidora.

Holding Paris in the grip of terror, the underworld gang are pursued across the city by heroic journalist Philippe Guerande and his sidekick Mazamatte. Reflecting the mood of fear and anxiety in World War I era France, this meticulously restored ten-part silent serial from film pioneer Louis Feuillade - creator the acclaimed Fantomas serials - is a hugely influential and engrossing crime drama from cinema's golden age.

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Joe Wilson, a wrongly jailed man thought to have died in a blaze started by a bloodthirsty lynch mob, is somehow alive. And dead to all he ever stood for and perhaps ever will be. Because Joe aims to ensure his would-be executioners meet the fate Joe miraculously escaped.

Spencer Tracy is Joe, Sylvia Sidney is his bride-to-be and "Fury" lives up to its volatile name with its searing indictment of mob justice and lynching.

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Rex Black (Laurence Harvey) has successfully faked his death in a plane crash and escaped to sunny Málaga under a new identity, waiting for his wife Stella (Lee Remick) to arrive with £50,000 of life insurance money.

It's the start of a blissful, trouble-free new life for the couple - until Stephen (Alan Bates), the insurance agent in charge of investigating Rex's death, suddenly arrives in town. Is he just holidaying in Spain, as he claims, or is he on assignment to foil Rex's scheme?

One of the most gripping escape films of all time follows ten survivors as they struggle to escape from an ocean liner capsized by a tidal wave. Suspenseful terror, combined with the victims' intimate and personal stories, results in compelling and heart-stopping drama.

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'Champagne Charlie' is an affectionate behind the scenes look at the colourful life and characters in the music halls of 1860s Victorian England directed by Ealing regular Alberto Cavalcanti (Nicholas Nickleby, Went the Day Well?).

When word leaks out that the music halls are going to be closed down because of their boisterous and unruly reputation, two rivals join forces in a desperate attempt to save the hall from closure.

Richard Burton stars as Marcellus Gallio, the Roman centurion charged with overseeing the crucifixion of Christ. But when he wins Christ's robe in a gambling game at the foot of the cross, his life is forever changed.

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Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper star in this comedic drama about a crime spree that leads to love. In the most elaborate jewel heist in European history, the beautiful and conniving "Countess" Madeline (Dietrich) embezzles a small fortune in pearls.

As she makes her getaway to Spain to deliver the hot goods, her escape is thwarted by car trouble, until a handsome and likeable young tourist (Cooper) helps her out. She shows her gratitude by leaving the unsuspecting good Samaritan in the dust - literally! But when he accidentally ends up with the pearls, she must feign romantic interest to get them back. The charade soon turns into the real thing however; and Madeline realises that her only hope of happiness is to clean up her act - no matter what the cost - or lose the man she loves.

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Made in 1954, 'Godzilla' was Japan's first foray into big budget sci fi - costing ten times the budget of the average Japanese feature and twice as much as Seven Samurai - released the same year.

The film created a monster that would enter the lexicon of popular culture, spawn fifty years of sequels and inspire a new genre: the kaiju eiga or Japanese monster movie. Directed by Ishiro Honda, a friend and collaborator of Akira Kurosawa, and starring Takashi Shimura as the revered paleontologist who uncovers the horrible secret at the heart of the monster (Godzilla is a long dormant Jurassic beast awoken by the atom bomb), the original Godzilla is a fierce indictment of the atomic age. Sold to an American distributor, the film was cut, dubbed into English, re-titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters! and new scenes were added starring Raymond Burr as an American reporter observing the monsters rampage from the sidelines. All trace of the anti-nuclear message was excised in the American version. Now regarded as one of the great classics of cinema and still rated amongst the top twenty Japanese movies of all time, the original Godzilla is perhaps the definitive monster movie - both a bold metaphor for the atomic age and a thrilling tour de force of pioneering special effects.

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Delphine's travelling companion cancels two weeks before her holiday, so Delphine (Marie Rivière), a Parisian secretary, is at a loose end. She doesn't want to travel by herself, but has no means boyfriend and seems unable to meet new people.

A friend takes her to Cerbourg; after a few days there, the weepy and self pitying Delphine goes back to Paris. She tries the Alps, but returns the same day. Next, it's the beach; once there, she chats with an outgoing Swede, a party girl, and a friendship seems to bud; then suddenly, Delphine bolts, heading back to Paris. On her way, a young man catches her eye; perhaps a sunset and the sun's green ray await.

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Perhaps the crowning achievement of Bunuel's career, the film centres on an idealistic young nun named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal).

Before she is allowed to take her final vows, the Mother Superior requests that she visit her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who has "selflessly" provided for the girl over the years. Having always considered him an unspeakable beast, she is surprised when he graciously welcomes her into his home. Just as graciously, he sets about to corrupt Viridiana beyond redemption - all because the girl resembles the wife that died on their wedding day.