greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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Producer-Director Otto Preminger's epic treatment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor details the devastating attack on the Hawaiian naval base as well as the explosive, behind-the-scenes stories.

An awesome cast ­ including John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Henry Fonda, Carroll O'Connor, Burgess Meredith, Paula Prentiss, Dana Andrews and a host of other notables ­ is interwoven into this account of the attack itself, as well as into the triumphs and tragedies of disobeyed orders, the American counter-offensive, father-son reunions, battles at sea, and layers of romantic entanglements. It's a story that's been told and re-told, but perhaps never so completely.

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Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) is drowning his sorrows after yet another fight with his wife. At a local bar, he meets a woman and they strike up a conversation. Sensing the woman is also feeling down and not wishing to be alone, he invites her to the theatre.

She agrees under one condition; she does not wish to divulge her name, preferring to remain anonymous. When Henderson returns home he finds police officers waiting for him. His wife has been murdered, strangled with one of his neckties, and he is the main suspect. Maintaining his innocence he suggests they go back and speak with someone who might provide an alibi. But no one seems to remember the mysterious lady. Charged with the murder of his wife, it seems Scott Henderson will face the electric chair if he cannot prove his innocence. His only hope just might be his loyal secretary Carol "Kansas" Richman (Ella Raines). Can she find the phantom lady before it's too late?

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After his release from the asylum, to celebrate his return to the real world, Neale (Ray Milland) visits a local carnival, only to accidentally receive the "prize" of a cake which was meant for a Nazi agent.

When he discovers the error, he turns for help to a detective, whose investigations only serve to make the situation more complicated. Neale soon winds up on the run from both the Nazis and the police, who mistakenly believe him guilty of murder. He is led to Scotland Yard, where his fate entwines further with a Nazi front organization, and an unlikely love affair.

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"Speedy" was the last silent feature to star Harold Lloyd - and one of his very best. The slapstick legend reprises his "Glasses Character', this time as a good-natured but scatterbrained New Yorker who can't keep a job.

He finally finds his true calling when he becomes determined to help save the city's last horse-drawn streetcar, which is operated by his sweetheart's crusty grandfather. From its joyous visit to Coney Island to its incredible Babe Ruth cameo to its hair-raising climactic stunts on the city's streets, Speedy is an out-of-control love letter to New York that will have you grinning from ear to ear.

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Dana Andrews stars as Mark Dixon, a corrupt cop, in this gritty noir thriller shot on the rain-slicked streets of New York. Already in trouble for his brutal methods, alienated from his colleagues, he pursues a gang leader with vindictive zeal and accidentally kills a possible murder suspect.

His guilt deepens when he falls in love with the dead man's wife and her father, an innocent cab driver, finds himself accused of the murder. Dixon finds the ultimate redemption - at a price. Otto Preminger brings a welcome sympathy and complexity to every character on-screen, from the nervous police informer through to the cocky mobster, the exasperated police chief, and Dixon himself, burdened with self-hatred as the son of a thief. Joseph LaShelle's photography lends a seedy glamour to the run-down lodging houses, cheap cafe's and night-time exteriors.

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Clift stars as George Eastman, a poor young man determined to win a place in respectable society and the heart of a beautiful socialite (Elizabeth Taylor).

Shelley Winters plays the factory girl whose dark secret threatens Eastman's professional and romantic prospects; consumed with fear and desire, Eastman is ultimately driven to a desperate act of passion that unravels his world forever...

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The comic genius of silent star Harold Lloyd is eternal. Chaplin is the sweet innocent, Keaton the stoic outsider, but Lloyd - the modern guy striving for success - is us. And with its torrent of perfectly executed gags and astonishing stunts, Safety Last! is the perfect introduction to him.

Lloyd plays a small-town bumpkin / trying to make it in the big city, who finds employment as a lowly department-store clerk. He comes up with a wild publicity stunt to draw attention to the store, resulting in an incredible feat of derring-do on his part that gets him started on the climb to success. Laugh-out-loud funny and jaw-dropping in equal measure, Safety Last! is a movie experience par excellence, anchored by a genuine legend.

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"All That Jazz" is actually a semi-autobiographical account of the life of its celebrated writer/director/choreographer, Bob Fosse. The multi-talented performer was an Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award winner who brought home a combined total of eight trophies.

Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane is the Academy Award - winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business, played by Roy Schneider. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.

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After the Civil War, ranch owner Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) leads a drive of ten thousand cattle out of an impoverished Texas to the richer markets of Missouri, alongside his adopted son Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift) and a team of ranch hands.

As the conditions worsen, and Dunson's control over his cattlemen gets ever more merciless, a rebellion begins to grow within the travelling party.

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Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart ride high in this superb comedic western, both a boisterous spoof and a shining example of its genre.

As the brawling, rough-and-tumble saloon singer Frenchy, Dietrich shed her exotic love-goddess image and launched a triumphant career comeback, while Stewart cemented his amiable every-man persona, in his first of many westerns, with a charming turn as a gun-abhorring deputy sheriff who uses his wits to bring law and order to the frontier town of Bottleneck. A sparkling script, a supporting cast of virtuoso character actors, and rollicking musical numbers - delivered with unmatched bravado by the magnetic Dietrich - come together to create an irresistible, oft-imitated marvel of studio-era craftsmanship.

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Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein Il's immortal musical adaptation of Edna Ferber's sprawling novel receives its most faithful and enduring cinematic treatment under the elegant direction of James Whale.

A rich portrait of changing American entertainment traditions and race relations, 'Show Boat' spans five decades and three generations as it follows the fortunes of the stage struck Magnolia (Irene Dunne), an aspiring actor whose journey takes her from her family's humble floating playhouse in the 1880's South to the bright footlights of the 1930's North. The cast of show-business legends includes Helen Morgan, Hattie McDaniel, Charles Winninger, and the great Paul Robeson, whose iconic, soul-shaking rendition of "Ol' Man River" is one of the crowning glories of the American stage and screen.

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New York's Harlem slum, Hell's Kitchen, is no place for a stranger. It's a desperate, decaying ghetto throbbing with gangland tension, where restless teenage rebels are willing to risk their life to protect their turf.

But when members of the notorious Thunderbird gang venture into an opposing neighbourhood and stab to death a Puerto Rican boy, Assistant District Attorney Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) is determined to uncover the real motivation behind such a cold blooded act.

In this outrageous screwball comedy, a voluptuous secretary and her handsome boss can't stop themselves from engaging in a little monkey business after a chimpanzee accidentally concocts, then dumps, an anti-ageing formula into the office water cooler.

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Legendary producer-director Howard Hawks teams with two equally legendary stars, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, in this classic Western drama.

Mitchum plays to perfection an alcoholic but gutsy sheriff who relentlessly battles the dark side of the wild West, ruthless cattle barons and crooked "businessmen". 'The Duke' gives an equally adept performance as the sheriff's old friend who knows his way around a gunfight.

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Frontiersman Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) is travelling up the wide Missouri river with his best friend Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin) to trade with the Black Feet Indians.

Boone's uncle Zeb (Arthur Hunnicutt) is travelling with them; he's returning kidnapped Black Foot princess Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) to her people. It's a perilous journey, pitting them against the brutal elements and rival traders who want them dead and just when their troubles couldn't get even worse - Jim realises he's in love with Teal Eye.