greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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McNeil (Sebastian Cabot) is a greedy hotel owner who wants to take control of Prairie City, the Texas town of the title. Keen to drive the local farmers off their land, McNeil hires a gunman, Johnny Crale (Nedrick Young), resulting in the death of a former whaler.

The dead man's son, George Hansen (Sterling Hayden), arrives in town to inherit the farm and set the stage for revenge - armed with only his father's old harpoon...

Melissa McCarthy is masterful in the captivating account - based on a true story - of a down-and-out writer who resorts to lies, deceit and outright crime to get back on top.

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Set in the uncertain years after the Civil War, John Chandler (Alan Ladd) journeys north to seek medical help for his young son who, since witnessing a horrific incident during the war, has been unable to speak.

Chandler finds himself sentenced to 30 days in jail after wrongly being accused of starting a brawl with two brothers from a powerful local ranching family - the Burleighs. A local woman who witnessed the fight, Linnett Moore (Olivia de Havilland) comes to the father and son's rescue and pays the fine in exchange for 30 days work on her farm but it seems Chandler isn't the only one to have had a run-in with the Burleigh family. Linnett's farm borders the Burleigh property and they're going to take her land whatever the cost.

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The controversial subject of evolution versus creation causes two polar opposites to engage in one explosive battle of beliefs.

Attorney Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) faces off against fundamentalist leader Matthew Harrison Brady (Frederic March) in a small Tennessee town where a teacher has been brought to trial for teaching Darwinism. Let the trial begin...and watch the sparks fly!

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The morning after Julia Ross (Nina Foch) takes a job in London as secretary to wealthy widow Mrs. Williamson Hughes (Dame May Whitty), she wakes up in a windswept Cornish mansion, having been drugged. Mrs.

Hughes and her volatile son, Ralph (George Macready), attempt to gaslight Julia into believing she is Ralph's wife, Marion. Her belongings have been destroyed, the windows barred and the locals believe that she is mad. Will Julia be able to escape before she falls prey to the Hughes sinister charade? And what happened to the real Marion Hughes?

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Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Lucile Ball, Gail Patrick and Andrea Leeds star as a bevy of highly-strung showgirls and nightclub dancers hoping to make it big on Broadway.

As they compete for auditions and try to avoid the casting couch of Anthony Powell (Adolphe Menjou), this group of tough-talking actresses develops a female camaraderie based on intense rivalry, snappy dialogue and one-liners that would put down even the most hardened Broadway producer. As both romantic and artistic entanglements ensue, the girls soon learn that in the world of the theatre, the real drama takes place backstage...

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Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon and Fred Astaire star in this wonderfully entertaining 1960s comedy mystery set in London.

When young William Gridley (Jack Lemmon) arrives in London to work under diplomat Franklyn Ambruster (Fred Astaire), he rents an apartment from the lovely Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak) - unaware that the police suspect her of having poisoned her husband. When Carly's missing husband mysteriously reappears... and then is murdered... a neighbour helps her escape a murder charge. But then the trouble really starts...

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Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz.

Its iconic performance by Joan Crawford as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford's career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent's tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain's rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.

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An ambitious but unscrupulous lawyer (John Garfield) works for the mob, and scents the prospect of a personal fortune when he helps concoct a plan that will merge all of New York City's numbers rackets into a single powerful and unbreakable operation.

But one of them is run by his own brother (Thomas Gomez), who is much happier as an independent, mainly because it allows him to apply his own ethical standards to prevent innocent people from being corrupted by his shady activities. And it's the Cain-and-Abel clash between them that gives the film its tragic dimension.

Errol Flynn portrays a flight medical researcher and Fred MacMurray plays a squadron commander, flyboys who put differences aside and risk all to confront the problems of blackout-inducing G-forces and high-altitude sickness.

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Folks in Black Rock have their own way of welcoming mysterious, one-armed stranger John J. Macreedy. He's welcome to leave. Or they'll make sure he leaves in a pine box.

Two-time Academy Award winner Spencer Tracy plays World War II veteran Macreedy, who keeps his own counsel about why he's come to Black Rock and who keeps his wits about him when confronted with threats and violence. Director John Sturges ramps up the tension while revealing Macreedy's mission and the town's grim secret. Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are among the town's thugs and lap dogs.

Clarence Day is a free-thinking man. He's a churchgoer, but he will not be baptized, no matter what his wife says. Or will he? .

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When her father threatens to annul her marriage to a fortune-hunting playboy, spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) hops on a cross-country bus to New York, where she plans to live happily ever after with her handsome new hubby.

Romantic complications however, when she's befriended by fellow passenger Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a brash and breezy reporter who offers his help in exchange for her exclusive story.

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This Powell and Pressburger classic is widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made.

Vicky Page (Moira Shearer), a young ballerina, becomes torn between her love for composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and artistic devotion to her profession, which is dominated by impresario Lermontov.

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Casablanca: easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if your name is on the Nazis' most-wanted list. A top that list is Czech Resistance leader VIctor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one...

especially Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart. So when Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's safe transport out of the country, the bitter Rick must decide what's more important - his own happiness or the countless lives that hang in the balance.