greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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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.

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Fred Astaire dances through magical musical numbers and teams with George Burns and Gracie Allen in a star turn; this is the creation of a tour-de-force of comedy and laughter.

Graced by the beauty of the legendary Joan Fontaine, playing Lady Alyce Marshmorton the owner of Tottney Castle who finds herself in a romantic dilemma. This film is an interesting slice of 1930' s cinema history and an exemplary light comedy of the period. Reginald Gardner and Montagu Love compliment the cast adding grace, style and a sophisticated atmosphere. All this is done in the devil-may-care madcap style of the louche' world of the thirties.

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Vienna, 1955 - a city under occupation by the four Allied powers. Through the chaos Dr. Falke (Anton Walbrook) moves gracefully - an elegant man-about-town and friend to the highest echelons of power.

He is decidedly less graceful, however, when he is deposited by a friend in the lap of a giant Soviet statue, rather the worse for drink and dressed as a giant bat. Falke swears revenge...

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Roderick Raskolnikov (Peter Lorre) has graduated from university as a noted expert in criminology, but nonetheless lives in extreme poverty. Desperate and anguished, he murders a miserly pawnbroker, stealing her valuables before fleeing into the night.

The next day, he encounters Inspector Porfiry (Edward Arnold), the detective assigned to the murder, and is asked by Porfiry to consult on the case when an innocent man is arrested as a suspect. How long until the conflicted, guilt-ridden Raskolnikov arouses the master detective's suspicions?

Al Roberts (Tom Neal) decides to hitchhike to California to follow his girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake). After discovering one of the drivers who has given him a lift dead, Al assumes his identity for fear of being charged with his murder. This leads him into trouble and blackmail along the way.

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Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) leads a group of Anglican nuns to a remote Himalayan range of mountains, there to set up a mission in an abandoned harem.

This is her first position of authority and she finds both her physical and her spiritual limits being taxed as she has to maintain order and discipline in a claustrophobically hostile environment. Slowly but surely, however, the privations and hardship they must endure, the extremes of climate and the peculiar amorality of the local natives all combine to slowly corrupt the women's faith, pushing them further into jealousy, anger and madness...

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Kitty (Betty Grable) and Jack (Dan Dailey) are a popular husband-and-wife entertainer team making their move from radio to television. However, as exciting as this progress is, they believe their lives will be complete when they can start a family.

But when they decide to adopt - a process fraught with problems and disappointments - they are ultimately rewarded with an overabundance of babies! Peppered with songs and dances, this dazzling film also features a spectacular all-star cast, including Mitzi Gaynor in her first film role.

A young soldier's fast-struck love affair with a New York City nightclub singer, despite his long-standing betrothal to a wealthy childhood friend, provides the catalyst for this dizzying parade of home-front melodrama, comic set-pieces and mind-boggling musical numbers (including 'The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat' and 'The Polka-Dot Polka').