greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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"Corvette K-225" is a stirring salute to the heroism of the Corvette crews and commanders who steered Allied convoys through the treacherous, U-Boat-infested Atlantic ocean throughout WWII. The story follows a particularly perilous voyage from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Britain.

The nail-biting tension is heightened by our knowledge that the film uses actual historic sea combat footage! Better known previously for his 'tall in the saddle' Western roles, Randolph Scott brings dignity and restraint to the role of a heroic Canadian Navy commander in what's possibly his finest performance. In addition to the thrilling battle scenes, as the doughty Corvette strives to protect the convoys from attack after attack, the film has far greater emotional maturity and depth than most Hollywood wartime action films.

Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), naive insurance man. Falls for the seductive charms of his beautiful client Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) Together they plot to get rid of her dull husband and collect on the "double indemnity" life policy.

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Kelly plays an ex-GI who loves Paris and loves even more an alluring (but engaged) perfume-shop clerk. Dance sequences spun around Gershwin songs accent Kelly's romantic pursuit. And the final 17-minute ballet - combining the title symphony.

Impressionist set stylings and Kelly's unique talent for telling a story in dance - lifts this winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture into the ether of timelessness. Love Is Here To Stay Kelly sings. So is An American In Paris.

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"Beauty and the Beast " is a landmark feat of cinematic fantasy in which master filmmaker Jean Cocteau conjures spectacular visions of enchantment, desire and death that have never been equalled.

Josette Day is luminous yet feisty as Beauty, and Jean Marais gives one of his best performances as the Beast, at once brutal and gentle, rapacious and vulnerable, shamed and repelled by his own bloodlust. Henri Alekan's subtle black and white cinematography combine with Christian Berard's masterly costumes and set designs to create a magical piece of cinema, a children's fairytale refashioned into a stylised and highly sophisticated dream.

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A double bill of James Bond spoofs.

Our Man Flint (1966)

Move over, 007. The U.S. has a secret agent even braver, even smarter and even more popular with the ladies. His name: Derek Flint (James Coburn). On his first cinematic secret mission, Secret Agent Flint faces off against the most dangerous weapon of all, the weather! An evil organization called Galaxy has learned how to send icebergs crashing into the Mediterranean, to flood whole valleys and even to cause volcanoes to erupt on cue. To save the world, Flint must first overcome the beautiful but deadly Gila (Gila Golan), Galaxy's top agent. It's a task that demands all of Flint's awesome powers of deduction, destruction and - most of all - seduction.
In Like Flint (1967)
Flint is back. Derek Flint (James Coburn), that is. This time, the all-round genius, super secret agent and supreme ladies' man really has his hands full. A group of wealthy and powerful female tycoons has developed a way of brainwashing women through beauty salon hair dryers! With all the women of the world enslaved, this power-hungry group is able to commandeer the United States' first "space platform" and then replace the President (Andrew Duggan) with their own surgically reproduced clone! From their secret headquarters in the Virgin Islands, a lavish spa called "Fabulous Face", they plan to use nuclear energy to force the entire world into submission.

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Eben Adams (Joseph Cotten) is a struggling and mostly failing New York artist until one day, in Central Park, he meets Jennie (Jennifer Jones).

Jennie seems to possess an almost mystical quality and as Eben sketches her, his work shows more expression and emotion than anything he has ever done before. But before he knows it, Jennie has disappeared. Eben frantically searches for his mysterious model and when they meet again a few weeks later, Jennie seems to have aged several years. What then unfolds is one of the most unusual and unforgettable love stories ever told as they are both swept up in a strange love that even time cannot contain.

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Ruthless criminals, a dedicated honest cop, sultry women and a gripping plot - all the elements of a classic police action-drama are here in force. Police Sergeant Bannion (Glenn Ford) is investigating the apparent suicide of a corrupt cop, then is suddenly ordered to stop - and The Big Heat is on.

Driven to unravel the mystery, Bannion continues probing until an explosion meant for him, kills his wife. He resigns from he force and soon learns that behind it all is the powerful underworld led by Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and his cold-blooded henchman, Vince Stone (Lee Marvin). When Stone's girl Debby (Gloria Grahame) makes a play for Bannion, Stone disfigures her face and in revenge, she tells all she knows. A life-or-death confrontation between Bannion and Stone brings this classic film noir thriller to a climatic unmissable finale!

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Josef von Sternberg - the innovative director with an unmatched eye for detail and a reputation for his intensity - brings to life this vulnerable tale of human trauma, survival and redemption.

Set during the dying stages of World War II, 'The Saga of Anatahan' tells the story of twelve Japanese seaman stranded on a forgotten island for seven years. Accompanied only by Keiko (Akemi Negishi), a young Japanese woman, all rationality and discipline are soon overcome by a struggle for power and control over Keiko's affections. Narrated by Sternberg himself, the director positions himself as the story's unconscious viewpoint amidst his othertrademark qualities: lush mise-en-scene, theatrical lighting and bleak yet poignant storytelling.

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Bergman's masterpiece of self-doubt, identity and eroticism is an audacious example of cinematic art. The notional story centres on newly mute actor Elisabet (Liv Ullmann) recuperating at her coastal holiday home in the care of a nurse, Alma (Bibi Andersson).

As tensions between the pair grow, their very selves seem to blur, chronology becomes uncertain and what is real and unreal loses significance. Yet the true impact of Persona goes beyond mere storytelling, touching, as Bergman said, 'wordless secrets that only the cinema can discover'.

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In the 18th century, Sophie Dorothea (Joan Greenwood) Is forced into marriage with Prince George Louis (Peter Bull), an aristocrat destined to inherit the British crown.

But after he becomes king, Sophie meets suave Swedish mercenary Count Philip Konigsmark (Stewart Granger) - the two quickly fall in love and plot to flee England together. Their scheme is discovered, and the lovers must figure out a way to escape the tightening noose of retribution.

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A double bill of films by the popular 1930's comedian...

International House (1933)

A Chinese scientist invents TV, and agents gather in the remote Chinese city to buy the rights. Tommy Nash (Stuart Erwin) is in trouble with his fiancée Carol (Sari Maritza) because his illnesses deeps postponing their wedding; playgirl Peggy (Peggy Hopkins Joyce) evades jealous ex-husband Petronovich (Bela Lugosi) and pursues rich Professor Quail (W.C. Fields). Much of the movie is old-time radio comedy and musical acts, made visible by the 'radioscope'.
Million Dollar Legs (1932)
Aviator Professor Quail (W.C. Fields) lands of a hotel roof in Wu Hu, China, where international representatives are bidding for a new television device. Quail's attention is diverted by much-married Peggy Hopkins Joyce, who is in turn attracted to the wealthy flyer. The mechanical television provides an excuse to present various acts of the period.

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This enthralling, erotic tale of a young millionaire and his mysterious bride is bewitching, exciting and beautiful.

Written and directed by legendary cinematic genius Francois Truffaut and featuring European superstars Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo, 'Mississippi Mermaid' is nothing less than breathtaking. Beauty is by no means rare on the lush, tropical Isle de Reunion. yet when island resident and tobacco tycoon Louis Mahe first meets Julie Rouselle - his mail order fiancée - he's completely enraptured by her radiance. But it soon becomes clear that Julie is hiding a dark secret. And when she disappears without a trace, Louis vows to stop at nothing to find her - a resolution that lures him into a tangled web of relentless obsession, uncontrollable passion, and ultimately...cold-blooded murder!

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A little orphan boy Wheeler (Andrew Ray) who survives by scavenging on the River Thames, decides to walk to Windsor Castle to see Queen Victoria (Irene Dunne).

For many years, Queen Victoria has shut herself away in the castle, in mourning for her beloved husband Albert (Michael Brooke) - and England is suffering. Despite the best advice of Prime Minister Disraeli (Alec Guinness) and her close friend John Brown (Finlay Currie), the queen refuses to return to her people. Can one small and desperately lonely child change her heart when the highest in the land have failed?

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California surgeon Dr. Mike Parker (Rock Hudson) is away at a conference in New York, having a drink in a bar, when he is introduced to a caricaturist named Victor (George Sanders) in the company of Mike's German ex-wife Lisa (Cornell Borchers).

Lisa, panicked, darts from the bar - and is run over by a car. As Mike treats her wounds and aids her recovery, the story of their love affair, marriage and painful parting is retold. Lisa, now living under an assumed name, went missing, presumed dead, eight years earlier after being trapped in the Russian quarter of post-war Vienna, where Mike was serving as a US Army medic. Visiting her father, whose home lies behind the Iron Curtain, Lisa is arrested for breaking a curfew. Word leaks back to the Allied side that her father is dead and, fearing the worst, Mike is persuaded to return to America to raise their young daughter Suzy (Shelley Fabares). Back in the present, a still frail and recuperating Lisa agrees to accompany Mike back to his California home, but Suzy gets hysterical, refusing to believe any suggestion that her mother can have come back into her life. Can the family be pieced back together, or is it best for everyone that they leave the past behind?

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"Mary Queen of Scots" explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan). Queen of France at 16, widowed at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry and instead returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne.

By birth, she also has a rival claim to the throne of Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie), who rules as the Queen of England. Determined to rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth's sovereignty. Rivals in power and in love, the two Queens make very different choices about marriage and children. Betrayal, rebellion and conspiracies within each court imperil both Queens - driving them apart, as each woman experiences the bitter cost of power.