greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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When man-about-town Saheiji (Frankie Sakai) finds himself unable to pay for a bill at a brothel, he is forced to remain there to work off his debt.

However he finds his wit and resourcefulness enable him to turn this situation to his advantage, as he interacts with a whole range of characters, from rivaling courtesans to political activists.

She loves him when he goes away for months. She loves him when he refuses to marry her. But when callow David Sutton (Van Heflin) chooses to marry someone else, Louise Howell's (Joan Crawford) love for him takes a darker turn. Give her a gun and she'll love him to death.

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The story centers on the O'Leary family, pioneer settlers whose eldest boys achieve notoriety and power in bustling Chicago. After Jack (Don Ameche) gets elected mayor with the help of his popular brother Dion (Tyrone Power), the two lock horns over the future of Chicago's slums.

Using his cabaret singer wife (Alice Faye) as a pawn in their dispute, Dion accelerates their intense rivalry as the whole town takes sides. It is not until a massive fire wipes out all of old Chicago that the O'Learys' lives are changed forever.

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Bearing the burden of her father’s debt and desperate to pay for the completion of her brother’s education, young Ayako (Isuzu Yamada) becomes a mistress to her employer.

Although circumstances seem to conspire against her, Ayako attempts to hide the truth from her family and fiance and preserve her reputation.

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Karl (Tim Holt) and Anna (Bonita Granville) are childhood sweethearts growing up together in pre-war Berlin. As the Nazis increase their stranglehold on power, the couple are torn apart. Karl graduates from the Hitler Youth to become an officer in the dreaded Gestapo.

Anna chooses to rebel against her masters and is given a stark choice breed and have babies for the Third Reich or face enforced sterilisation. Her American colleague Professor Nichols (Kent Smith) battles to get Anna out of Germany, but ultimately her fate - and her life - will depend on the boy she once loved...

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When college nostalgia inspires a group of middle-aged businessmen to match-make for the widow - played with measured dignity by Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story) - of one of their friends and her daughter, they have no idea of the strife their careless interference will cause.

Late Autumn's examination of familial upheaval moves effortlessly from comedy to pathos and is amongst the finest of legendary director Yasujiro Ozu's post-war films.

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Jean Vigneron's manservant is blackmailing his boss, who is having an affair with Ines de Montalban. The servant is murdered. Everyone accuses Vigneron, who keeps quiet so as not to compromise his lover. His innocence proved, Vigneron flees with Ines.

Montalban, the cheated husband, tries to forget them, but sinks into debauchery. Despite ordeals in an unwelcoming Africa, love conquers all.

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Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) is a wealthy Manhattan debutante who is notorious for headline grabbing pranks. One night, Melsa notices a man running out of a supposedly deserted house and goes to investigate.

She discovers a body, but when the police eventually arrive the body has disappeared and Lieutenant Brent (Sam Levene) accuses Melsa of playing one of her jokes. High-flying newspaper reporter, Peter Ames (Henry Fonda), picks up the story and prints an article ridiculing the 'Park Avenue Pranksters'. But Melissa knows there is a killer on the loose and drags Ames all over Manhattan to find him...

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The letter of the title is written with a poisonous pen: the three women (portrayed by Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern) receive a note stating that one of their husbands has run off with a woman named Addie Ross - which husband in particular, however, remains unmentioned, though each

husband had their own affinity for Ross. And so amid the women's mounting anxiety commences a series of flashbacks, each telling the story of how the three individual marriages had come in their own way to be so strained at the present...

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To escape the burdens of rule, Sweden's Queen Christina rides into the countryside disguised as a boy. There she meets and secretly falls for a dashing Spanish envoy on his way to the royal court.

Imagine the envoy's delighted surprise when he and the young "nobleman" must share a bed at an overcrowded inn.

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Marlene Dietrich is Agent X-27, the Mata Hari of Austria, in this exciting tale of espionage and romance, also starring Victor McLaglen. A widow forced to turn to prostitution to support herself, Dietrich is solicited by the Austrian Secret Service to become a special agent.

With her ample charms and extraordinary beauty, she ferrets out secrets from the enemy, saving thousands of lives and altering the course of the war. But she meets her mental match in a Russian agent named Kranau (Victor McLaglen), who continually outwits her and proves to be her downfall. Dietrich pays the ultimate price for falling in love with the debonair spy in this Josef von Sternberg hit.

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Double bill of USA classics.

Shockproof (1949)

Having served a five year stretch in prison for her part in a murder, Jenny Marsh (Patricia Knight) is released into the custody of parole officer Griff Marat (Cornel Wilde), who offers her the prospect of a new life with his support. One of the conditions of Jenny's parole is that she no longer sees her former boyfriend, Harry Wesson (John Baragrey), a gambler and crook for whom she was willing to go to jail. Still in love with Wesson, Jenny feels bound to continue seeing him, in spite of Marat's warnings that she risks going straight back to prison. Jenny soon finds herself torn between her former lover and Marat, who shows her nothing but kindness and respect. When Wesson threatens to tell Marat of her promise to escape with him, Jenny shoots him in a moment of madness. Unable to turn Jenny over to the police, Marat decides to help her escape across the state border. In doing so, he knows that he himself has become an outlaw. But it is too late to turn back.
Scandal Sheet (1952)
Broderick Crawford plays tabloid editor Mark Chapman, whose burgeoning success is threatened by the arrival of his wife Charlotte (Rosemary DeCamp), whom he deserted 20 years earlier. Hoping to keep Charlotte's mouth shut, Chapman accidentally kills her. He does his best to cover his tracks, but his best is none too good, and another murder follows. Meanwhile, Chapman's star reporter Steve McCleary (John Derek) is busy investigating the still-unsolved murder of Charlotte. Though Steve holds no grudge against his boss, the same cannot be said of feature writer Julie Allison (Donna Reed), who resents Chapman's sensationalist methods. Slowly but surely, the noose tightens around Chapman's neck, thanks to the diligence of McCleary and, indirectly, the inquiries of Julie.

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Set against the background of Spain's Carnaval, young army officer Antonio Galvin (Cesar Romero) is warned against getting involved with the seductive and sultry Concha Perez (Marlene Dietrich), whom he has just encountered.

Although Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill), the older officer warning him, tries his best to dissuade the younger man, telling him of her gold-digging ways, his pleas fall on deaf ears as Antonio soon becomes bewitched. When, days later, he stumbles upon the couple in the street, all of Pasqual's past jealousies and hurt resurface, forcing him to confront Antonio in a final, desperate bid for Concha's love.

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Pin up queen Betty Grable has the title role in this splashy musical that features Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown and Eugene Pallette. Grable is front and centre as Lorry Jones, a secretary whose penchant for stretching the truth often gets her into trouble.

When she falls in love with a war hero (John Harvey) who thinks she's an actress (and then also becomes his secretary), she's really got her hands full! While Lorry struggles to unravel this impossibly complicated situation, we're treated to one dazzling production number after another, plus an array of imaginative sets and colourful costumes.

During the filming of The Seven Year Itch, while Hollywood censors kept a careful eye on the notoriously racy production, Marilyn was pure perfection as a sexy, yet innocent, starlet living upstairs from a married man who had just sent his wife and son away for the summer.