greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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El Cid, Bronstons epic movie masterpiece, is a tribute to one of history's greatest legends.

This dazzling spectacle, with a cast of thousands, fills the screen with action and romance - from knights in armour jousting on horseback to massive battles on sea and land, where columns of warriors stretch across the horizon. At the centre of this powerful motion picture is Charlton Heston in the role he was born to play the immortal El Cid. Heston is the Spanish warrior with the vision to be just and the courage to be merciful, whose love and devotion to the radiant Chimene (Sophia Loren) knows no bounds.

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Peter Brook's bold adaptation of John Gay's opera - a cynical satire of eighteenth century London life.

This weird and wonderful movie version of the first ever English musical to be written boasts a gloriously outlandish set and characters adorned in stunning primary colours that will dazzle and delight. A period piece that remains true to its original form, it features non-stop sing-along songs, spirited melodies and a real sense of embellished drama. The story follows the escapades of a jailed highwayman and stars Laurence Olivier, Dorothy Tutin and Stanley Holloway.

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Set in a small Nevada town where tensions are running high thanks to a spate of cattle rustling, things reach boiling point when cowboy Larry Kinkaid is murdered.

With the sheriff out of town, the residents form a posse and head to Ox-Bow Canyon to find the three men they believe to be guilty - including Dana Andrews and Anthony Quinn in early major roles - and enact their own form of justice.

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The State Department wants Ethel Barrymore to represent the American theatre at an arts exposition in Paris. But Miss Ethel Barrymore's invitation goes instead to Miss Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson, a very blonde, very brassy chorus girl.

And she's going to give Paris an Eiffel! Doris Day and Ray Bolger star in this musical bonbon highlighted by the Vernon Duke/E.Y. Harburg title tune and a high-kicking, bell-ringing rendition of the Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn 'I'm Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight'. Day is pure TNT as Dynamite and Bolger's rubbery comic artistry ideally complements her. He's the stuffy bureaucrat who mismailed the Barrymore missive - and now has a stateroom full of Dynamite on his hands for a Paris-bound ocean voyage.

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Boasting an enchanting musical score and stunning colour cinematography, 'Can't Help Singing' stars Deanna Durbin as Caroline Frost, the headstrong daughter of a powerful Senator at the height of the American gold rush.

When her father has her boyfriend, an officer in the US Cavalry, posted far away on the Frontier to break up their relationship, Caroline heads way out West to be reunited with him. Travelling by stagecoach and wagon train, she soon starts to encounter some of the shadier characters populating the Wild West. However, as she journeys towards her boyfriend's frontier fort, she begins to realise that her heart may actually belong to another... Featuring four great songs from Deanna Durbin "Can't Help Singing", "Any Moment Now", "More and More" and "Cal-i-for-ni-ay", 'Can't Help Singing' captures Deanna at her musical best.

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Jane Wyman plays drama student Eve Gill, who tries to clear a friend (Richard Todd) being framed for murder by becoming the maid of flamboyant stage star Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich).

Filming in his native England, Hitchcock merrily juggles elements of humour and whodunit and puts a game ensemble (Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Joyce Grenfell, Kay Walsh and daughter Patricia Hitchcock) through its paces. No one turns a theatre into a bastion of dread like Hitchcock and 'Stage Fright' is proof positive.

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Our spine-chilling story begins within the nightmarish confines of a rundown funeral parlour. Things haven't been going too well for the ruthless and menacing undertaker Waldo Trumball and his creepy assistant Felix Gillie.

Not enough people seem to be dying these days and they're running low on customers and rent. Maybe it's time to take things into their own cold hands and drum up a little business themselves?

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Ernest Hemingway s spare, laconic short story about two professional killers and their encounter with a mysteriously unresisting victim was significantly expanded into this all-time film noir classic, which Hemingway said was the first adaptation of his work that he really admired.

As washed-up boxer turned hitman victim Ole 'Swede' Andreson, Burt Lancaster made his screen debut, and was catapulted to instant stardom, not least for the screen chemistry that he showed opposite sultry Ava Gardner, whose Kitty Collins is the very personification of the femme fatale. German émigré Robert Siodmak was one of the filmmakers who helped create film noir, and Elwood Bredell s high-contrast cinematography, all harsh lighting and long shadows, elevates the film far above a conventional crime drama. But even on that level it s a first-rate demonstration of how to maintain narrative tension, with the flashback structure withholding crucial details until almost the very end.

In this vivid snapshot of Weimar life, a group of young Berliners enjoy a typical lazy Sunday, including a trip to the city's suburban lakes. Flirtations, rivalries and petty jealousies ensure as they all try to wring the last from their weekend even while Monday and the weekly routine loom.

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Set against a backdrop of emerging teen culture and rising racial tension in late 50s London, Colin Maclnnes' cult novel is brought to the screen in Julien Temple's lavish musical adaptation.

Struggling young photographer Colin sees his ambitious, fame-seeking girlfriend Crepe Suzette slipping away as she ruthlessly pursues a career in fashion. To win her back he'll need to compromise his idealism and do whatever it takes to make the big time himself.

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Alice White (Anny Ondra) is frustrated with her police officer boyfriend Frank (John Longden) as he neglects her in favour of his work. To spite him, she arranges to meet another man. When he tries to rape her, she ends up killing him in defence.

The case gets assigned to Frank who realises that Alice is the murderer, but it seems someone else knows too as Alice begins to receive threats of blackmail from an anonymous source.

Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe and he must race against time to stop Ragnarok - the destruction of his world and the end of Asgardian civilization at the hands of the ruthless Hela.

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After years of fame and misfortune in Mexico, the members of struggling Siberian rock band the Leningrad Cowboys decide to return to their native village.

Under the guidance of their former manager Vladimir, who now calls himself Moses, they face a difficult journey over the ocean and across the European continent. But tormented by lack of money, fuel and beverages the band begin to murmur against Moses and doubt his motives. On top of this they are persecuted by a certain member of the American intelligence agency who is hunting for the lost nose of the Statue of Liberty.

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Boris Karloff stars in one of his most chilling roles as the sinister 'resurrection man' of old Edinburgh. Medical student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) is apprentice to Dr. 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell), greatest anatomist of the age.

But, as Fettes learns, MacFarlane is not scrupulous how he obtains the bodies he uses for dissection: he buys them from sinister cabman John Gray (Boris Karloff), who robs the graves of the recently deceased. But Gray's grim work has attracted attention and the cemeteries are under watch. Unwilling to give up his lucrative trade, Gray finds another source of corpses - the bodies of people he has killed himself...

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Following on from the success of 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg' comes 'Les Demoiselles de Rochefort' - Jacques Demy's large-scale tribute to the Hollywood musical featuring screen legend Gene Kelly The story centres on twin sisters Delphine and Solange (played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve

and Frangoise Dorleac) who, tired of their humdrum existence, dream of finding success and romance in Paris. The superb ensemble, also featuring Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin, George Chakiris and Grover Dale, weave and wander around the town, looking for and just missing the love of their lives.