greatest-ever-made's - Rented List

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From Marcel Carne, a comic masterpiece set in England circa 1900. Unassuming botanist Irvin Molyneux hides a dark secret: he writes lurid novels using the pseudonym Felix Chapel.

His cousin, the Bishop of Bedford, Archibald Soper condemns the books (without realising a family member has written them) and invites himself to the Molyneux house for dinner. Panic ensues as the cook has walked out leaving Irvin's wife to act like the cook to avoid social ignominy. When Irvin can't explain his wife's absence the Bishop assumes he has killed her and calls Scotland Yard and the newspaper reporters. The Molyneux' escape to a cheap local hotel where psychopath William Kramps is holed up: he being a specialist in killing butchers and blaming novelist Felix Chapel for turning him into a killer and vowing to murder him. Molyneux returns to his home to attend to his houseplants, a big mistake as Kramps is waiting in the living room...

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One of the all time classic French films. Made in 1931, this is one of the first French talkies.

Pre dating Chaplin's Modern Times by 5 years (and the subject of a bitter court case stopped when Rene Clair stated that imitation is the finest form of flattery) and leading the way in a satirical attack on the machine age, Rene Clair created a wicked comedy on the dehumanisation of industrial workers. When Louis (Raymond Cordy) and Emile (Henri Marchand), two prison inmates, attempt to escape, Louis is caught and returned to his cell, while Emile succeeds and becomes a successful businessman. On Louis' release he goes to work for Emile but finds the industrial world no better than the prison regime. When Emile is recognised as an escaped convict he and Louis decide to escape the confines of the factory by taking to the road as tramps.

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In America, can a man be guilty until proven innocent? Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline... and everything they said was accurate but not true. This is the dilemma that must be faced in this timely drama about the incredible power of the press.

Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman) reads in the paper that he is the subject of a criminal investigation. Suddenly, everything he has ever worked for is in jeopardy. He confronts the author, Megan Carter (Sally Field), a relentless investigative reporter. Together they learn that the story was purposely leaked to Carter as part of a plot by the chief investigator. Gallagher's life hangs in the balance as he and Carter try to uncover the truth.

Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces, stars in this, the original adaptation of Gaston Leroux's celebrated novel. When the Phantom falls in love with the voice of a young opera singer (Mary Philbin) he drags her to the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House and forces her to sing only for him.

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Carl Buckley (Broderick Crawford) needs the intervention of his beautiful wife Vicki (Gloria Grahame) to keep his job, so Vicki meets with Carl's boss Owens, and secures Carl's job. Insanely jealous, Carl finds Vicki with Owens on board a train and brutally beats her and kills Owens.

Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford), an off-duty engineer, protects Vicki and they begin an affair. Still obsessively jealous, Carl becomes an alcoholic and blackmails Vicki into staying with him. Vicki then comes up with a plan for Jeff to dispose of her violent husband...

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Delusional revolutionary Malcolm Scrawdyke (a mesmerising John Hurt) leads his Party of Dynamic Erection - Wick (John McEnery), Irwin (Raymond Platt) and Nipple (David Warner) - in an enraged battle against an unseen nemesis in this chilling dark comedy.

Financed by George Harrison and based on the celebrated stage play by David Halliwell, 'Little Malcolm 'was shot in wintry Oldham by director Stuart Cooper and cinematographer John Alcott.

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A young woman, Judith Moray (Jean Simmons), deserts her prospective fiance, the nice doctor Alan Kearn (James Donald), for an old flame - the dashing former wing commander Bill Glennan (David Farrar).

Glennan soon gets her pregnant and marries her, then quickly leaves when he learns he's unable to gain financial security from her father. Years later Judith finds out Glennan has died and goes back to Kearn, and they bring up her child together. Suddenly, Glennan reappears in their lives again ready to cause havoc.

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Adapted from Jerome K.

Jerome's classic comic novel and produced by Romulus Films, 'Three Men in a Boat' follows the whimsical journey of three London gentlemen - George (Laurence Harvey), Harris (Jimmy Edwards) and J (David Tomlinson) - who decide to escape from their woman problems by going boating on the Thames River. With Oxford as their destination, they set out for the trip of a lifetime. Their idyllic cruise soon becomes anything but when they encounter, among other problems, heavy rain and a sailing regatta. But the gloomy outlook brightens when they meet three young and wealthy women.

Towering ominously among the shadows of the Carpathian Mountains, Castle Dracula strikes fear in the hearts of the Transylvanian villagers below.

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Dustin Hoffman stars as Dorsey, a dedicated actor with a reputation for being difficult. Having antagonised every producer in New York nobody will hire him. But Michael is desperate for work, so desperate he's willing to pretend to be a woman.

Passing himself off as 'Dorothy Michaels' he lands himself a part on a TV Soap Opera and soon becomes a national phenomenon. But when he falls for the leading lady of the show things get complicated. How can he tell her he loves her when she thinks he's a woman and so does the rest of America....

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It's the 1950's and ambitious Hollywood screenwriter, Peter Appleton, (Jim Carrey) has everything going for him. That is until the FBI discover he attended a communist meeting during college and blacklist him.

Drunk and desperate, Peter drives aimlessly through the streets of California, finally crashing into a stormy river and waking to find himself in a small coastal town, minus his memory. The tiny town of Lawson, however, go wild and embrace Peter as local missing-in-action war hero, Luke Trimble, with whom he shares an uncanny resemblance. Injecting new life and hope into the community, Peter goes about restoring the Majestic, a crumbling movie palace owned by 'his father', Harry Trimble (Martin Landau) and rekindling the passion of old flame Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden). However, when Peter's memory starts returning, he has even bigger dilemmas to face. With the FBI closing in on his trial, does he run or brave his accusers back in Hollywood once and for all? And more importantly, will he find the courage to tell the town who he really is?

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The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse) finds that diabolical Weimar name resurfacing in the Cold War era, linked to a new methodology of murder and mayhem.

Seances, assassinations, and Nazi-engineered surveillance tech - all abound in Lang's paranoid, and ultimate, filmic labyrinth. One of the great and cherished "last films" in the history of cinema, 'The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse' provides a stylistic glimpse into the 1960's works on such subjects as sex-crime, youth-culture, and LSD that Lang would unfortunately never come to realise.

The tale of a rakish duke whose lifestyle has dried up his noble coffers. When word arrives about the existence of valuable sulphur deposits on his tiny duchy of Abacco, a comic adventure of high-seas intrigue, "animal impersonators", and the Crown Princess of Russia unreels at a sprightly pace.

"This is Spinal Tap" is Rob Reiner's directorial debut that is often named as one of the funniest films ever made. A fly-on-the-wall look at the comeback tour of the world's loudest heavy metal band.

David Lean directed this stylish film presentation of Charles Dickens' heart warming story of a young man befriending an escaped convict who becomes his unknown benefactor, and of the consequences for the young man as he establishes himself in the world.