denry's - Rented List
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The Roaring Twenties (1939)The World Moves On
The speakeasy era never roared louder than in this gangland chronicle that packs a wallop under action master Raoul Walsh's direction. Against a backdrop of newsreel-like montages and narration, it follows the life of jobless war vetran Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) who turns bootlegger, dealing in 'bottles instead of battles'. Battles await eddie within and without his growing empire. Outside are territorial feuds and gangland bloodlettings. Inside is the treachery of double-dealing associate (Humphrey Bogart). It would be 10 years before Cagney played another gangster (in White Heat), a time in which gangster movies themselves became rare. 'He used to be a big shot'. Panama Smith (Gladys Goerge) says at the finale, marking Bartlett's demise...and signalling the end of Hollywood's focus on the gangster era. - Director:
- Raoul Walsh
- Cast:
- James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane
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After being wounded covering the Spanish Civil War, dashing newspaper reporter Vincent Bullit (Melvyn Douglas) convalesces at his boss's guesthouse. Unfortunately, the boss's daughter Alice (Deanna Durbin) and her teenage friends were using the house to rehearse their play. They decide to make life unbearable for the hapless Bullit - hoping he'll take the hint and go away! Bullit agrees to go. He'd much rather enjoy the bright lights of New York City anyway. However, there's just one snag. Alice has now developed a huge crush on the reporter and is determined to do everything in her power to make him stay.
'That Certain Age' is one of Deanna Durbin's most outstanding musicals, featuring fine songs including "Be a Good Scout", "Les Filles de Cadiz", "You're as Pretty as a Picture", "Juliet's Waltz Song" and "That Certain Age" - as well as the Oscar-nominated "My Own".- Director:
- Edward Ludwig
- Cast:
- Deanna Durbin, Melvyn Douglas, Jackie Cooper
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Former Minister of State for Transport Michael Portillo takes to the tracks in the second series of the BBC TV Documentary Great British Railway Journeys. Passionate about trains, Michael Portillo embarks on five epic rail journeys, each split into five legs, travelling the length and breadth of the UK as he retraces routes that were described in his original 1860's copy of 'Bradshaw's Railway Handbook'. Along the way he witnesses all the things that have changed since the early days of rail transport and what still remains of Bradshaw's Britain, discovering the effect the railways had on the public and finding out how the British love of trains all began. Michael samples some classic Cromer crab, gets a rare chance to drive a heritage diesel and gets up close and personal with a pedigree Hereford bull. He also discovers a secret World War II chemical weapons plant at Rhydmwyn, takes a steam train across the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors, attempts to make an authentic Melton Mowbray pork pie, discovers how the railways turned cricket into a national sport and hunts for gold in Scotland's mountains. - Director:
- Marc Beers
- Cast:
- Michael Portillo, Nicholas Owen, Nigel Brown
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Pat Heaton (John Lodge) may be the best crime reporter in town but his fiancee Claire (Margaret Vyner), despairing of the more tawdry aspects of his profession, makes him promise to give the job up. When a pretty waitress is found murdered, however, Pat falls in line with the rest of the 'Murder Gang' - the pack of reporters who gather to glean stories by fair means or foul! - Director:
- Brian Desmond-Hurst
- Cast:
- John Lodge, Diana Churchill, Francis Lister
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Written by Academy Award winners Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, 'Midnight' has been hailed as 'just about the best comedy ever caught by the camera from the Golden Age of Hollywood!' Academy Award winners Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche and John Barrymore simply light up the screen. The fun begins when a penniless showgirl (Colbert) impersonates a Hungarian Countess and, with the help of an aristocrat (Barrymore), quickly adapts herself to her new lifestyle. But can she stop herself from falling in love with yet another poor man (Ameche)? - Director:
- Mitchell Leisen
- Cast:
- Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore
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Germany, a group of international passengers become entwined with a Nazi plot to assassinate the German peace campaigner Dr Bernhardt (Paul Lukas). As the express train leaves from Paris to occupied Berlin the German, French, American, British and Russian passengers, are not all what they seem. A political assassination n route threatens the planned peace conference, and when Dr Bernhardt is kidnapped, the beautiful Frenchwoman Lucienne (Merle Oberon) recruits the American Robert Lindley (Robert Ryan) and three other passengers to help find the missing doctor. As time runs out, the five must comb the shadowy ruins of bombed-out Frankfurt, with only a few clues to uncover the loyalist Nazi spy ring. - Director:
- Jacques Tourneur
- Cast:
- Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin
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Long-awaited, much sought after, never previously released and unseen anywhere for decades, this definitive adaptation of Georges Simenon's world famous novels stars Rupert Davies as Commissaire Jules Maigret, the dogged French detective. Though Simenon's books have been adapted many times for film and television, Davies's celebrated, BAFTA-winning portrayal won the approval of Simenon himself, who stated: "At last, I have found the perfect Maigret!" Running to 52 episodes and a feature-length play, this complete 1960's series... - Director:
- Andrew Osborn
- Cast:
- Rupert Davies, Ewen Solon, Helen Shingler
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Smash and Grab (1937)Larceny Street
John Forrest (Jack Buchanan), an insurance investigator with a weakness for model railways, is on the trail of a gang of smash-and-grab thieves targeting Europe's most prestigious jewellers. As the chase leads him to Ireland, Forrest finds he needs help - and who better to call upon than his impossibly elegant, highly capable wife, Alice (Elsie Randolph)? - Director:
- Tim Whelan
- Cast:
- Jack Buchanan, Elsie Randolph, Arthur Margetson
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George Winter (John Lodge), a self-made businessman and MP, lets nothing get in the way of his climb to the top. Certain in his belief in the corruptible and foolish nature of others, whenever Winter meets a competitor who can't be bought, he destroys the man through methods both legal and underhanded. Then, he meets his 'tenth man': a victim who refuses to be silenced by threat or bribery, with the power to bring Winter's house of cards crashing down around him... - Director:
- Brian Desmond-Hurst
- Cast:
- John Lodge, Antoinette Cellier, Athole Stewart
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The Luck of the Navy (1938)North Sea Patrol
International relations are strained; there is a strong possibility of war and when the ultimatum expires, Britain must be prepared to strike the first, and probably the decisive, blow. The British Navy is the instrument, and Commander Clive Stanton (Geoffrey Toone) the man chosen for a special and secret mission. He receives sealed orders as he is about to go ashore to dine with Mrs. Maybridge (Doris Hare), a local socialite and wife of a retired Admiral (Edmund Breon) - unaware that the house has been infiltrated by fifth columnists... - Director:
- Norman Lee
- Cast:
- Geoffrey Toone, Clifford Evans, John Wood
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After accidentally killing the brother of the woman he loves during a reckless air stunt, Lieutenant Stacey (John Clements) is given a court martial from his squadron and left to face his demons. Taking refuge on a tiny Greek island, Stacey joins the ranks of a local, civilian air force. But after a close friend is killed by Nazi spies Stacey decides to take things into his own hands, battling the common enemy and his past, hoping for one last heroic shot at heroism and redemption. - Director:
- Sergei Nolbandov
- Cast:
- John Clements, Leslie Banks, Jane Baxter
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A £20,000 insurance claim is lodged when a nightclub is destroyed by fire, and claims investigator Mike Davies is assigned to get to the bottom of things. One suspect is Harry Drayson, the club owner but if he torched his own property for the insurance, how safe are his other, heavily-insured properties..? - Director:
- Montgomery Tully
- Cast:
- Lee Patterson, Rona Anderson, John Le Mesurier
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Olivia Harwood (Ann Todd) is a missionary's widow who meets Mark Bellis (Ray Milland), a charming artist and rogue, on the ship taking them back to Victorian London. When Olivia opens a boarding house, Mark becomes her lodger, but then quickly graduates to become her lover. Soon Olivia falls completely under the spell of Mark and casts aside her religious scruples to fall in with Mark's ambitious and immoral schemes of theft and blackmail. But perhaps his schemes are too ambitious when he attempts to swindle their own friends, leaving Olivia to decide whether to completely fall in with the devil - or redeem herself by betraying the man she loves... - Director:
- Lewis Allen
- Cast:
- Ray Milland, Ann Todd, Geraldine Fitzgerald
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Nightbeat (1947)Night Beat
Don (Hector Ross) and Andy (Ronald Howard), two young commando sergeants, are demobilised from the army. Unable to find jobs that suit, they both join the police - where Don does well and is soon promoted, but Andy's rebellious nature makes it hard for him to accept discipline. When he becomes involved with a "good-time girl", Andy finds himself on a downward slope which puts both his career and life in jeopardy. - Director:
- Harold Huth
- Cast:
- Anne Crawford, Maxwell Reed, Ronald Howard
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Your Witness (1950)Eye Witness
Adam Heyward (Robert Montgomery), a leading American lawyer, hears that the man who saved his life at Anzio beach is now facing a murder charge and decides to come to England to defend him. Arriving in a picture-postcard village, he learns of a female witness whose evidence might exonerate his friend, but who had fled the scene of the alleged crime in fear. In his efforts to trace her, Heyward faces a number of delicate and perplexing situations, all leading to a gripping climax... - Director:
- Robert Montgomery
- Cast:
- Robert Montgomery, Leslie Banks, Felix Aylmer
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