denry's - Rented List
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Dana Andrews stars as Mark Dixon, a corrupt cop, in this gritty noir thriller shot on the rain-slicked streets of New York. Already in trouble for his brutal methods, alienated from his colleagues, he pursues a gang leader with vindictive zeal and accidentally kills a possible murder suspect. His guilt deepens when he falls in love with the dead man's wife and her father, an innocent cab driver, finds himself accused of the murder. Dixon finds the ultimate redemption - at a price. Otto Preminger brings a welcome sympathy and complexity to every character on-screen, from the nervous police informer through to the cocky mobster, the exasperated police chief, and Dixon himself, burdened with self-hatred as the son of a thief. Joseph LaShelle's photography lends a seedy glamour to the run-down lodging houses, cheap cafe's and night-time exteriors. - Director:
- Otto Preminger
- Cast:
- Dana Andrews, Charles Tannen, Gene Tierney
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Armed with his copy of Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook, Michael Portillo takes to the tracks and over a series of five journeys, he travels from coast to coast to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. Michael's first journey follows the track that help fuel the Industrial Revolution. Beginning in the rolling Chiltern Hills, he makes his way through to the stunning Severn Valley and finishes at the Victorian sea-side resort of Aberystwyth. He then travels from port to port from the centuries old naval hub of Portsmouth to the historic Grimsby docks. On Michael's third journey, he explores the awe inspiring scenery of rural and coastal Scotland, from Stirling in the east and ending at 'the start of Great Britain', John O' Groats. The fourth journey of the series, he retraces the footsteps of the master engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, beginning at London Paddington Station through to Newton Abbott in Devon, the scene of one of Brunel's heroic failures. In Michael's final journey, he uses 'Bradshaw's Handbook for Tourists in Great Britain and Ireland' as he journeys through the Republic of Ireland from Killarney to Galway on the Atlantic Coast. - Director:
- Dean Griffiths
- Cast:
- Michael Portillo
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Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a press agent down on his luck, drifts into a small Californian coastal town. He meets June (Alice Faye), a wealthy but reclusive woman, and has his eye on Stella (Linda Darnell), a sultry waitress. In love with Stella but broke, Eric marries June for her money, planning a rapid divorce. However when Stella is murdered, the story takes an unexpected turn. - Director:
- Otto Preminger
- Cast:
- Dick Haymes, Alice Faye, Dana Andrews
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Based on Patrick Hamilton's celebrated stage play, Thorold Dickinson's 'Gaslight' is a narrowing and claustrophobic study of murder, abuse and lust in Victorian London. By turns charming and cruel, Anton Walbrook excels as the sadistic husband who attempts to drive his wife (Diana Wynyard) mad to prevent her from disclosing his dark past. - Director:
- Thorold Dickinson
- Cast:
- Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell
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The Great Maximus (Claude Rains) has got a new act for the music halls where he makes his living. Working with his beautiful wife Rene (Fay Wray), he poses as a mind reader. It's all a trick, of course: he certainly doesn't have the gift for real. Or so he thinks... When he correctly predicts a terrible train crash, Maximus becomes an instant celebrity. But his new-found fame - and his friendship with sultry Christine Shawn (Jane Baxter) - threatens his marriage. Worse is to come: he is accused not of foreseeing accidents but actually causing them... - Director:
- Maurice Elvey
- Cast:
- Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Mary Clare
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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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