mcg's - Rented List
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Bob the Gambler (1956)Bob Le Flambeur
In Melville's self-confessed 'love letter to Paris', the world-weary hero weaves his way through a stylised Parisian underworld, a failed gambler wearing a trench coat and a gentleman's code of honor. His pursuit of the ultimate heist takes him on a journey from the Sacre Coeur to Montmartre and Pigalle. Encountering betrayal, secrets and a dangerously seductive young girl, Bob Le Flambeur seeks to carry out his one final crime, despite warnings from L'inspecteur, his loyal friend yet adversary. - Director:
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast:
- Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy
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Yojimbo (1961)Yôjinbô / Bodyguard
The enigmatic samurai in Yojimbo is played by the great Toshiro Mifune as a scruffy, scratching, itinerant warrior who wanders into a strange town and right into the middle of two warring clans. Showing his skills with the samurai sword within minutes of his arrival, he soon has the town's rival factions competing for his services.Kurosawa's genius for storytelling combines with thrilling swordplay, a healthy dose of black humour, a soundtrack every bit as atmospheric and amusing as Ennio Morricone's, and a towering performance from Mifune, to make Yojimbo an irresistible widescreen action movie. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai
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John Gavin plays Ernst Graber, a soldier on the Russian-German Front in 1944 venturing home to Hamburg on a rare furlough. He falls in love with Elisabeth (Liselotte Pulver) activating a magnetism that compels both individuals toward one another in love, even as it hurtles them headlong into epochal death. - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- John Gavin, Paul Frees, Liselotte Pulver
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That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)Cet obscur objet du désir
Recounted in flashback to a group of railway travellers, the story wryly details the romantic perils of Mathieu, a wealthy, middle-aged French sophisticate who falls desperately in love with his 19-year-old former chambermaid Conchita. Thus begins a surreal game of sexual cat-and-mouse, with Mathieu obsessively attempting to win the girl's affections as she manipulates his carnal desires, each vying to gain absolute control of the other. - Director:
- Luis Buñuel
- Cast:
- Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet, Ángela Molina
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Le Doulos (1963)Doulos: The Finger Man
After serial burglar Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani) is released from his latest stint behind bars, he quickly returns to his criminal ways and plans a robbery with Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Rémy (Philippe Nahon). After murdering an old associate in retaliation for the killing of his former girlfriend, Maurice becomes racked with suspicion and distrust of everyone around him amid rumours that Silien has become a police informant. When Maurice and Rémy carry out a robbery of their own, the police quickly close in on them and Maurice begins to unravel the deadly web of deceit that has formed around him. - Director:
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Jean Desailly
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Ten years ago, a turn-of-the-century scandal over a lover forced Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck) to desert her husband and their children for a stage career. Now, returning to their small Wisconsin town to see her daughter in a play, she hopes of a reconciliation. Her appearance is a shock. The town is curious but unforgiving, her high school principal husband is involved with one of his teachers, and her children have mixed feelings about her. When an unexpected turn of events leads to more scandal, Naomi's hopes of starting over are dashed - until some surprising changes occur. - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, Lyle Bettger
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Joan Crawford plays Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and her property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter who has a history with Vienna. - Director:
- Nicholas Ray
- Cast:
- Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge
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High and Low (1963)Tengoku To Jigoku
Based on the Ed McBain novel, High and Low is a gripping police thriller starring Toshiro Mifune. Wealthy industrialist Kingo Gondo (Mifune) faces an agonising choice when a ruthless kidnapper, aiming to snatch his young son, takes the chauffeur's boy by mistake - but still demands the ransom, leaving Gondo facing ruin if he pays up. An anatomy of the inequalities in modern Japanese society, High and Low is a complex film noir, where the intense police hunt for the kidnapper is accompanied by penetrating insight into the kidnappers state of mind. Kurosawa's virtuoso direction provides no easy answers, and in short, intense sequences, he portrays the businessman, the police and the criminal as equally brutal but nonetheless human. - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai
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Spoiled millionaire playboy Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) almost dies when he wrecks his speedboat; he is saved when police use a resuscitator belonging to someone else. As a result local hero Dr. Phillips dies. Bob attempts to help Dr. Phillips widow Helen (Jane Wyman) who he falls in love with. When terrible tragedy strikes can Bob save Helen and redeem himself from the past? - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead
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Stray Dog (1949)Nora inu
When rookie detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) has his pistol stolen from his pocket while on a bus, his frantic attempts to track down the thief lead him to an illegal weapons market in the Tokyo Underworld. But the gun has already passed from the pickpocket to a young gangster, and Murakami's gun is identified as the weapon in the shooting of a woman. Murakami, overwhelmed with remorse, turns for help to his older and more experienced senior, Sato (a superb performance by Takashi Shimura). The race is on to find the shooter before he can strike again... - Director:
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast:
- Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji
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Newspaperman Roger Adams (Cary Grant) falls for record store worker Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) and the pair marry New Year's Eve, shortly before Roger leaves for a new job in Tokyo. His new wife joins him 3 months later and announces she is pregnant, but a major earthquake in Tokyo leads to her losing the baby and unable to bear any more. The pair eventually return to America where Roger buys a small country newspaper and Roger and Julie begin the process of adopting a child. When the newspaper folds it looks as though Roger and Julie will lose the child, being forced to make a heartfelt plea to the judge... The story is told in a series of flashbacks, each introduced by a piece of music from Julie's collection. Cary Grant's performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. - Director:
- George Stevens
- Cast:
- Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Beulah Bondi
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The Life of O-Haru (1952)Saikaku ichidai onna
Winner of the 1952 Venice Film Festival silver lion award, Kenji Mizoguchi's tragic tale, set in the 17th Century, of a young noblewoman's fall from grace established his reputation as one of Japan's greatest directors. Kinuyo Tanaka stars as O-Haru, a beautiful courtesan who surrenders to her passion for a commoner, played by Toshiro Mifune. As punishment, she and her parents are banished into exile where O-Haru desperately attempts to escape her past. A compelling and powerful critique of feudal Japan as seen through the eyes of a woman, 'The Life of O-Haru' portrays the human dramas and historical settings with unflinching realism and atmospheric detail, demonstrating Mizoguchi's complete mastery of the medium. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirô Sugai
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When a charming fugitive, a beautiful teacher and a stuffy law professor are forced to become roommates, their unconventional relationship is suddenly 'Talk of the Town' in this madcap romantic comedy. When accused arsonist Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) escapes jail, he hides out in the home of his friend Nora (Jean Arthur). Posing as a gardener, Dilg teams up with Nora to convince her summer tenant, Supreme Court candidate Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman), that Dilg was framed. The zaniness never stops as the three of them dodge the cops, try to snag the real crooks and discover along the way that both men have fallen for Nora. But who has captured Nora's heart? - Director:
- George Stevens
- Cast:
- Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman
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Disregarded and neglected by his family, executive toy manufacturer Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) is unexpectedly reunited with his former co-worker Norma Miller (Barbara Stanwyck). As the old friends catch up on lost time, his children's suspicions and hostility to the new relationship threaten to push their father away permanently and throw into disarray the lives of all concerned. - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett
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One of the greatest American films of the 1950s and a high point in the careers of both the lead actor James Mason and director Nicholas Ray. Mason gives a towering performance as Ed Avery, a happily married schoolteacher who agrees to take a new 'miracle drug' when diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. It is not long before the drug begins producing malevolent and murderous side-effects that bring to the fore all of Ed's long-repressed frustrations with his life. Mason's support is, exceptional: Barbara Rush as Ed's devoted wife, Christopher Olsen a s his cruelly punished son and Walter Matthau as his faithful colleague. One of cinema's most persuasive portraits of psychological turmoil, the film also succeeds magnificently as searing melodrama and subversive social critique, with Ray, his scriptwriters and cinematographer achieving a perfect balance between emotional realism and exprer;sionist allegory. - Director:
- Nicholas Ray
- Cast:
- James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
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