mcg's - Rented List
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I Vitelloni (1953)I vitelloni
The film is essentially a rites of passage story involving a group of friends growing up together in a small provincial town. This seemingly aimless fraternity is led by Fausto in their daily routine of hanging around in bars and wasting their days whilst dreaming of breaking free of their parochial chains to taste the adventure the world has to offer. Events force the womanising Fausto to choose between responsibility and freedom which in turn prompts the other members of the group to look at their own futures in a new light. - Director:
- Federico Fellini
- Cast:
- Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi
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Ashes and Diamonds (1958)Popiól i Diament
On the last day of World War Two in a small town somewhere in Poland, Polish exiles of war and the occupying Soviet forces confront the beginning of a new day and a new Poland. In this incendiary environment we find Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki, who has been ordered to assassinate an incoming commissar. But a mistake stalls his progress and leads him to Krystyna, a beautiful barmaid who gives him a glimpse of what his life could be. Gorgeously photographed and brilliantly performed, Ashes and Diamonds masterfully interweaves the fate of a nation with that of one man, resulting in one of the most important Polish films of all time. - Director:
- Andrzej Wajda
- Cast:
- Zbigniew Cybulski, Waclaw Zastrzezynski, Adam Pawlikowski
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Some people will do anything for a million dollars... even if it means killing anyone who gets in their way! Written and directed by Oscar nominee Sam Peckinpah and starring Academy Award winner Gig Young, Warren Oates, Robert Webber, Kris Kristofferson and the seductively beautiful Isela Vega, 'Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia' is a gritty classic that vibrates with explosive action and nail-biting tension. When a Mexican land baron puts a million dollars on the head of the man who seduced his daughter, two money-hungry men (Young and Webber) recruit a small-town bartender (Oates) to help them do their dirty work. But their tequila-fuelled trek across the desolate Mexican frontier grows more intense, gruesome and bloody with every savage murder they leave in their wake! - Director:
- Sam Peckinpah
- Cast:
- Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Robert Webber
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Le Cercle Rouge (1970)The Red Circle
Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volontè and Yves Montand star as the elegant, mis-matched trio, locked in an elaborate and dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the inscrutable police inspector (André Bourvil), who is determined to foil their attempts to pull off the perfect crime, despite being drawn irresistibly to his prey. As the day of the heist dawns, the story unfolds, with all four players determined to cheat fate. - Director:
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast:
- Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volontè
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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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