plastic-teaspoon's - Rented List

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Screwball sparks fly when Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn let loose in one of the fastest and funniest films ever made - a high-wire act of invention that took American screen comedy to new heights of absurdity.

Hoping to procure a million-dollar endowment from a wealthy society j matron for his museum, a hapless paleontologist (Grant) finds himself entangled with a dizzy heiress (Hepburn) as the manic misadventures pile up - a missing dinosaur bone, a leopard on the loose, and plenty of gender-bending mayhem among them. Bringing Up Baby's sophisticated dialogue, spontaneous performances, and giddy innuendo come together in a whirlwind of comic chaos captured with lightning-in-a-bottle brio by director Howard Hawks.

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Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew - Team Zissou - set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly nonexistent Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou's partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure.

They are joined on their voyage by a young airline co-pilot, who may or may not be Zissou's son (Owen Wilson), a beautiful journalist (Cate Blanchett) assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and his estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston). They face overwhelming complications including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy.

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In the fame-obsessed world of Los Angeles, a group of teenagers take us on a thrilling and disturbing crime-spree in the Hollywood Hills.

Based on true events, the group, who were fixated on a life of glamour, tracked their celebrity targets online and stole more than $3 million in luxury goods from their homes. The victims included Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan. The gang became known in the media as "The Bling Ring".

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Robert Baker and Monty Berman co-direct this British crime comedy.

Melody Club (1949)

A Tempean Films production with cinematography by Peter Newbrook. Terry-Thomas stars in one of his earliest roles as a nitwit detective on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves. He traces them to a nightclub and ultimately, more by luck than judgement, rounds them up.
A Hole Lot of Trouble (1969)
A "Screen Miniature" made at Rayant Studios, Bushey, Hertfordshire. The comedy-short was based on an original story from and directed by second-feature specialist Francis Searle. Three workmen assigned to dig a hole near a road for an electrical cable run into problems with local officials who believe the hole is being dug in the wrong place and should be closer to the home of a prissy fashion designer.
Gold Is Where You Find It (1968)
Steve (Barry Keegan) returns to Ireland a millionaire, gets drunk and loses the gold nuggets - everybody thinks its a gold rush.

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Featuring a spellbinding performance from Kirsten Dunst. With mesmeric cinematography from Edward Lachman, accompanied by a cult soundtrack from French duo Air, 'The Virgin Suicides' remains a coming-of-age classic.

In a quiet, conservative American town in the 1970s, Cecilia Lisbon (Hanna Hall), just 13, attempts suicide. She is one of five beautiful teenage sisters and this incident begins to unravel the lives of the entire family. The story is told from the point of view of the neighbourhood boys who are obsessed with these enigmatic sisters and draws its dark humour from the fabric of teenage life. Little by little, the family begins to shut itself off from friends and neighbours and the girls are soon forbidden to go out. As the situation spirals downward, the boys plot to rescue the girls.

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Olivia de Havilland stars in a dual role as twin sisters - one of whom has committed a murder. Since each twin can provide an alibi for the other, a rumpled detective (Thomas Mitchell) and a handsome shrink (Lew Ayres) are compelled to get to the truth, a task not made easy by the siblings.

At first the duo seem physically and emotionally similar but soon subtle nuances begin to differentiate their personalities. In a tour-de-force performance De Havilland's fine acting peels away the layers of emotionalism that define each sister's character traits.

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Classic romantic comedy starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Wealthy Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) is set to marry the politician and businessman George Kittredge (John Howard), but her wedding plans are complicated by the arrival of her irresponsible ex-husband C.

K. Dexter Haven (Grant), with magazine reporter Macauley Connor (Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) in tow. Tracy resolves to give them a story they will never forget but finds herself re-evaluating her life choices in the process.

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After his release from the asylum, to celebrate his return to the real world, Neale (Ray Milland) visits a local carnival, only to accidentally receive the "prize" of a cake which was meant for a Nazi agent.

When he discovers the error, he turns for help to a detective, whose investigations only serve to make the situation more complicated. Neale soon winds up on the run from both the Nazis and the police, who mistakenly believe him guilty of murder. He is led to Scotland Yard, where his fate entwines further with a Nazi front organization, and an unlikely love affair.

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Ginger Rogers stars as a young lady determined to shake up polite society! Ginger plays Mary Grey, cheerful but unemployed. Wandering in central park, she meets and befriends Alfred Borden (Walter Connolly). Alfred's a millionaire but money can't buy him happiness - his family all ignore him.

Wanting to spice things up, he hires Mary to pose as his mistress but even he isn't prepared for the hilarious consequences that will ensue!

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Amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his fiancee Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) are stargazing in the desert when a spaceship bursts from the sky and crashes to the ground. Just before a landslide buries the ship, a mysterious creature emerges and disappears into the darkness.

Of course, when he tells his story to the sheriff, John is branded a crackpot; but before long, strange things begin to happen, and the tide of disbelief turns...Based on a story by acclaimed writer Ray Bradbury.

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Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) and her husband Alan (Arthur Kennedy) mysteriously have $60,000 literally dropped in their laps. The circumstances seem mighty suspicious to Alan, who wants to turn the money over to the police. But in a materialistic rapture, Jane won't let it go.

She doesn't care where it came from, or what danger might ensue - not if it will bring her the luxury she craves. Enter shady Danny Fuller (Duryea, as cocky and menacing as ever), who claims the money belongs to him. Let the games begin! Roy Huggins' snappy script (adapted from his novel) is a complex, breezy and black-hearted homage to James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler. Rapacious housewife Jane Palmer is one of the juiciest female villains in Hollywood history, and Liz Scott's best role ever.

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Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani), an honest woodworker, falls in love with Marie (Simone Signoret), the moll of minor crook Roland (William Sabatier). Gangster boss Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin) orders Georges and Roland to fight a duel to the death over the girl.

Felix then pins the blame for Roland's death on Georges' boyhood chum, Raymond (Raymond Bussieres), knowing that the woodworker will nobly accept the blame; this will leave Marie alone, which is what lustful Felix has wanted all along. When Georges learns he's been set up as a dupe, he plots his revenge. Based on the true-life Leca-Manda scandal, 'Casque D'Or' brilliantly mixes violence with tenderness to capture the brutality of the French underworld and the tragedy of doomed love.

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In one of the most powerhouse performances in American screen-acting, the great Kirk Douglas stars as Chuck Tatum, a newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a potentially career-making story in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

When Tatum begins to influence the story's outcome, a descent begins that finds more than one man caught between a rock and a hard place. An electric narrative that stands as one of Wilder's tautest and most (melo)dramatic plots (penned with Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman), 'Ace in the Hole' plays today as both a prescient examination of the modern media landscape, and the public appetite for the disastrous news-story that leads to toxic wish-fulfillment.

Lights flicker and dim. Footsteps sound from a sealed-off attic. Mysterious events only vulnerable young Paula (Ingrid Bergman) sees and hears make her fear she's losing her mind - exactly what treacherous spouse Gregory (Charles Boyer) hopes.

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Proud, eccentric, and antisocial, Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon) has always kept to himself.

But after a woman turns up dead in the Paris suburb where he lives, he feels drawn to a pretty young newcomer to town (Viviane Romance), discovers that his neighbors are only too ready to suspect the worst of him, and is framed for the murder. Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, Julien Duvivier's first film after his return to France from Hollywood finds the acclaimed poetic realist applying his consummate craft to darker, moodier ends. Propelled by its two deeply nuanced lead performances, the tensely noirish 'Panique' exposes the dangers of the knives-out mob mentality, delivering as well a pointed allegory for the behavior of Duvivier's countrymen during the war.