sjj's - Rented List

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An action-packed epic set in the pre-civil war south. This is the seldom told story of 19th century freedom fighter and forgotten hero, Shields 'Emperor' Green (Dayo Okeniyi).

Fighting to free his family and race from tyranny, Emperor - a descendant of African kings turned outlaw slave - fights his way north, joining forces with abolitionist John Brown (James Cromwell) for the daring raid on Harper's ferry and helping to alter the course of American history. An inspirational and timely story of courageous black history...

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In this action-comedy caper harkening back to Jackie Chan's classic Hong Kong films, a railroad worker (Chan) and his ragtag group of freedom fighters find themselves on the wrong side of the tracks when they decide to ambush a heavily armed military train filled with desperately needed provisions.

Unarmed and outnumbered, they must fight back against an entire army using only their wits, in a series of dazzling set pieces and action scenes rivalling anything seen on the big screen.

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March 1965. In the heat of the Cold War, the USA and the USSR are competing for space supremacy. What both superpowers aim for in this race, is to be the first to have a man walk in outer space. To accomplish that, no price is too high and no risk is too great.

Now it's up to the unlikely duo of a seasoned war veteran and a hot-headed test-pilot to fulfill this mission. Two men in a tiny spaceship, without proper testing, facing the complete unknown...

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He looks like Marlon Brando, some reviewers said of this movie's 29-year-old star, but those comparisons would soon end. Soon to impress with his own intense brilliance, Paul Newman made his movie debut in this Biblical saga in the mode of Quo Vadis and The Robe.

Set in Rome during the early Christian era, it focuses on an ill-fated sculptor sold into slavery and torn between his adoring wife (Pier Angeli) and a wily temptress (Virginia Mayo) - and threatened in his work by a power-mad sorcerer (Jack Palance) bent on overturning Christianity and becoming his own "true Messiah." The Silver Chalice's cast also includes Lome Greene, E.G. Marshall and a blonde Natalie Wood. But Newman is the movies heart. "This young man," director Victor Saville predicted, "is destined for great things."

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Shirley MacLaine is Irma, a popular Parisian prostitute who has just hired a new pimp, Nestor (Jack Lemmon), a former honest cop who was fired and framed by his boss after Nestor inadvertently had him arrested in a raid.

However, Nestor's love for Irma is making his newfound vocation impossible, so he poses as a phoney British lord who insists on being Irma's one and only "client". But when "Lord X" (Jack Lemmon) appears to have become the victim of foul play...further comedic complications ensue!

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Vincent Price stars as the evil Prospero, a Prince who has sold his soul and who counts on the promises of the Devil for protection.

He hosts incredible, opulent parties for the privileged while toe poor die in hovels, starving victims of the Red Death, a devastating plague that is sweeping his lands. Prospero takes a perverse pleasure in the pain and suffering of his supplicants and his friends alike. When Prospero decides to hold a masked ball all seems ready for a night of unheard of indulgence and decadence, until he notices the entry of a mysterious hooded stranger dressed all in red. Believing toe figure to be his master, Satan, Prospero determines to seek him out...Based on Edgar Allan Poe's short stories,

Fast-forward to the 1980's as Wonder Woman's next big screen adventure finds her facing a wide array of foes, including Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Cheetah (Kristen Wiig).

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Like a brand, the letter M has made it's mark on film history; it's disturbing theme having lost none of its impact or relevance. Sinister, dark and foreboding, M tells the story of Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) - child molester and murderer. Tension builds - a child late home - another child missing.

Posters reveal the fate of earlier victims, and the Police seem to have few clues as to the perpetrator of the crimes. Gangsters, beggars and petty criminals, incensed by both the crimes and the Police crackdown, track the killer themselves. Cornered, caught and dragged off to face an equally barbaric form of justice, Beckert endures his own personal torment.

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Yul Brynner stars as the legendary King Solomon in what is considered to be the most spectacular motion picture of its time. When Solomon is chosen to succeed his father, King David, he vows to rebuild Jerusalem and lead Israel to great strength.

However, his jealous brother Adonijah, the Egyptian Pharaoh, and the seductive Queen of Sheba conspire against Solomon to bring down his throne. This mighty epic was director King Vidor's final film and colourfully portrays some of the greatest rulers, kingdoms and battles in biblical history.

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Arrows rain death. Soldiers clamber up stone walls. Swords clang, fires rage. Yet the waves of combatants storming Troy are repelled. To defeat the undefeatable ultimately requires brains more than brawn.

So feigning retreat, the Greeks offer a gift: a mammoth wooden horse secretly housing their fighting men. Homer's Iliad surges to the screen in Helen Of Troy, from the '50s heyday of big-screen spectaculars. Robert Wise directs this lavish epic capturing some 30,000 people on screen at the-then huge cost of $6 million. Among the 30,000: Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Brigitte Bardot before her sex-symbol renown, and as the lovers at the conflict's centre, Rosasana Podesta and Jack Sernas.

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To escape the burdens of rule, Sweden's Queen Christina rides into the countryside disguised as a boy. There she meets and secretly falls for a dashing Spanish envoy on his way to the royal court.

Imagine the envoy's delighted surprise when he and the young "nobleman" must share a bed at an overcrowded inn.

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Gregory Peck stars in this gripping retelling of the beloved Old Testament story. Although he has killed Goliath and prevailed in countless battles, there is one force that Israel's King David cannot vanquish: love.

Smitten with the beautiful Bathsheba David sends her soldier husband, Uriah into a hopeless battle, setting into motion his own downward spiral. Neglecting his kingdom and faith, David incurs the wrath of God, the destruction of his country and the ill will of his people, who expect Bathsheba to pay the ultimate price for adultery. Gorgeously filmed, rapturously acted and deeply moving, David and Bathsheba's tale of romantic obsession is as beautiful as it is timeless.

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MLK/FBI is the first film to uncover the extent of the FBI's surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Based on newly discovered and declassified files, utilizing a trove of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and unsealed by the National Archives, as well as revelatory restored footage, the documentary explores the government's history of targeting Black activists, and the contested meaning behind some of our most cherished ideals. Featuring interviews with key cultural figures including former FBI Director James Comey and directed by Emmy Award-winner and Oscar-nominee Sam Pollard, 'MLK/FBI' tells this astonishing and tragic story with searing relevance to our current moment.

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A woodcutter experiences a horrific series of events - an ambush, rape and murder.

In the telling of the tale however, each of the four participants give different views of what actually happened - is any of them telling the truth? Kurosawa's masterful film plays on the subjective nature of truth while unfurling a riveting tale of violence and greed.

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This trio of classic 1930's horror films - 'Murders in the Rue Morgue', 'The Black Cat', and 'The Raven' is also distinguished by a trio of factors regarding their production. Most notably, each film is based on a work by master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe.

Part of the legendary wave of horror films made by Universal Pictures in the 30's, all three feature dynamic performances from Dracula's Bela Lugosi, with two of them also enlivened by the appearance of Frankenstein's Boris Karloff. And finally, all three benefit from being rare examples of Pre-Code studio horror, their sometimes-startling depictions of sadism and shock a result of being crafted during that brief period in Hollywood before the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code's rigid guidelines for moral content. Director Robert Florey, who gave the Marx Brothers their cinema start with 'The Cocoanuts' in 1929, worked with Metropolis cinematographer Karl Freund to give a German Expressionism look to 'Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1932), with Lugosi as a mad scientist running a twisted carnival sideshow in 19th-century Paris, and murdering women to find a mate for his talking ape main attraction. Lugosi and Karloff teamed forces for the first time in 'The Black Cat', a nightmarish psychodrama that became Universal's biggest hit of 1934, with Detour director Edgar G. Ulmer bringing a feverish flair to the tale of a satanic, necrophiliac architect (Karloff) locked in battle with an old friend (Lugosi) in search of his family. Prolific B-movie director Lew Landers made 1935's 'The Raven' so grotesque that all American horror films were banned in the U.K. for two years in its wake. Specifically referencing Poe within its story, Lugosi is a plastic surgeon obsessed with the writer, who tortures fleeing murderer Karloff through monstrous medical means. Significant and still unsettling early works of American studio horror filmmaking, these three Pre-Code chillers demonstrate the enduring power of Poe's work, and the equally continuous appeal of classic Universal horror's two most iconic stars.