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Renting a movie tonight or for the weekend?

Sometime it might be worthwhile, even educational, to ditch the latest full-color, special-effects presentation and consider a movie that features real acting by men and women who could not fall back on computer-generated nonsense.

Anyway, for what it may be worth, here are 10 that, to begin with, are alike in that they're filmed in real live black and white.

1. The Maltese Falcon (1941) -- Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Ward Bond, Barton MacClane. This is the greatest American movie ever made, mainly because it is 1) an utterly American film, 2) it set the tone for all great detective movies made since, and 3) because Hollywood is, as Bogart says about the black bird, the stuff that dreams are made of. The dialogue is perfect, and it is likely the most literal adaptation of a book (written by Dashiell Hammett).

2. From Here to Eternity (1953) -- Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Donna Reed, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra. What's important is the fact that this is not a war movie but one about the Army, two completely different things. Lancaster is the top sergeant every soldier admired. You might hate him, but in a crisis he was the indestructible man to whom you would gravitate. He might not be anything like a friend, but if he saw a good soldier, he'd do what he could for him.

3. The Third Man (1949) -- Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard. Filmed on location in postwar Vienna, this has been voted the top British film ever made (directed not by Welles but by Carol Reed). Everyone except Howard, as the British officer, is betrayed by the evil Welles and his penicillin smugglers. The lighting is stunning, a textbook in itself.

4. All the King's Men (1949) -- Broderick Crawford epitomizes political corruption in this reworking of Robert Penn Warren's novel. Not bad: a Pulitizer Prize winner translated into an Oscar winner. Mercedes McCambridge in her first movie role, and she won an Oscar for it too.

5. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) -- Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, Lawrence Harvey, Angela Lansbury. Few more paranoid American films exist. A perfect reflection of the Cold War's fears and tragedies. After President Kennedy was assassinated, Sinatra pulled the film from circulation for decades. Lansbury is positively chilling.

6. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) -- Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Peter Lorre, Raymond Massey.

Grant and an ensemble cast go straight over the top, and every time you think it has to slow down, it kicks up the tempo that much more. "Cha-a-a-arge!"

7. The Thin Man (1934) -- Myrna Loy, William Powell, Asta, Maureen O'Sullivan. Like "The Maltese Falcon," adapted from a Dashiell Hammett novel. Myrna Loy is one of the most enjoyable lead actresses ever, setting a new tone for self-assured, sexy and overtly loving women. The climactic dinner party is a complete course in well-done repartee.

8. Touch of Evil (1958) -- Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich. Allegedly Dietrich's favorite film, it features the longest establishing shot in movie history. Welles is a totally corrupt sheriff along the Mexican border, Heston a thoroughly upright Mexican enforcement official married to Janet Leigh. Said by some to be the greatest B movie ever.

9. It Came from Outer Space (1953) -- Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush. Perhaps the great classic 1950s sci-fi movie. Far better than most, the desert itself becomes a character and a frightening one at that, with its bizarre Joshua trees and dead coyotes and the sound of the wind.

10. Throne of Blood (1957) -- Toshiro Mifune. Akira Kurosawa's take on "Macbeth." The showers of arrows around Mifune in the final scene are not fakes -- they are carefully fired real arrows (his own hand motions direct their aim). Only the ones that kill him are fakes. Mifune looked terrified because he was terrified. In places almost surreal, wonderfully atmospheric and intriguing, a far better take on Shakespeare than you might imagine.

Well, time to turn off AMC and settle in for some real classics, the kind they really don't make anymore. Some of these will show up on TMC or whatever, and if they do, set aside the time and enjoy them. You'll be glad you did.