Atthemovies

How Hollywood classic Hellzapoppin' defied categorisation, rejoiced in playing with possibilities of the medium

It wouldn’t be a hyperbole to state that there’s nothing quite like Hellzapoppin' in classical Hollywood.

Cecil B DeMille’s This Day and Age portrayed the tensions of its era as well as the dynamics of Hollywood film production

This Day and Age capitalises on a certain hopefulness about the younger generation pervading the air.

Kiss Me Deadly: Robert Aldrich's crime movie classic is less detective story, more myth with a physical presence

The first to consider Robert Aldrich as a serious artist—and this film a masterpiece—were the young critics at the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma.

In Moonrise, Frank Borzage sheds his ethereal aesthetic to foreground man as a product of circumstances

In Moonrise, director Frank Borzage accentuates his protagonist Danny’s shadowed existence by holding him at a distance from the viewer.

John Ford's Young Mr Lincoln was no prestige biopic, but a humane portrayal of the American icon as an inexperienced lawyer

In John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, Abe is the son of the soil, a herculean figure as adept at working an axe as debating in a courtroom. Throughout, he is associated with nature, the trees and the river, his understanding of law deriving from the intuitive understanding of right and wrong | Srikanth Srinivasan writes in 'At the Movies'

Remembering Kirk Douglas — an emblem of classical, rugged masculinity — through Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole

Made by Paramount studios and starring Kirk Douglas who passed away this month, Ace in the Hole (1951) is one of Billy Wilder’s best-known pictures.

The Fountainhead: How Ayn Rand's wildly popular novel got made into 1949 Gary Cooper-Patricia Neal film

Warner Brothers had bought the rights to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead during World War II, but it couldn’t be made into a film because of America’s pro-Russia stance at the time. In 1949, however, things were markedly different.

How Rebel Without a Cause depicted a generation devoid of spiritual lives, coming of age at a time of peace 

One of the most prominent examples of CinemaScope, Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause sought to shake up the tranquillity of suburban life by exploring the disquiet simmering beneath its apparent peace and propriety

John Ford's Stagecoach responded to socialist spirit of 30s America, pitted outcasts against the respectable

As with any story of people confined in a space, Stagecoach depicts the changing group dynamics, shifting allegiances and the formation of a chain of command among the passengers. In their own way, the nine represent a microcosm of America, their eventual cooperation demonstrating that it takes all kinds to make a world | Srikanth Srinivasan in this edition of 'At the Movies'

Jean Renoir's The Southerner has no heroes or villains, only courage and optimism in the face of hostility

The Southerner, the third of the five films Renoir made in America, tells the story of the Tucker family, plantation workers who decide to grow their own cotton as tenant farmers on a piece of leased land.