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Ace in the Hole (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ace in the Hole | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Billy Wilder |
| Produced by | Billy Wilder |
| Written by | Walter Newman Lesser Samuels Billy Wilder |
| Starring | Kirk Douglas Jan Sterling Robert Arthur Porter Hall |
| Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Cinematography | Charles B. Lang Jr. |
| Editing by | Arthur P. Schmidt |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 29, 1951 |
| Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Ace in the Hole is a 1951 film starring Kirk Douglas, directed by Billy Wilder and released by Paramount Pictures.
Wilder examines the seedy relationship between the media and the news it reports in this cynical satire. Originally released theatrically as Ace in the Hole, The Big Carnival is the title used for the film's re-release and most early television airings. The "carnival" in the title refers to the media circus surrounding the events in the movie.
The film has been seldom shown on television over the years (with the exception of a few recent showings on Turner Classic Movies), and became available on home video for the first time via The Criterion Collection DVD in July 2007.
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Kirk Douglas portrays Charles 'Chuck' Tatum, a cynical, down-on-his-luck reporter for a small New Mexico paper. While on assignment covering a rattlesnake hunt Tatum finds out about a man, played by Richard Benedict, who has become trapped in a cave collapse. Tatum sees his chance to make it big again, and manages to delay the rescue in order to benefit from the fame his exclusive reporting is bringing. The victim's wife, played by Jan Sterling, also has eyes for Tatum. As this goes on, people flock to the cave to witness the rescue. By the time the movie is over, the rescue site has literally become a carnival, with rides and entertainment.
- Kirk Douglas as Charles 'Chuck' Tatum
- Jan Sterling as Lorraine Minosa
- Robert Arthur as Herbie Cook
- Porter Hall as Jacob Q. Boot
- Frank Cady as Mr. Federber
- Richard Benedict as Leo Minosa
- Ray Teal as Sherriff
Reviews of the film today are mixed but mostly favorable. J. Hoberman of the Village Voice states: "Ace in the Hole is by no means a great—or even a particularly good—movie, but its sustained nastiness shows a stunning disregard for box-office niceties".[1] Slant magazine's Ed Gonzalez says of the film, "Not unlike Fritz Lang's equally misanthropic Scarlet Street, Ace in the Hole plays the squashing of one man's human spirit for societal-weary gravitas."[2] Upon its 2007 release on DVD, Slate's journalism column says it should sicken reporters for how it presages the modern media circus and also said, "If film noir illustrates the crackup of the American dream...Ace in the Hole is an exemplar of the form. Wilder and co-writers Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels disparage society's institutions—the police, the press, marriage, the nuclear family, and even the church—as shams. Lorraine Minosa delivers an ice-cold excuse for avoiding church services: 'Kneeling bags my nylons.'"[3]
The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story and Screenplay.
Ace in the Hole is loosely based on events surrounding the 1925 entrapment and death of W. Floyd Collins in Sand Cave, Kentucky. A Louisville newspaper, the Courier-Journal, jumped on the story of the imperiled Collins by dispatching a reporter named William Burke "Skeets" Miller to the scene. Miller's enterprising coverage turned the tragic episode into a national event and earned Miller a Pulitzer Prize. Floyd's name is also used in the movie as an example of a cave-in victim turned into a media sensation.
- A character in this film identifies himself as a salesman for Pacific All-Risk Insurance, a fictitious company that had featured in one of Billy Wilder's previous films, Double Indemnity (1944).
- ^ Hoberman, J. (September 2002). Invisible Cities: In Praise of Love; Circling Zero: We See Absence. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
- ^ Gonzalez, Ed (2004). Ace in the Hole. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
- ^ Shafer, Jack (July 2007). Presence of Malice: Billy Wilder tours journalism's pus-filled heart in the long-lost Ace in the Hole. Slate. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
- Ace in the Hole at the Internet Movie Database
- Ace in the Hole at Rotten Tomatoes
- Essay on Ace in the Hole by Guy Maddin
- Essay on Ace in the Hole by Molly Haskell