Charles Tatum, a down-on-his-luck reporter,
takes a job with a small New Mexico
newspaper. The job is pretty boring until he
finds a man trapped in an old Indian
dwelling. He jumps at the chance to make a
name for himself by taking over and
prolonging the rescue effort, and feeding
stories to major newspapers. He creates a
national media sensation and milks it for
all it is worth - until things go terribly
wrong.
A frustrated former big-city journalist now
stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper
exploits a story about a man trapped in a
cave to re-jump start his career, but the
situation quickly escalates into an
out-of-control circus.
Special Features: SPECIAL EDITION
DOUBLE-DISC SET:
Disc 1:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
Theatrical trailer
Disc 2:
Portrait of a "60% Perfect Man": Billy Wilder, a 1980
documentary featuring in-depth interviews with Wilder by
film critic Michel Ciment (58:24)
A 1984 interview with Kirk Douglas by filmmaker and
film scholar Michael Thomas (14:17)
Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the
American Film Institute (23:36)
Excerpts from an audio interview with coscreenwriter
Walter Newman
New video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee (5:39)
Stills gallery
Liner notes booklet featuring new essays by film
critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin
Trailer:
Review:
One
of the most scathing indictments of American culture
ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker, Billy Wilders
Ace in the Hole is legendary for both its cutting social
critique and its status as a hard-to-find cult classic.
Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his
career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter
caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the
story of a lifetime - and will do anything to ensure he
gets the scoop. Wilders follow-up to Sunset Boulevard
is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé that
anticipated the rise of the American media circus.
Inspired by the real-life Floyd Collins cave-in disaster of the
1920s, ACE IN THE HOLE is a searing example of
writer-director Billy Wilder at his most brilliantly
misanthropic. An uncompromising portrait of human nature
at its worst, the film was so far ahead of its time in
its depiction of a media circus and the public''s
appetite for tragedy that it was a commercial disaster
when first released, but now stands as one of the great
American films of the 1950s.
After being fired from a number of big city newspapers,
alcoholic reporter Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) takes a
job working for a paper in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On
the way to cover a rattlesnake hunt, Tatum encounters a
woman named Lorraine (Jan Sterling), who tells him that
her husband Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) got trapped in
a mine cave-in while searching for some Indian treasure.
Smelling a big story that will take him back to New
York, Tatum goes into the cave and befriends Leo, then
makes a deal with the corrupt local sheriff (Ray Teal)
to boost his upcoming re-election campaign in exchange
for exclusive rights to the story. Tatum and the sheriff
coerce the contractor into prolonging the rescue
operation to a week rather than 16 hours by drilling
down from the top of the mountain instead of shoring up
the walls and going in through the front. After a few
days, a carnival atmosphere presides as TV, newsreel,
and radio crews arrive, while thousands of tourists set
up camp and trucks bring in amusement park rides.
The word used most often to describe Wilder in general,
and ACE IN THE HOLE in particular, is "cynical," but a
closer analysis reveals that this is really a misnomer.
Wilder is actually a satirical moralist and a
disillusioned romantic who knows that the world is an
imperfect place and that everyone has the potential to
be corrupt. The fact that the film was a box-office bomb
is not surprising since the public was obviously not
flattered by its depiction of them as gullible
sensation-seekers who morbidly gather around a disaster
for some all-American fun. Even today, the scenes of
Tatum talking with the entombed Leo as dirt pours down
on his face are harrowing to watch, primarily because
Wilder broke his cardinal rule of sugar-coating messages
with comic elements as an audience escape-valve. As a
result, the film is as grim and pitiless as the
relentless drill that pounds away at the mountain top.
TV Guide
By the time he made 1951''s Ace in the Hole director
Billy Wilder had already earned his reputation as a
cynical filmmaker. Three of Wilder''s earlier
films--Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend and Sunset
Boulevard--had already firmly established the director
as someone who was interested in showing the darker side
of humanity. And while those films certainly were dark
explorations of desire, greed and excess, all were
merely test-runs for what was to be considered Wilder''s
most cynical work, as well as one of the most
pessimistic films of all time.
Kirk Douglas stars as Chuck Tatum, a newspaper reporter
whose problems with alcohol have sent him on a downward
spiral of working for major publications in Boston and
New York to hustling a job in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Tatum views his new gig in Albuquerque as an opportunity
to reestablish his reputation, but after a year at the
small paper, he holds everything and everyone around him
with contempt. Things take a dramatic turn when Tatum
lucks into the story of a lifetime. It seems that a
cave-in at an ancient Indian burial ground has left
local treasure hunter Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict)
trapped and fighting for his life. Tatum sees the
potential for a great story in Leo''s plight. As word of
Leo''s predicament begins to spread, other reporters and
curious onlookers descend on the scene, as the rescue
operation quickly transforms into a crass media circus,
complete with carnival rides and souvenirs. But Tatum is
the one calling the shots, manipulating everyone around
him so that he gets the biggest story possible--he even
manages to convince rescue workers to take an alternate,
longer route, which will allow his story to drag on
longer. Tatum, however, is not alone in his opportunism.
He is joined by Leo''s uncaring wife Lorraine (Jan
Sterling), who hopes to cash in on the tragedy, and the
corrupt Sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) eager for
re-election. But as the rescue operation drags on for
days and days, it soon becomes clear that Leo is not
likely to survive, and that realization begins to tear
Tatum apart, as he wrestles with the fact that he will
be responsible for the man''s death.
Billy Wilder has long been considered one of the best
filmmakers of all time, with a long list of credits that
includes such classic films as Some Like It Hot, The
Apartment, The Spirit of St. Louis and Sunset Boulevard.
Ace in the Hole solidifies that already well-deserved
reputation if for no other reason than it may actually
be the director''s best work. Everything that makes
Wilder''s films so memorable--an incredible sense of
visual storytelling married with superb writing--is
found here. And while there are many that would argue
over where Ace in the Hole stands amongst Wilder''s other
films, there is no denying the overall purity of the
work. Simply put: Ace in the Hole is uncompromising in
its cinematic vision or its condemnation of the media.
Like all of Wilder''s films, Ace in the Hole is brimming
with symbolism. Part of the magic of Wilder''s filmmaking
was the way he would layer a scene with information and
ideas, some subtle and some incredibly obvious. Either
way, everything has a purpose and meaning, from the way
a shadow falls across a face to the eye movement of an
actor. As Tatum first descends into the cave, Wilder is
offering a symbolic foreshadowing of the fate that
awaits his morally ambiguous anti-hero.
At the time of its original release, Ace in the Hole was
not well-received by critics, who saw it as being too
cynical and too bitter. The film did poorly in the
United States, where it became something of a forgotten
entry in Wilder''s filmography. With no release on home
video, and only the occasional broadcast on channels
like American Movie Classics, Ace in the Hole became
more of a cult film, finding fans primarily among
diehard film fans, students and filmmakers who were
lucky enough to see it.
Though it was considered cynical and an unfair depiction
of the media when it was released in 1951, Ace in the
Hole proved to be prophetic, with many of the film''s
concepts and themes later go on to inform such films as
Network. The world in which the line between journalism
and entertainment blurs to the point they become one and
the same has arrived. And while a character like Chuck
Tatum may have seemed outrageous in 1951, he is what
reporters like Geraldo Rivera have become. To go one
step further, Ace in the Hole offers an eerie glimpse at
how the media and the public would react to the
real-life tragic events of September 11, fifty years
after Wilder''s movie was released.
Ace in the Hole is nothing short of brilliant. The
two-disc Criterion Collection release at long last
provides an opportunity for people to discover one of
the greatest films of all time made by one of the
greatest filmmakers of all time.
Brilliant film by a brilliant filmmaker.
DVDtalk
Awards:Nominated
for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations
