Film
Ace in the Hole
- Director
- Billy Wilder
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 111 mins
Cynical, drunken, self-centred, down-on-his-luck, hard-bitten hack Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas) will stop at nothing to re-establish his reputation with a scoop. He finds one in rural Albuquerque when local man Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) becomes trapped in a collapsed cave while seeking Indian artefacts. Tatum promptly swings into action, manipulating all around him as he prolongs Minosa’s agony with obfuscation and bare-faced lies to spin the story out as he ensures national coverage.
Way ahead of its time, Ace in the Hole was Billy Wilder’s first film as producer and director. It was also his first commercial and critical flop. Back in 1951, audiences weren’t quite ready for such a cynical assault on newspaper ethics. Amusingly, reviewers also found it hard to believe that a reporter could be so amoral. And without giving too much away, Wilder avoids the cop-out feelgood ending you fear may be looming in the last reel. There’s also plenty of pitch-black comedy. Watch, for example, how the admission price to the scene of the tragedy written on the entry sign rises inexorably throughout the film. Fascinating fact: it’s actually based on a true story that unfolded in Kentucky back in 1925. Ace in the Hole is back on screen in the ‘shed’s timely Manipulating the Message season as part of this year’s Cinema Rediscovered.
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