A ruthless exposition of media sensationalism, an unforgiving examination of the dark side of press & a careful observation of human nature, Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole covers a wide array of relationships between press, the news it reports, the manner in which the news are reported, the extent to which some journalists choose to exploit someone's misfortunes & the morbid curiosity of us human beings who are always attracted to the scenes of tragedy.

The story concerns a fiercely ambitious & self-centered reporter who settles for a reporting job at a small New Mexico newspaper after being fired from every other agency. But when he learns about a man stuck in a cave, he quickly uses this opportunity to re-jumpstart his…

My disbelief in not knowing anything about this Wilder classic is as bewildering as reading that the film was a critical and financial failure back when it was released.

Wilder comes out of the gate, after his tremendous success with the seminal Sunset Blvd, swinging with another razor sharp black as ink Noir; a world inhabited by dubious morals and the shady characters that possess them; ghosted by subtle social commentary on the scruples and methods of the media, and our own fascination with macabre spectacle.

Douglas is the perfect choice as the self centred, morally bankrupt, righteously indignant, and sometimes scenery chewing newspaperman Chuck Tatem; a man on the way down desperately grasping for an opportunity to pull himself…

The saturnine commentary which emanates from this Billy Wilder film noir which he co-wrote with Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels has an encompassing essence of incontestable contemporaneity. 

The narrative centres around an electrifying performance from Kirk Douglas as down-on-his-luck reporter Charles Tatum. Who fortuitously hits upon a story in New Mexico of Leo Minosa, a man trapped in an ancient Indian ruin while attempting to obtain historical artefacts. 

As the scenario unfolds, the film manages to apprehend the depths of journalistic immorality as Tatum sets about creating a name for himself by maliciously lengthening the rescue effort to manipulate the human interest story; generating a national media sensation. 

The remainder of the cast delivers equally dazzling performances, most notably Jan…

”I've met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes.”

Ace in the Hole was Billy Wilder’s first major critical and commercial failure but now and after more than 60 years its elaborate plot details seem more relevant than ever and its morally complex and subtly fabricated characters and Wilder’s masterful directing give it such a magnetism that it’s impossible to watch this modern Shakespearean tragedy and not get excited. Madness, ambition, lust and greed come together to create a multilayered villain who is as egocentric as Norma Desmond and as ruthless as Walter Neff. And like both of those unfortunate characters Kirk Douglas’ Chuck Tatum (what an iconic name for a villain) becomes the victim…

There is always something humane about the central characters in film noir, even if they are irredeemably flawed. The lovers in Gun Crazy robbed banks, yes, but they had a halo of fatalistic desperation about them that somehow justified their actions; Fred MacMurray plotted to kill a man and run off with his wife in Double Indemnity, but he oozed all-American goodness in a way that made him impossible to dislike; and Norma Desmond, the faded star of Sunset Boulevard thought that it was the pictures that got small, not herself. But Ace in the Hole has no such lifeline to throw its protagonist, the brutal journalist Chuck Tatum. There’s nothing remotely likeable or pitiful about him, nothing that so…

Criterion Collection Spine #396

Is there anything more dangerous than the interest of the bloodsucking media, when it comes to the fate of a man with his life in the balance.

“Tell the truth.”

Kirk Douglas delivers a fierce performance a washed up big-city newspaperman Chuck Tatum, who ends up in the right place at the right time in order to not only break a huge story in the New Mexico but also dictate the course of events. This story hits close to home since I worked in a newsroom for several years to start my career. At the time it was my job to organize the best line up of stories possible each day, and be on the lookout…

People often talk about media and cultural critiques in films being ahead of their time or somehow still relevant even after so long. The point of view is often (but not always) a certain amount of awe or wonder at how the film could manage this timelessness, but in this case, and ones like it, I often just feel sad. I've made a similar point before, but this film, and others like it, are failures. The media circus has only gotten grosser, more callous, and protracted. There is no Mr. Boot now, though. Every little paper, major news network, and blog site is full of Charles Tatums instead. The lesson they took from this film wasn't to respect human life…

I'm a thousand dollar a day newspaperman. You can have me for nothing.

Why isn't this the Billy Wilder movie everyone talks about? I mean, I guess I get it. This isn't a feel-good flick. I consider myself someone who has pretty decent respect for journalism and journalists. Some of them make it hard sometimes, though. Kirk Douglas is stunning here, a powerhouse character that never lets up on his intensity. You love to loathe him, and you can't take your eyes or your ears away from him, regardless of what he does. Perhaps the thing I admire the most about Douglas here and the movie as a whole is its complete dedication to be as dark and cynical in…

It makes sense that Wilder made this after Sunset Blvd. For some reason I thought this was an allegory for dangerous filmmaking: Tatum is to an extent a bad filmmaker. Treating humans as objects and numbers just so he can earn money and fame, by telling a manipulative story that will make him famous because of how shocking it is. There is something this film wants to clearly say about escapism. It frames the nature that surrounds the characters in such a suffocating way to the point where we can feel trapped into a reality that feels endless and dry in the same way Lorraine does. And then Tatum creates this illusion of freedom for all of these people that…

Fantastic movie. Kirk Douglas is Chuck Tatum, a washed-up reporter looking for a ticket back to the big newspapers by any means necessary. He is also very arrogant, basically an asshole. Whiling away his time at a tiny newspaper, he stumbles on a man trapped in a cave. Sensing an opportunity for his newspaper comeback, he stages most of the things around rescue efforts and establishes a friendly relationship with a trapped man (through exclusive visiting rights).

The whole media and newspaper business is deconstructed in this movie. The movie is even more relevant today as we are only bombarded by bad news ("Good news is no news" as Tatum says in the movie). People and media flock to the…

rating: 4.0 / 4.0

www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-ace-in-the-hole-1951

Disclaimer: I do not claim to have ownership over or to have written the following review. This review was written by Roger Ebert, where the official online posting of which is linked above

There's not a soft or sentimental passage in Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" (1951), a portrait of rotten journalism and the public's insatiable appetite for it. It's easy to blame the press for its portraits of self-destructing celebrities, philandering preachers, corrupt politicians or bragging serial killers, but who loves those stories? The public does. Wilder, true to this vision and ahead of his time, made a movie in which the only good men are the victim and his doctor. Instead of…

Criterion #396
This film does a remarkable job at capturing the sinister nature of sensationalist journalism, and acts not only as an indictment of sensationalism but also the culture that allows this type of tragedy exploitation to thrive. Kirk Douglas gives a powerhouse performance as Tatum. The side characters aren't particularly bad, but Kirk Douglas just completely overshadows the rest of the cast. I would also like to point out the fact that this film came out 63 years before Nightcrawler, and has aged gracefully. I think this film was a big inspiration to Nightcrawler, so if Nightcrawler is your cup of tea give this film a shot. The film does lose steam as the second act transitions into the…