Ace in the Hole [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Billy Wilder Billy Wilder

Overview

Billy Winder directed and co-wrote this bitterly satiric comedy-drama which turns a jaundiced eye towards both the news media and its consumers. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a talented but short-tempered reporter whose fondness for booze and unwillingness to bow to authority has cost him jobs at some of America's most prestigious newspapers. When Tatum's car breaks down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tatum persuades the editor of the local paper (Porter Hall) to give him a job until he can make enough to get his jalopy running and find a story that will put him back in the good graces of the Big City journals. After a year in Albuquerque, Tatum begins to wonder if a big scoop will ever cross his path, but when he's sent to Los Barios to cover the annual rattlesnake hunt, he lucks into a great human interest story -- Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), who runs a local diner, motel and curio emporium, is caught in an abandoned mine shaft after a rockslide, which some superstitious locals attribute to an Indian curse. Tatum writes up the story with all the flourish he can muster, and portrays Leo's wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) as a devoted spouse fearful for her husband's life, even though she can barely stand Leo and is planning to leave him. Tatum's story is picked up by the wire services and he makes friends with local sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) to insure he has an inside line on updates on Leo's rescue. When Tatum learns that Leo can be freed in a mere twelve hours, he persuades Kretzer and his men to adopt another rescue method that will take several days, which will generate more copy for Tatum, more press attention for Ketzer's re-election campaign, and more business for Lorraine's diner. Soon Los Barios is the biggest tourist attraction in the state, but as the media circus mounts, Leo begins to fall seriously ill. Also released as The Big Carnival, Ace In The Hole was a major box-office disappointment upon its original release in 1951, even though it was sandwiched between two of Wilder's biggest hits, Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17. Despite never being released in home video until 2007, Ace In The Hole's bitter tone earned it an enthusiastic cult following, and it's now regarded as one of Wilder's best films of the Fifties.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/02/2018
UPC:	0715515221818
Original Release:	1951
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:51:00
Sales rank:	8,972

Special Features

2k Digital Restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack ; Audio Commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard; Portrait of a "60% Perfect Man": Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment; Interview with actor Kirk Douglas from 1984; Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute ; Audio excerpts from an interview with Wilder's coscreenwriter Walter Newman; Video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee; Stills gallery ; Trailer; Plus: Essays by critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kirk Douglas	Charles Tatum
Jan Sterling	Lorraine Minosa
Porter Hall	Jacob Q. Boot,Mrs. Federber
Bob Arthur	Herbie Cook,Herbie Cook
Richard Benedict	Leo Minosa
Frank Cady	Mr. Federber
Ray Teal	Sheriff Gus Kretzer
Lewis Martin	McCardle
John Berks	Papa Minosa
Frances Dominguez	Mama Minosa
Gene Evans	Deputy Sheriff
Frank Jaquet	Smollett
Harry Harvey	Dr. Hilton
Bob Bumpas	Radio Announcer
Richard Gaines	Nagel
Paul D. Merrill	Federber Boy,Digger
Stewart Kirk Clawson	Federber Boy
John Stuart Fulton	Boy
Bob Kortman	Digger
Edith Evanson	Miss Deverich
Ralph Moody	Kusac, the Miner
Claire DuBrey	Spinster
William Fawcett	Sad-Faced Man
Bill Sheehan	Man
Bert Stevens	Reporter
Frank Keith	Fireman
Basil Chester	Indian
Bert Moorhouse	Morgan
Ken Christy	Jessop
Martha Maryman	Woman
Lester Dorr	Priest
Larry Hogan	Television Announcer
John 'Bub' Sweeney	Reporter
Stanley McKay	Reporter
Frank Andrew Parker	Reporter
Iron Eyes Cody	Indian Copy Boy
Charles Griffin	Mr. Wendel
Jack Roberts	Newspaperman
Oscar Belinda	Barker
Martin Bendleton	Barker
William N. Peters	Photographer
Chico Day	Photographer
John Berkes	Actor

Technical Credits

Billy Wilder

Lesser Samuels

Walter Newman

Billy Wilder	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Lesser Samuels	Screenwriter
Walter Newman	Screenwriter
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

A movie truly ahead of its time, Ace in the Hole (also known as The Big Carnival) turned out to be too bitter and cynical for moviegoers in 1951. An unrelenting portrait of media sensationalism and the human obsession with tragedy that propels it, the film is based on a true story that also spawned Robert Penn Warren's novel The Cave. Director, screenwriter, and producer Billy Wilder suffered perhaps the biggest commercial and critical failure of his career with Ace, losing much of his standing at Paramount, even though the movie was released between two of his most enduring and popular triumphs, Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Stalag 17 (1953). Ace was perhaps not up to the standard of those works, but it clearly stands as one of Wilder's many fine achievements. It's hardly surprising that this film failed to find a mainstream audience, despite the added attraction of emerging star Kirk Douglas in the lead. American culture wouldn't be ready for such a large dose of pessimism until the 1970s; even then, a film such as 1976's Network, which clearly paralleled the tone of Wilder's effort, was dismissed by many viewers as too hysterical.

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