Ace in the Hole (1951 film)

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Ace in the Hole
Ace in the Hole
Directed by	Billy Wilder
Produced by	Billy Wilder
Written by	Walter Newman Lesser Samuels Billy Wilder
Starring	Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur
Music by	Hugo Friedhofer
Cinematography	Charles B. Lang Jr.
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	July 29, 1951 (U.S. release)
Running time	111 min.
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 never been made officially available on video, and has been seldom shown on television over the years (with the exception of two recent showings on Turner Classic Movies), but according to an article in Variety, the film is set to be distributed on DVD via The Criterion Collection.[1]

1 Plot
2 Critical reaction
3 Awards and nominations
4 Real-life events
5 Cast
6 External links

[edit] Plot

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 mine to witness the rescue. By the time the movie is over, the rescue site has literally become a carnival, with rides and entertainment.

[edit] Critical reaction

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".[2] 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."[3]

[edit] Awards and nominations

The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story and Screenplay.

[edit] Real-life events

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.