Ace in the Hole [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

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. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Encoding: NTSC
• Screen: Black and White
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Portrait of a "60% Perfect Man": Bill Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring in-depth interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
  • A 1984 interview with Kirk Douglas
  • Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
  • Excerpts from an audio interview with coscreenwriter Walter Newman
  • New video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
  • Stills gallery
  • New essays by film critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Story and Screenplay - 1951 (Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman)

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Actress - 1951 (Jan Sterling)

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won International Prize - 1951 (Billy Wilder)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Kirk Douglas - Charles Tatum
       Jan Sterling - Lorraine
       Robert Arthur - Herbie Cook
       Porter Hall - Jacob Q. Boot
       Frank Cady - Mr. Federber

• Director:

  Billy Wilder

• Producer:

  Billy Wilder

• Screenwriter:

  Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels, Billy Wilder

• Cinematographer:

  Charles B. Lang

• Composer (Music Score):

  Hugo W. Friedhofer

• Songwriter:

  Ray Evans, Jay Livingston

• Editor:

  Doane Harrison, Arthur P. Schmidt

• Art Director:

  Earl Hedrick, Hal Pereira

REVIEW:

• 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. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

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