Blu-ray Review – Ace In The Hole (1951, Masters Of Cinema)
Ace in the Hole is one of Billy Wilder’s finest films which saying a lot seeing as he has had one of the most impressive careers the silver screen has ever seen. It was also one of his first “flops”, but it has been constantly rediscovered by filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee and was only fairly recently released on DVD for the first time by the Criterion Collection.
Kirk Douglas magnificently plays the down on his luck reporter Chuck Tatum. He has been fired from eleven different papers due to varies reasons such as libel, adultery and his alcoholism to name just a few. Tatum’s car breaks down in New Mexico and he begs the local Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin for a job; it’s a paper of little importance.
Tatum stays off the booze and does his job perfectly fine until he seizes the opportunity when he hears of a man trapped in a cave. It’s his chance for the big news story to bring him back to the top. What happens next is he manipulates everyone and everything he possible can so he be the man who stays longer in the cave so he can in turn get a bigger and longer news story.
When the film came out it was reviled by the critics of the day. It was considered “ruthless and cynical…a distorted study of corruption and mob psychology that…is nothing more than a brazen, uncalled-for slap in the face of two respected and frequently effective American institutions – democratic government and the free press” by the Hollywood Reporter. It’s true that it’s an extremely ruthless and cynical film, but it’s at least an honest film of how the media can manipulate an event or tragedy for it’s own ends.
The film remains one of the best depictions of journalism alongside Citizen Kane or All The President’s Men. It predates the idea of a media circus, but Wilder was always on the ball and no more so when he has a carnival show up at the site of the cave. It’s not subtle but it’s both a statement on the circus of the media and also society as a whole. Ace in the Hole was eventually re-released to try to make more money like The Big Carnival, which hits home even more what Wilder was saying with the film.
Masters of Cinema has released the film for it’s first ever UK release as far as I can find and wasn’t even released on VHS. It includes a very fine transfer and a documentary on Billy Wilder, a long with an interview with film scholar Neil Sinyard. It includes the typical lengthy booklet typically expected from Masters of Cinema.
[rating=5]
Ian Schultz
Genre:
Drama, Film-Noir, Classic
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
BD/DVD Release Date:
5th May 2014 (UK)
Rating:PG
Director:
Billy Wilder
Cast:
Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur
Buy:Ace In The Hole [Blu-ray + DVD] [1951]
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
