Studio: Paramount
Year released: 1951
MPAA rating: PG
Director: Billy Wilder
Writer: Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels, Billy Wilder
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Ray teal, Richard Benedict
In the early moments of Ace in the Hole Kirk Douglas, playing a bad-egg reporter named Tatum, walks into an Albuquerue newspaper with an offer to make the editor 200 dollars a week. The offer he presents to the editor is himself, “a 250 dollar-a-week reporter for 50…, make that 45.”
The script is crisp and witty but this isn’t typical wilder fare. Ace in the hole is a badass mob boss and Douglas - an alcoholic report fired from every major paper in the North East - is the enforcer willing to break our legs at a nod of the boss man’s head.
Douglas enters the film in a broken down car being towed into town. It’s a visual metaphor for his broken down career. Yet Tatum himself isn’t broken – he won’t allow it. He is the one who breaks others whenever and however he can.
The building he enters is the small town office of a small town paper and Tatum makes sure everyone knows he knows it. In one great moment among many Tatum saddles up to the receptionist’s desk. On the wall behind her is an embroidered sign that reads: Tell the Truth. And Tatum does, but it’s always his truth he tells, and Tatum’s truth doesn’t always rely on facts or principles.
Ace in the Hole, originally titled The Big Carnival was a flop when it was released in 1951, but make no mistake, this is a great film. Audiences in the fifties just weren’t ready for this yet. The new print shown at Film Forum was exceptional and the 2-hour running time flew by.
The prescient script comes courtesy of Walter Newman with a polish by Lesser Samuels and Wilder himself. The act I set up tries to prepare us for the cynicism, corruption and violence to follow, but the depth of the cynicism - especially from Tatum - is relentless.
At the end of act I we jump forward a year in time to find Tatum still stuck at the small Albuquerque paper and still looking for the big story to get himself back into the big time news game. And here is where the story takes a truly dark turn.
En route to a small town story about a rattlesnake hunt, Tatum stops at a dust-bowl trading post and overhears a commotion. It seems Leo Minosa (Richard benedict), the owner of the trading post, has been trapped by a cave in while digging up ancient Indian burial pots. Tatum sees his chance and by God he’s going to make the most of it.
Tatum moves in like a hurricane –- flattening anything and anyone who gets in his way. He manipulates the trapped Leo, colludes with the corrupt local sheriff (Ray Teal), twists the arm of the spineless engineer (Lewis Martin), and cajoles, bullies and threatens the jaded Mrs. Minosa (Jan Sterling), all to keep Leo (“you’re the only friend I got.”), buried longer than necessary for the benefit of his copy and career. In a truly great moment Mrs. Minosa marvels at Tatum’s unrivaled, naked cynicism. "I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life," she says sizing him up, "but you? You're 20 minutes."
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this script and movie is how prescient it is regarding what we now refer to as a media circus. In this film the media circus is a literal happening, as a very real carnival sets up and hundreds of people descend by horse, by car and by train into a frenzy of cheap souvenirs, ancient Indian curses, rival journalists, carnival rides, corn dogs and oh yeah… the human tragedy of a man buried alive in the 'haunted' mine. This is CNN 50 years before CNN started over-saturating the airwaves with non-news stories sold as news to people too busy (lazy?) to care about the difference. Not a step is missed here as even the carnival name (The Great S&M Amusement Corp.), comments on the happenings.
It might seem as if I’ve given a lot away, but the film is exceptionally well crafted and deep. For the attentive viewer many surprises still wait to be uncovered. Oh and for you cynics out there…? You might think you’re tough, but compared to Douglas’ Tatum… you’re Julie Andrews.
This revue unfortunately comes a bit late for the screenings at Film Forum (I saw it on the last night of it’s run – Jan. 18th), but if you’re a Wilder fan and want to see one of his best do what you have to do and check this out. Ace in the Hole is a superb film and Film Forum is about the only place I know of where you can see it’s like.
If you’re a film fan and don’t yet know about Film Forum then do yourself a favor and discover this treasure. This theater is one of the last great independent cinema houses in the county.
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