Movie Review – Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole – (1951) – Chuck Tatem (Kirk Douglas) is a big time newspaper reporter who has managed to get fired in every big city in the country.  He ends up working for a small paper in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  On his way to cover a rattlesnake round up he stumbles on just the kind of story he dreams of, a man trapped deep in a cave.  Using every cynical trick he’s ever learned Tatum will try to turn the story into his ticket back to the big time.  In short order the story spins way beyond his control.

Love film noir?  You’ll love “Ace in the Hole”.  The tough, cynical anti-hero.  The equally tough blond who uses men for her own purposes, even if it often doesn’t work out the way she had hoped.  The movie contains what may be my favorite noir line of all time when Lorraine Minosa (Jan Stirling), the wife of the man in the cave, looks at Tatum and says:

I’ve met a lot of hard boiled eggs in my life, but you, you’re twenty minutes

Douglas brings a brittle, cynical edge to Tatum that carries the movie forward.  As far as he’s concerned there is nothing really worth considering outside of New York City.  His vision of “journalism” is far more show business that classic news business.  And the star of the show must always be Chuck Tatem.  In a day and age when journalistic standards are under heavy assault, if they haven’t been made nearly extinct already, this movie feels very up to date.  Tatum pulls out all the stops, tries to control all access to the story, the spin of the story and finds every possible way to cash in.  Even to the detriment of everyone around.  Like any catastrophe Tatum damages everything and everyone near him.

There was a lot of great things going on behind the scenes in this one as well.  Billy Wilder produced, co-wrote and directed this movie.  For the real movie geek, the costumes in this movie were done by legendary, eight time Oscar winning designer Edith Head.  The result is a movie that The Hollywood Reporter called “ruthless and cynical”.  At the time, the critics (who were all newspaper reporters) didn’t have much good to say about the movie.  Audiences didn’t like it much either.  Paramount Studios tried to revive ticket sales by changing the name to “The Big Carnival” without consulting Wilder.

As the years have gone by Wilder’s vision seems more and more prescient.

You won’t be rooting for the movie’s “hero” but you won’t be able to take your eyes of him either.

Rating – ***** Highest Recommendation