TCM Pick O’ The Day: Sunday, February 1st
by John Nolte
8pm PST - Ace In the Hole (1951) – A small-town reporter milks a local disaster to get back into the big time. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Bob Arthur, Porter Hall Dir: Billy Wilder BW-111 mins, TV-14
Billy Wilder’s blistering look at the dark underside of journalism is just starting to get the recognition it deserves. When released it probably came off a little cynical, but in this era of Big Media undermining our troops at every opportunity, watching a reporter risk a man’s life to get back in the big time, doesn’t feel at all far-fetched.
Released against Wilder’s will as “The Big Carnival,” the biggest compliment one can make to the writer/director is that his superb work here could easily be confused with something helmed by Elia Kazan. There’s a noirish sensibility to the look and Kirk Douglas’s intense, relentless lead performance would feel out of place among Wilder’s better known films.
The dialogue is top-notch, with most of the best lines going to Jan Sterling’s Lorraine, an embittered local who sees in Douglas a way out of her dusty, dull circumstances:
“I met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you – you’re twenty minutes.”
That’s writing.
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16 Comments
I think I saw this on some late show once and I was kind of amazed as it grabbed me, anyone that hasn’t seen it should.
It is one of the least known jewels in all cinema.
A superbly crafted, almost flawless piece of writing that is directed as only Billy Wilder could. No one could have done the reporter as Kirk Douglas did, but this could made a decent re-make if they could find a decent director, which is wildly unlikely in today’s Hollywood. Anyone ‘green lightable’ would ruin it because they would have too little understanding of what makes the film so good. There’s no major director with any grit or wit, apart from possibly Mel Gibson, who understands what the word ‘decency’ means.
One of the best movies ever made and until recently, the one I always pointed to and said ‘why isn’t it on DVD yet?’ I saw it on tv 20 years ago as The Big Carnival and am happy to see it finally getting its due. Quite the weekend lineup on TCM, Sweet Smell of Success tonight and Ace in the Hole tomorrow!
The only movie left that I can still complain about being forgotten is a great WW2 desert flick called “Ice Cold in Alex” – anyone?
I need to get to TCM’s website and find out their schedule for tomorrow, on account of 31 Days Of Oscar starts then. Look forward to seeing films I have never seen before. I might be able to see Ace In The Hole, but no guarantees.
Tar Heel Mom: I love hearing when people enjoy a recommendation. It’s like doing a good deed, but one that doesn’t require getting off the couch or any real effort.
great movie! Douglas literally slapping the smile off the widow’s face alone is worth the price of admission.
…I love hearing when people enjoy a recommendation
You can make that two. I also Netflixed it when you recommended it back on Dirty Harry’s. A great movie and a lesson there is nothing new about the media circus.
Luke
A film about the bad old days when the press was just looking out for itself, now the media cares about us and our well being. As the last election so plainly demonstrated.
I’m trying to think of a similar old movie I saw maybe 40 years ago with a trapped miner – the reporting was such that it became a carnival-like atmosphere – indeed, a carnival came.
Then if my flaky memory is holding up, the trapped miner died…
This movie is on DVD (finally!) Criterion put it out and I watched it last fall for the first time in a long time. I caught on PBS years ago, and was totally blown away and was blown away again. What a great little gem – drenched in acid, bile and cynicism.
This movie was loosely based on the real-life story of Floyd Collins, a cave explorer who was trapped in Sand Cave near Mammoth Cave back in the 1930s. His plight became a media circus, and one reporter, William Miller, who was little and skinny was able to wiggle close enough to Collins to interview him (and pass some food and water to him) and won a Pulitzer prize for his stories. Alas, poor Collins died of hypothermia despite rescue efforts.
I ‘flixed this some time last year after seeing it referenced on another blog as one of the best all-time movies about journalism. My take echoes everyone else’s: this is as tight, brilliant, and painful a look at human nature as you would ever care to see. Some of the best touches are the little ones, such as the admission price to the Indian caves going steadily up through the course of the film.
I ran across it in progress on FMC/TCM a month or so ago and sat and watched it until the end again. Not many movies I’ll do that with. ..bruce..
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