Ace in the Hole

Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 12, 2007

Is art imitating life? In light of the Utah mine disaster where six men have been trapped below ground since Monday August 6th, it’s uncannily timely for the release of another Billy Wilder Oscar-nominated film, Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival). Billy Wilder may have called this film “the runt” of his cinematic litter, but you can’t tell that to its cult followers.

Starring Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling, Paramount’s 1951 black and white indictment of pop culture as fomented by the media has become another Wilder legend. It has long been a cult classic and now the Special Edition Double-Disc DVD release is available for all movie lovers.

The story by Wilder, Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman, is that of Chuck Tatum, a tough, womanizing New York reporter whose unorthodox personal behavior, deemed immoral by a steady stream of editors and publishers at big city newspapers who invariably fire him, lands him on a treadmill to oblivion in Albuquerque New Mexico, forcing him to hustle a hack job at the local paper by charming its hick-town editor (Porter Hall).

After a year of writing nowhere columns, Tatum is sent to cover a rattlesnake-catching contest out of town, with young sidekick (Robert Arthur). They soon find themselves on the trail of a real story when they come upon an ancient Indian burial cavern which has collapsed, entombing artifact hunter Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) deep underground, his legs pinned beneath rocks in a near-impossible area to reach. Tatum sees this as his Big Story ticket out of New Mexico and back to the big time, and ingratiates himself with Minosa who comes to regard him as a friend, braving a further cave-in just to keep him company.

Using his innate cunning, Tatum conspires with an unscrupulous politician to keep Minosa trapped in the cave, thereby sensationalizing the story, hoping to get the attention of Associated Press and newspapers worldwide. A Pulitzer is what he’s after, plus the come-uppance of his former editors.

“I thought the character I played in Ace in the Hole was too rough. ‘Billy, don’t you think I should come on a little softer, a little more charming to make him sympathetic, make the audience care about him?’ Kirk Douglas asked, “But he said, ‘Give it both knees. Right from the beginning.’ I did.”

According to Douglas, “I think Ace in the Hole is one of Billy Wilder’s best pictures. It was a hit in the rest of the world, but it wasn’t doing well in the United States, so they changed the title to The Big Carnival. I think the reason it wasn’t successful here was the newspapers. There was almost no television then. The unfavorable reviews of this movie about an unscrupulous newspaper reporter — based on a true incident, the Floyd Collins case, where a reporter actually kept a man down in a mine — were written by newspaper reporters. Critics love to criticize, but they don’t like being criticized. Also Billy Wilder was saying to the general public, Mr. and Mrs. Average, ‘This is you, the people who stop and stare at accidents.’ It’s become an underground classic … As my character said, ‘A tragedy is not a thousand Chinese drowned in a flood, but one person stuck down in a hole in the ground.’” His attention-getting headline “Treasure Seeker Trapped in Burial Vault,” begins the ensuing media circus.

The victim’s faithless, hard-hearted young wife (Jan Sterling) who operates the family caf© in the jerkwater town is packed and ready to leave, partly from boredom and partly because she’s tired of her husband. Tatum elicits her help by making clear that once the media hears about this story, people will want to come and see for themselves. The caf©, he assures her, will bring in crowds of sightseers and a lot of money. Since money is what she’s after, she stays.

The public does come, slowly at first, then cars begin to stream in. Families pitch tents, Ferris wheels spin, food and souvenirs are hawked, prices rise each day the hapless Minosa remains trapped, his oxygen less each hour, rocks and dirt falling on his face, despair setting in.

“Tragedies were exploited by the media and commercial interests, and the public participated too eagerly,” Wilder said. “I think my mistake was in offering the American public a shot of vinegar when they thought they were going to get a nice cocktail. It was a vinegar cocktail. The reviewers said I was too cynical, that no newspaperman would really act that way.

“I was feeling very downhearted, walking down Wilshire Boulevard when, right in front of me, somebody got hit by a car. A cameraman comes running up out of nowhere. I said ‘We’ve got to help him.’ The cameraman said, ‘You help him. I’ve gotta get my picture in.’ And off the guy went. Maybe I wasn’t cynical enough when I did Ace in the Hole.”

The ending to both stories: Minosa’s and Tatum’s, is hardly upbeat, but it’s real, and it’s Wilder.

If you don’t think Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard was offbeat and cynical enough, this Criterion Collection DVD of Ace in the Hole is for you.

DVD Extras: In depth 1980 interview with Billy Wilder, 1984 interview with Kirk Douglas, excerpts from 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute, excerpts (radio) from writer Walter Newman, new afterward from Spike Lee, a stills gallery and new essays by film critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin.

Read more articles by Maggie Van Ostrand