Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

One of the most unknown, darkest but also greatest movies of star Kirk Douglas and director Billy Wilder, the 1951 drama Ace in the Hole (Also called The Big Carnival) remains one of the most biting indictments of the madness and insanity of the mass media.

Charles Tatum (Douglas) is a down and out news man. Once a big time reporter in New York City and several other major cities (He’s been fired and hired repeatedly), he now covers tornadoes and rattlesnake roundups for an Albuquerque, New Mexico paper. That all changes, though, when he drops by another small town in New Mexico. A local man, Leo (Richard Benedict), has become trapped in a cave-in. Instead of immediately rescuing the man, Tatum decides to milk the story for all it’s worth.

As Tatum’s sensational stories make their way onto print, it soon becomes nothing more then a huge media circus, with tourists coming from all around just to see the site and to hope for Leo. Leo’s wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) could care less whether her husband lives or dies and actual comes on to Tatum several times, whom coldly rejects her because he’s only interested in the story (And so as to also continue spinning the human interest angle). Tatum and the crooked town sheriff (Ray Teal) also prevent other newsmen from getting in contact with Leo as they coerce the engineer (Frank Jaquet) into drilling through the mountain, rather then shoring up the walls and getting Leo out quicker. Time is Chuck Tatum’s greatest asset as the media coverage intensifies, but it’s also his greatest foe.

Douglas seems to have a ball playing this part, and perhaps also revels in his character’s unfortunate chain of events. It’s one of his most despicable characters of all time, but he glosses it on real good. Tatum has the enthusiasm and fierceness of a salesman, and he concocts lies smoother then anyone else. “I can handle big news and little news. And if there's no news, I'll go out and bite a dog” he tells the editor-in-chief (Porter Hall) near the movie’s beginning. Tatum also remarks that “I don’t make news, I report it”, suggesting that if events get out of hand, that’s just the way it is (And the way it becomes). His is a perfect example of the classic characters in Billy Wilder movies: He willingly gets himself into events that could lead to trouble in hopes of getting something that he wants, and he does indeed get it, only to find himself in his own symbolic cave-in by being trapped when the story falls apart. He tries to redeem himself at the end like a rat when he’s cornered, but the story doesn’t allow him to escape justice.

Sterling is icy in her platinum blonde performance: She cannot wait to skip town and only stays behind by realizing the goldmine that it becomes. There is no chemistry between her and Tatum because, much like that of Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, theirs is one of business, and Lorraine would use anybody that can get her out of this stink town. The supporting case does a splendid job as well, with notable work by Benedict and Bob Arthur as a young reporter whom tags along with Tatum but, unlike Tatum, is far more conscientious.

The screenplay from Wilder, Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels is packed with the usual sharp and cynical dialogue expected from a Wilder picture (When Tatum first complains about the Albuquerque newspaper to the editor, the editor replies "Here's your nickel back". In another scene, when a frustrated reporter tells Tatum “We’re all in the same boat here”, Tatum replies “I’m in the boat, you’re in the water. Now let’s see you swim”). Charles Lang’s cinematography and Hugo Friedhofer’s score heighten the film noir atmosphere of the movie.

This story was one of several works of book and film based on the 1925 death of W. Floyd Collins, a miner whom got stuck in a cave in Kentucky (The story is mentioned several times by Tatum, as he hopes to get a Pulitzer Prize like the reporter that covered the Collins story). The sets of the mine and cliff dwelling were built at a trading post on Route 66 in the small town of Gallup, New Mexico. Perhaps fittingly, after filming was completed, the owner of the site kept the mine open and made money off of it as a tourist attraction while his own business increased.

Ace in the Hole was not well received upon initial release, being panned by critics and doing so poorly at the box office that when Wilder’s next film, Stalag 17, was a big hit, Paramount actually deducted its losses from that film’s total earnings. As with all of Wilder’s great movies, however, its real-life approach and stern, unsentimental attitude has kept it persisting to this day. Only a matter of weeks ago, thirteen miners in West Virginia were stuck in a cave-in, with all but one dying due to gas and other fumes nearby. As soon as a whiff of the story came out, every single news channel and news paper was covering it virtually simultaneously. An even greater example would be when Hurricane Katrina struck in September of last year. While it was taking days if not longer for the federal government to get search and rescue attempts into full gear, and while stranded residents left in New Orleans were sick and dying, every single talking head in the country was on the story pumping the human interest more and more, not to mention their own ratings and pay days. Charles Tatum says at one point in the movie “Bad news sells best. Cause good news is no news”, and that’s become the creed of every single news network. Ace in the Holes also shows the depths that people will go to in order to make money, which is something that most of us can also relate to.

There is so much that can be written about this movie, both good and bad. I shall close, though, with discussing what I've heard is the best metaphor for this movie: A train wreck. Like a train wreck, Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival can be unpleasant at times, but it's also fascinating and you can't look away from it. And at a train wreck, much like in this movie, you'll find people honestly concerned about the dead and dying in the wreck, people whom are just concerned with getting pictures and a story to print, people whom cannot wait to get souvenirs from the site and people whom are just there, perhaps munching away on cotton candy being sold by vendors. Don't believe me? You've obviously never read a newspaper or watched CNN.

Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival has never been released publicly on VHS or DVD, but it makes an occasional appearance on Turner Classic Movies, and you might be lucky enough to find a copy on ebay.com, where I struck it rich. If you ever get the opportunity to see it, I very strongly recommend it.

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On imdb.com's page for Billy Wilder, there is this extended quote from the director on this movie, which displays clearly his point of view on both the movie and on the criticism that it received:

I was attacked by every paper because of that movie. They loathed it. It was cynical, they said. Cynical, my a$$. I tell you, you read about a plane crash somewhere nearby and you want to check out the scene, you can't get to it because ten thousand people are already there: they're picking up little scraps, ghoulish souvenir hunters. After I read those horrifying reviews about "Ace in the Hole", I remember I was going down Wilshire Boulevard and there was an automobile accident. Somebody was run over. I stopped my car. I wanted to help that guy who was run over. Then another guy jumps out of his car and photographs the thing. "You'd better call an ambulance," I said. "Call a doctor, my a$$. I've got to get to the L.A. Times. I've got a picture. I've got to move. I just took a picture here. I've got to deliver it." But you say that in a movie, and the critics think you're exaggerating."

FURTHER READING:

Reviews:
http://goatdog.com/moviePage.php?movieID=507
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=953
http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/aceinthehole/
http://www.sover.net/~ozus/bigcarnival.htm

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_in_the_Hole_%281951_film%29

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338/

Update: 06/21/07- Due out on DVD on July 17, 2007!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000PKG6OE/imdb-button/

Update: 08/06/07- I got ahold of the Criterion DVD, which was released a few weeks ago. It is simply marvelous. Bonus features include a still photo gallery, great critical essays (Arranged in a newspaper-style foldout), archive interviews with Billy Wilder and Kirk Douglas (Whom is particularly insightful) and an afterword with Spike Lee of all people. Lee says that Ace in the Hole is a "dark movie for 2007, so you can only imagine what it was like in 1951." You come away from the DVD more appreciative of the movie; it isn't cynical, just ahead of its time. Overall, an outstanding DVD that should finally give this movie the recognition that it deserves.

Update: 08/26/07- Roger Ebert has reviewed Ace in the Hole as part of the "Great Movies" series.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070812/REVIEWS08/70810003/1004

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older