Ace in the Hole

Pros:

Cool concept, Kirk Douglas

Cons: Below average support cast

Ace in the Hole is a black and white 1951 film noir, written, directed and produced by Billy Wilder and starring Kirk Douglas. Wilder was already a big name at the time following Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend and Double Indemnity. Ace in the Hole ...

Pros: incisive view of the news media
Cons: bitter taste

Sandwiched between two of Billy Wilder’s biggest hits Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17, Ace in the Hole was a major box-office disappointment and never released for home video until 2007.  Today it is regarded as one of Wilder’s best ...

Pros: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, an odour of evil and cynicism that never goes away.
Cons: No human warmth at all.

Billy Wilder was responsible for some rather dark films that it’s somewhat intriguing how he was able to make hits out of them. Even his romantic comedy The Apartment (which won Best Picture in 1960) has a number of despairing elements - including the ...

Pros: Outstanding, chilling and cynical
Cons: None

It's unlikely that anyone involved in the making of "Ace in the Hole" could have really expected something like the media chaos surrounding such stories as Anna Nicole Smith, O.J. Simpson or any of the countless missing white women or kid stories that ...

Pros: Great performances, cinematography, dialogue
Cons: Cynical, very dark and still all-too relevant.

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 ...

Pros: -
Cons: -

Whenever I see a media frenzy—like, say, when a pop superstar suffers an untimely death—I'm reminded of Ace in the Hole.  Also known as The Big Carnival, it's Billy Wilder's disdainful look at American journalism.  Kirk Douglas stars as an opportunistic reporter stuck in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Determined to get back to New York City, opportunity comes a knocking when our man, sent to cover a rattlesnake roundup, stumbles upon a curio collector (Richard Benedict) trapped in a mine.  Could this be the big story that goes national, the "circulation builder" he's dreamed about?  Maybe.  But not if they dig the guy out too quickly, that's for sure.  See where we're going?  More appreciated now then when first released in 1951 ("Americans expected a cocktail and felt I was giving them a shot of vinegar instead"), there's a lot to admire here, although the final scene doesn't ring true.  With biting dialog, pitch-black cynicism, and a memorable performance by Jan Sterling as the victim's bleach-blond wife, who isn't exactly heartbroken.  One of Billy Wilder's best.  Black and white photography by Charles Lang.