Ace in the Hole (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

If you're unfamiliar with this, it's from the guy that made "Sunset Boulevard" -- and it's his personal favorite. Yes, worth watching. Both thought-provoking and grippingly entertaining.If you're familiar with this stuff, then no, there's nothing wrong with this particular film, it's great, go ahead and click "play," you know it's all good.This film just *flew* along for me, felt like maybe 45 minutes had passed. Wow, what a great director! This may also be an older film, but the story (sadly) feels relevant as ever. If you're looking for a good B&W watch you've certainly found it.

In 1950 Billy Wilder was riding high. Fresh off the enormously successful Sunset Boulevard, the German-born Wilder decided to make a very different film; one somewhat critical of the society of his new home, the United States. That film was called Ace in the Hole.The movie concerns Kirk Douglas as a down-on-his-luck reporter who has been fired from just about every major newspaper in the country. Starting with New York, he's gone from large market to small, and now has ended up in Alberquerque. He's a self-described $250 a week reporter, but settles for $60 a week, and makes it clear at one point he'd be willing to take even less.But his character, Chuck Tatum, has dreams. Yes, he does. He dreams that one day, the Great Story will drop into his lap. A story that will let him write his way out of the situation he's in, one that will let him write his own ticket and get back to New York.That Great Story drops into his lap one day when, while on the way to cover a rattlesnake hunt, he stops at a gas station and finds out there's a man trapped in a nearby cave. He boldly goes into the gave, meets Leo Mimosa (Richard Benedict), the man trapped inside, and smells a story.Immediately he begins to sabotage the rescue efforts. When the engineer in charge of getting Mimosa out explains that it might take most of a day to get him out safely, Tatum conconcts a much more convulted rescue plan, one that will certainly take days. Days during which he can write a great story about this poor man trapped in a mountin. A story that will finally take him back to New York.Along the way he meets the slightly corrupt sheriff (Ray Teal), who is more-than-willing to help him, figuring the attention boosts his chances of getting relected. Also present is Mimosa's wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), who can't stand her husband and wants to leave. Tatum practically forces her to remain, saying the story works so much better if there's a grieving wife at home for him to focus on.As the days roll past, people begin to show up. First just a family on their way to a nice vaction, who end up settling in for the long haul. Before you know it, the entire area is filled with cars, as people come from miles around to witness this great story. Eventually a large carnvial builds up around the site (in fact the movie was, at one point, called The Big Carnival). Access to the cave area, once free, goes from 25 cents a car to 50 cents, and then to a dollar. The gas station is making money hand over fist. Tatum is being courted by New York. Everyone is benefiting. Everyone but Leo.Things begin to change in the life of everyone involved, including Tatum, when Leo starts to get sicker and sicker. Tatum quickly realizes the story doesn't work if the man in the cave doesn't make it out alive, and starts to try and change his tactics, only to find out that it might be too late.The story is based to a great extent on real-life events in 1925, when a man named Floyd Collins became trapped in a mine. It also put me in mind of those stories back in the late 80's and early 90's, where it seemed like every week some kid was getting trapped in a well. If nothing else, this movie shows well that the media circus that errupted around those wells was little different from what has gone before.When the movie was released, it was largely panned. Many people seemed to think it was overly-cynical and presented an image of America as it wasn't. The film also failed miserably at the box office. It did get an Oscar nomination, for the screenplay, but lost. Most people today have never even heard of the film, and that's a tragedy.The movie was recently released on DVD by the Criterion Collection and turns up on Turner Classic Movies from time-to-time. It's an exceptional film, with stunning cinematography, great performances and a wonderful screenplay. It feels amazingly modern despite being 57 years old.Roger Ebert said of this movie:"Wilder, true to this vision and ahead of his time, made a movie in which the only good men are the victim and his doctor. Instead of blaming the journalist who masterminds a media circus, he is equally hard on sightseers who pay 25 cents admission. Nobody gets off the hook here."He's exactly correct. The public that eats up these stories is every bit as culpable as the journalists who create them. If we ignore these stories, they'll go away. Instead the public lavishes attention onto them, encouraging the worst in journalism. On the plus side, at least in this case, it makes for a wonderful, if sometimes hard to watch, film.

Are you grinning because I say it's a religious, deeply spiritual film? Well look at it from my point of view (maybe even Wilder's point of view). What does the mount look like with the big drill sitting on top of it, and trying to save (physically) a man trapped deep underneath?Why does Wilder focus so much on the contrast between the fake and mean wife and the religious mother, her dying son and tender-hearted brother? How about the meaning of the snakes in the story, and that the corrupt sheriff has a rattlesnake as a pet with him most of the time? What role does the kid-journalist play in the story, having to decide between following Tatum (evil maybe?) and the small town newspaper (good, perhaps?)Why would Wilder make the role of the man trapped in the hole in the mountain so obviously religious? "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned" were his last words. Is that not important in the film? Why then do people only focus on the media circus, on the social aspects of the film? Becuase, perhaps, people don't like to think they may be part of the crowd? The same crowd who gathers to have fun while watching a man die. Would you crucify Christ again if He showed up for a short visit?The film is a pointing finger to you and me, folks. Don't look the other way. Don't blame the world for what you help to do.Billy Wilder most Christian, or spiritual film. A critic of the media, social hypocrisy? No, that's only the surface. What I see is 2 worlds living together made up of lost souls and saved souls. For those who live on the fringes of both is this film dedicated. People like Mr. Tatum (Kirk Douglas) who have lived on the wild side and know the dark in-and-outs of corrupt and hypocritical society, not only the media but society as a mass of sinful persons. He lived in it, was part of the gang and since he wasn't faced with nothing better lived up to its expectation, he became a master reporter who almost sold his soul to the business. Almost, because when he meets this small town newspaper who won't admit anything but the Truth on its pages, a glimpse of the other side enters his life, a glimpse of salvation. Kicked out many previous big papers due to his bouts of alcoholism he ends up here, to his luck, that is... to his death and resurrection as a new man. he will have to pay with his life, but as the Christian teaching goes: Those who will want to save their life will lose it, and those who will want to give it up for the sake of Him (God) will save it.Of course most people won't see this message here, a deeply spiritual message that poises a question to each viewer: Are you part of the crowd who congregates to see a dying man and enjoy the show, shed a hypocritical tear and live on, or are you willing to give yourself up in order to save your soul? For Mr. Tatum is took a lot of thinking and a lot of twists and turns to make him realize which was the best option. It didn't have to end up like that but better that that lose Salvation.One of the best 10 films ever.The extra disc has a fine conversation piece by Wilder and small comments by Mathaus and Lemmon. Wilder is really himself here, and enjoys the talk.