Ace in the Hole (1951)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Ace in the Hole (1951) – B. Wilder

To say that Billy Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Blvd (1950) is bleaker and even more cynical is really saying something (and I’m saying it).  Humans can be despicable.  Moreover, this 1951 film is positively prescient about a number of things: 1) the way that the news media would seek out lurid stories to attract more eyeballs; 2) the temptation to manufacture such stories to increase circulation; 3) the public’s willingness to consume such stories regardless of their truth; and 4) the easy deals the media would make with politicians to gain access to stories in exchange for favourable coverage (which people consume despite its palpable falseness).  There’s probably even more.  Kirk Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, a reporter who has burned bridges at most big city newspapers and now finds himself stuck in Albuquerque, New Mexico, waiting for a break.  It comes when a local man is trapped in a cave-in when looting a Native American burial site.  Tatum convinces others (the sheriff, the engineer) to leave the man underground while the story builds, attracting national attention.  A circus results.  Wilder doesn’t pull any punches depicting Tatum and also the man’s wife (Jan Sterling) as callous and unfeeling, seeking only a buck or fame –- some thought Wilder a misanthrope but he might have just been telling it as it is (or would be). It’s interesting to reimagine the film with social media thrown into the mix – likely it would be worse with all those selfies taken at the spot and you-tubers giving a play-by-play.  Wilder couldn’t envision the chaos we have in the “media” today, but he had a good handle on the sickness in human nature that is cause and consequence.