Ace In The Hole

With a plot inspired by two real-life events, Ace In The Hole (1951) was not only ahead of its time but its male lead, Kirk Douglas, delivers a tour de force performance as Chuck Tatum, a down-on-his luck reporter who stops at nothing to get his much needed comeback story.

With an ego the size of Manhattan and ambition the size of New York, reporter Chuck Tatum is forced to downsize after being fired from a staggering eleven papers for repeated drunkenness, libel, womanising and so forth. Ending up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a broken car and a broken reputation, he bamboozles Jacob Boot (Porter Hall), the editor of the rather insignificant Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, into giving him a job. After one year has passed, and with journalistic assignments as insignificant as the paper itself, Tatum’s fate is about to change: while out and about to cover a rattlesnake hunt, he hears news of a local man named Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) being trapped in a collapsed cave.

Smelling his big chance of putting his name and reputation back on the map, Tatum begins to manipulate the rescue operation… convincing everyone from Sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) to construction contractors into drilling from above the cave as opposed to shoring up the existing passages. Claiming that this would be the more efficient way to rescue the trapped man, Tatum only pretends, so that things drag on for a little longer. That way, Tatum will finally get his front-page story… nationwide! Enter attractive but disillusioned Lorraine (Jan Sterling), Minosa’s wife. She too has a reason for the rescue operation getting delayed. Lorraine hates her life in this godforsaken backwater, she hates her job working for her husband’s trading post cum restaurant, and one gets the impression she even hates her husband – blaming him for her dull life in the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, the trapped Minosa only ever thinks of her, something which becomes evident during conversations that Tatum has with him in in the cave. As rescue efforts continue albeit to little avail, the tiny backwater sees thousands of people flocking to the place, turning tragedy into circus and spectacle. TV crews report live, with Tatum being the puppet master who pulls the strings. While Tatum sees unfolding tragedy as a golden opportunity for his own profit, Lorraine sees her big chance in Tatum. The two hook up and she fancies going to the Big Apple with him, after he sold the exclusive rights of his coverage to his former employer. However, she sees through him soon enough and comes to realise that she is just another tool in his evil plan to claw his way back to journalistic success.

When Tatum realises that Minosa’s condition worsens by the hour, he tries to manipulate the rescue operation in speeding up the work, but it’s too late and the trapped man dies. The circus is over and people return to their everyday lives. When Lorraine realises that Tatum, who started drinking again, no longer needs her and expresses his antipathy violently, she stabs him with a pair of scissors. He just about reaches the Sun-Bulletin office in Albuquerque before he collapses… We, the viewer, are left guessing whether he lives long enough to reveal the real sensation, namely how HE is responsible for the death of Leo Minosa!

Ace In The Hole is a brutal examination of journalistic ethics and demonstrates just how far the press is willing to go to get their story, regardless of the damage caused in the process. It’s a topic as relevant then as it is now, and proves to show that we, the readers, are just as much to blame in our thirst for gutter-press sensationalism.

Boasting superb performances from all the lead actors, in particular Kirk Douglas as acidic and morally bankrupt reporter Tatum, and Jan Stirling as the embittered wife of the trapped Minosa, Ace In The Hole is one of Billy Wilder’s finest, thought-provoking and uncompromising movies.

This Dual-Format (Blu-ray and DVD release) comes packed with many SPECIAL FEATURES, including gorgeous 1080p transfer of the film, vintage interview material about the film and its director, rare archival imagery, 40-page booklet, and more. The release is part of Eureka’s! ‘The Masters Of Cinema’ series.