Ace in the Hole
Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) paired Kirk Douglas as the ruthless, scheming New York newspaperman Chuck Tatum with Jan Sterling as Lorraine Minosa, the petty and conspiring wife of Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) who has become half-buried under debris in a deep cave while uncovering Indian artifacts near his home in New Mexico. Douglas has wound up at the small Albuquerque Sun Bulletin by way of his heavy drinking, fighting, and skirt-chasing at other newspapers across the country. Craving a big story that will put him back on top of the journalistic world, Douglas controls both the rescue effort (only he can access Minosa) and the press (he has exclusive coverage) and rapidly turns the quiet desert into a raging, untrammeled carnival of tourism, games, rides, and entertainment (the film was released, to Wilder's dismay, as "The Big Carnival"). Though his trademark cynicism is 
more bare under the glare of the New Mexican sun and not tempered with the same kind of humor or emotion that marks Sunset Boulevard or Double Indemnity, Wilder's vision of America is perfectly embodied by the calculating stare of Douglas. Whereas Joe Gillis (William Holden) or Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) stumbled across their darker natures (each at the hands of a domineering woman), Douglas needed no guide to reach the lower depths of his soul. Particularly amusing in the film was Sterling's complicity gernerated by the increased profits at her (and her trapped-husband's) roadside diner as well as the slow corruption of the wide-eyed staff photographer Herbie Cook (Robert Arthur), who idolizes Douglas. The film was loosely based on the real-life fatality of Floyd Collins, who had been trapped in a cave in Kentucky and the local Louisville newspaper that earned a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. Kids trapped in wells still generate frenzied coverage on television and by morbid curiosity-seekers today. I first saw this movie in Oklahoma City in 1996.
Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) paired Kirk Douglas as the ruthless, scheming New York newspaperman Chuck Tatum with Jan Sterling as Lorraine Minosa, the petty and conspiring wife of Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) who has become half-buried under debris in a deep cave while uncovering Indian artifacts near his home in New Mexico. Douglas has wound up at the small Albuquerque Sun Bulletin by way of his heavy drinking, fighting, and skirt-chasing at other newspapers across the country. Craving a big story that will put him back on top of the journalistic world, Douglas controls both the rescue effort (only he can access Minosa) and the press (he has exclusive coverage) and rapidly turns the quiet desert into a raging, untrammeled carnival of tourism, games, rides, and entertainment (the film was released, to Wilder's dismay, as "The Big Carnival"). Though his trademark cynicism is 
more bare under the glare of the New Mexican sun and not tempered with the same kind of humor or emotion that marks Sunset Boulevard or Double Indemnity, Wilder's vision of America is perfectly embodied by the calculating stare of Douglas. Whereas Joe Gillis (William Holden) or Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) stumbled across their darker natures (each at the hands of a domineering woman), Douglas needed no guide to reach the lower depths of his soul. Particularly amusing in the film was Sterling's complicity gernerated by the increased profits at her (and her trapped-husband's) roadside diner as well as the slow corruption of the wide-eyed staff photographer Herbie Cook (Robert Arthur), who idolizes Douglas. The film was loosely based on the real-life fatality of Floyd Collins, who had been trapped in a cave in Kentucky and the local Louisville newspaper that earned a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. Kids trapped in wells still generate frenzied coverage on television and by morbid curiosity-seekers today. I first saw this movie in Oklahoma City in 1996.
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