Ace in the Hole
Directed by: Billy Wilder
1951 112 min DCP
Part of: Billy Wilder: Ready for His Close-Up
Showtimes for Ace in the Hole
Part of Billy Wilder: Ready for His Close-Up
No one wants reporter Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas). Fired from nearly a dozen papers, he’s belligerent, often drunk, a hell of a writer but an odious human being. When he shows up, tail between his legs, at the Alburquerque Sun-Bulletin, he gets a crummy gig at next to no pay. When he stumbles on a man trapped in a cave, Tatum orchestrates an appalling media circus, preventing the man’s rescue so that he can build a story from it. Billy Wilder was always cynical, but his lacerating examination of American media eclipses everything he’s done. A flop in its day, ACE IN THE HOLE has since come to be regarded as a classic.
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.
Billy Wilder
Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur
1951
112 min
Drama