I'm sure every film fan has that long list of movies that they should see, barring those distractions of work, family and life. As a huge fan of 'The Apartment,' I know that I my list includes many of the works of legendary writer and director Billy Wilder. Just a few years ago, I noticed the stir that resulted from Criterion finally bringing Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' to DVD when it had never been available on video at all. This skyrocketed the film near the top of that mental list, and having just gotten around to seeing it, I was not disappointed.
The plot follows selfish, manipulative newspaperman Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) as he stumbles into a great "human interest" tale - roadside curio shop owner Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) ends up trapped in a New Mexico mineshaft while searching for Indian artifacts. Leo's wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), initially hopes to use the incident as cover to finally leave her husband, but Tatum appeals to her greed, painting the picture of all the money that could roll in from curious tourists. After demonstrating the power of getting the story in the Albuquerque paper, Tatum also manipulates the sheriff (Ray Teal) into helping to prolong the crisis, turning the growing circus atmosphere to their advantage.
From what I gather through the grapevine, the initial box office failure and the general grim tone of this film have kept it off home video for years. Now that it can widely be found, it's easy to recommend, and certainly not a surprise to those used to the diversity of modern anti-heroes and general personages of questionable morals we've seen in movies over the past couple decades. There's also no question that the themes of media manipulation and the gullibility of the public were ahead of their time in a much more innocent era (1951).
As might be expected from Billy Wilder, the script of 'Ace in the Hole' is the major strength. Characterization is very solid and the plot is quite engrossing. The film also keeps itself fresh with extra details - for instance, we occasionally see the first family to stop in on the site of the accident and through them we get a view of how the media affects the general public.
As a modern viewer, my biggest hurdle to enjoying films of decades far past is the acting style. Quite acceptable and even exceptional for the period, some of the scenes of 'Ace in the Hole' now appear melodramatic. As the film moves on, the performances become more grounded, and as we get much more engrossed in the plot, the distraction is minimized.
Despite the distraction of some dated approaches, much of the film holds up quite well. Wilder claimed not to like fancy camera work, but there are a handful of sweeping shots in this film that likely made jaws drop back in the day. One of these follows a group of people off an arriving train as the join the assembled masses outside the mineshaft. Another follows the distraught father of Leo Minosa as he hands drinks around the workers on top of the hill who are operating a drill to get into the shaft and rescule Leo. It's amazing to see lines of cars and throngs of people in the distance from this perspective.
In addition to the great film, the Criterion DVD is worth checking out for the usual bevy of bonuses. A second disc includes a Wilder interview film called 'Portrait of a 60% Perfect Man' and additional Q&A from an American Film Institute appearance in the 1980s. Listening to Wilder dismiss with distaste the contemporary system of corporate moviemaking that has been entrenched over the past two decades is priceless.