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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 0715515024723
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 17, 2007
Running Time: 111 minutes
Sales Rank: 12007
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: June 29, 1951
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Editorial Review:
Studio description:
One of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker, Academy Award-winner Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a hard-to-find cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime-and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder's follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred expose that anticipated the rise of the American media circus.
Amazon.com:
The character of newspaperman Chuck Taylor (Kirk Douglas) is best summed up by an astonished bystander (herself no soft touch): 'I met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you--you're 20 minutes!' Meet the 'hero' of Billy Wilder's corrosive 1951 classic Ace in the Hole (a.k.a. The Big Carnival), a former big-time reporter whose reputation is so tarnished he's now at an Albuquerque rag, chasing down local-interest stuff. Until, that is, a local miner gets stuck in a cave--a situation that Taylor not only exploits but actually manipulates, the better to improve his career chances. Wilder got the idea for the movie from the real-life media circus that followed the Floyd Collins story (Collins was trapped in a cave for over a week in 1925). Needless to say, the opportunities for displaying greed and venality are fully drawn out by Wilder; indeed, the film looks unbelievably prescient from a modern perspective of media overload.
Although Wilder had scored a success with Sunset Boulevard just a year earlier, he misread the public's ability to stare into the merciless mirror he held up to them in Ace in the Hole. The movie bombed. Paramount changed the title to The Big Carnival, thus wrecking one of Wilder's most acidic puns, but it didn't help. It also doesn't matter: Ace in the Hole is one of the truly grown-up movies of its time, and age has only improved it. Wilder's ear for cynical dialogue is honed to its sharpest point, and Kirk Douglas has one of his best parts, which he attacks with customary ferocity. Jan Sterling plays the hard-nosed wife of the trapped man, with Porter Hall as Douglas's publisher--the lone voice of decency in the film's cruel parade. Admirably, Wilder takes this all the way down the line: the ending of the movie might be the best in-your-face finish since Public Enemy. --Robert Horton
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
After a long wait for the Criterion edition of 'Ace in the Hole', I must say that I am not disappointed.
As a follow-up to the quintessential Wilder film, 'Sunset Boulevard', 'Ace' works well as a companion piece. But the message is also more poignant and universal than in 'Sunset'. 'Ace' is all about greed and hubris. This is fairly obvious but what strikes me the most is the incredible visual symbolism of such themes (the constant tightening of the hole in the cave throughout the ... Read More
Rating: -
In 1950 Billy Wilder was riding high. Fresh off the enormously successful Sunset Boulevard, the German-born Wilder decided to make a very different film; one somewhat critical of the society of his new home, the United States. That film was called Ace in the Hole.
The movie concerns Kirk Douglas as a down-on-his-luck reporter who has been fired from just about every major newspaper in the country. Starting with New York, he's gone from large market to small, and now has ended up in Alberquerque. ... Read More
Rating: -
Ignored, unappreciated, even despised by the majority upon its initial release, Ace in the Hole is a bold social critique that pulls no punches. This movie holds up the public mirror and tries to make people see just how much they suck.
Kirk Douglas delivers another fearless performance as Charles Tatum, a shameless big-city reporter that has been exiled from several lucrative jobs. So he retreats to a small town newspaper gig in New Mexico, in order to reestablish his career.
Tatum hates his new ... Read More
Rating: -
I bought this DVD for my boyfriend for a Christmas present with my fingers crossed. It's impossible to describe how movie-centric he is... we've chosen vacation destinations based on movies. It was a HUGE hit! He's watched all of the extras at least once now, and he loved the creative way Criterion made the front insert look like an old newspaper. It's gritty, ahead of it's time, and Kirk Douglas is a true star! Criterion wins again (as if anyone thought it'd be otherwise!).
Rating: -
Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
Thank heaven (or Criterion) for a release of Billy Wilder's notorious and brilliant Ace in the Hole for the home video market. As topical as it may have been fifty-six years ago, today it has an unprecedented relevance to American society. It's rare that a film's importance grows over time. This is one of those cases.
The story centers around Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas in the performance of his career), a disgraced newspaper reporter who finds himself ... Read More
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