Criterion Collection: Ace in the Hole | Blu-ray Review

A resounding flop upon its release, which saw it recut and rereleased as The Big Carnival without any greater success, Criterion remasters Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole for Blu-ray with a beautifully packaged presentation. A darkly prophetic nightmare concerning the carnivalesque power of the media, the 1951 feature is decades ahead of its time, and received a resoundingly sour reception upon initial release. Hot off the success from his 1950 hit, Sunset Boulevard, it would take the box office return of 1953’s Stalag 17 to recuperate Wilder’s studio graces.

Alternating between cocksure aggression and derisive self-loathing, smarmy journalist Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) struts into the office of Albuquerque’s local newspaper where he proceeds to demean a Native American employee and a ridicule the secretary fior her framed and self-embroidered mantra, “Tell the Truth.” It’s immediately clear that Tatum considers the local paper something akin to a cess pool while he sees himself as a big, disgraced fish floating in a little pond—albeit, at cost. Out of money and with his car broken down, Tatum asserts himself upon the humble staff, insistent on catching a big break so he can recuperate his damaged reputation (libel, adultery, and lots of booze got him the heave-ho) and zoom back to New York. But a year passes and nothing noteworthy comes Tatum’s way. Until, that is, when dispatched to cover a local rattlesnake competition he stumbles upon a man trapped in a silver mine cave-in. The man’s wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling) informs the journalist of the hubbub, appearing to be more annoyed than concerned for her husband’s safety in the dangerous, dilapidated mine, where he digs for Native American artifacts to sell. Climbing into the cave, Tatum speaks with Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) and assures him that those in charge are working on getting him out as soon as they can. Instead, Tatum whips the situation into nifty headline about a man caught in a cave, perhaps due to angry spirits displeased with his desecration of sacred ground. Soon, it’s a tourist frenzy and Tatum has ingratiated himself not only upon the sheriff (with whose collusion he usurps complete possession of the story) but the man’s wife. When a contractor announces that they can have the man out in a number of hours, Tatum and the Sheriff (eager for reelection) hold the contractor’s idea at bay and demand a much more complicated method to extract the man be used, which would take days longer.

Disc Review

While Ace in the Hole became part of the Criterion collection back in 2007, from which its most recent special features are still dated, this is a superb blu-ray transfer. It’s a gleeful package, chockfull of superlative features. An hour long documentary, Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder from 1980 documents the auteur’s career interspersed with interview footage by film critic Michel Ciment (tons of interesting facts here, including how Wilder liked to work—his inspiration for The Apartment was David Lean’s Brief Encounter). Likewise, a 1986 AFI interview of Wilder by George Stevens Jr., though condensed, is also of note. Snippets of interviews from Kirk Douglas in 1984 and excerpts from a radio interview with coscreenwriter Walter Newman from 1970 are also engaging.

A 2007 video featuring director Spike Lee as he professes his admiration for the film is a bit of amusing fanfare. The DVD/Blu-ray package also sports one of Criterion’s best inserts, fashioned to look like an Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, with excellent essays from Molly Haskell and director Guy Maddin are formatted to newspaper column. Maddin, in particular, has several laugh out loud descriptors, such as “though the cave rat’s wife, the perfectly cast Jan Sterling, appears to have come pre-hoovered of all scruples,” and gloriously describes Douglas, “whose body has always seemed made up of a series of triangles, whose face is a sizzling griddle cake of unconcealed emotion.” It’s priceless, beloved commentary on an American classic.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to recall a more viciously selfish anti-hero from the studio era than Kirk Douglas’ Chuck Tatum. No wonder audiences and critics backed off from its vicious sting, which now plays like some perverse snapshot from a crystal ball. Beyond perhaps the trapped man, the physician and a priest, there aren’t any decent human beings in sight. Instead, Wilder and screenwriters Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman takes pains to show humanity at its contemptible worst, with Douglas and Sterling reveling in reptilian mode. “Bad news sells but good news is no news,” Tatum matter-of-factly explains to a protégé at the Albuquerque paper, likewise insisting that “I don’t make things happen.” But the problem with Tatum is that he does make things happen, eventually turning himself into a murderer. It’s only when he realizes the full extent of his actions that he backtracks out of fear, culminating in what has to be one of the most glorious falls ever captured on film.

With the exception of a nomination for Best Writing, Ace in the Hole was locked out of the Oscars, which is a shame considering the performances. On one end of the spectrum is a superb Jan Sterling, callously uncouth as the icy platinum blonde that would’ve headed out if it weren’t for the strange dalliance she shares with Douglas’ who turns in a bombastic, aggressive and over-the-top performance that carries the film. While Sterling received a Best Actress Award from the National Board of Review, Douglas didn’t receive any awards love (he won Best Actor the year prior for Champion). Surprisingly bleak, perversely funny, and undoubtedly impressive, if you haven’t yet had the chance to catch Wilder’s classic Ace in the Hole, it’s high time to catch up with this supremely prescient title.

Film: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc: ★★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆