Out of the Past: “Ace in the Hole” (1951)

After splitting with his writing partner, Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder was let loose with little interference from the Hollywood studios to write and direct the uncompromisingly unsympathetic Ace in the Hole. In this follow-up to the wildly successful Sunset Boulevard, Wilder’s cynicism was on full display in this piece about a journalist willing to stretch and break the limits of journalistic ethics or, for that matter, anybody’s code of ethics.

A down-and-out journalist, Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas), arrives in Albuquerque, New Mexico being towed in his broken down car. Tatum manages to con himself into a job at the local newspaper. His thirst to find a juicy story is quenched a year later when a local is trapped below the waist in a cave-in. Smelling an opportunity, Tatum successfully prolongs the rescue attempt in order to sensationalize the story. He manipulates everyone he meets. Tatum convinces the trapped man’s disillusioned wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling) of staying by her husband. Lorraine is as exploitative of her husband’s predicament as Tatum. She charges a 25 cent fee to join the media circus that has congregated around the site where her husband is trapped.

Thousands of spectators camp outside the rescue site. They bring with them caravans, binoculars, swing carousels, and instruments to create timely songs (“We’re Coming Charlie” is an anthem that a band creates to rally the masses). A train, on a once deserted track, carries hundreds of onlookers willing to pay the price to join the fun. They take pleasure in being witnesses to the horrendous ordeal through which the buried man is going through. Wilder contrasts the superficiality of the media circus with the very real and tragic circumstances unfolding below the ground. Tatum is the only soul other than a local doctor who is witness to the unhinging of the man trapped below the surface.

Cinematographer Charles Lang contrasts the harsh natural lighting of the outdoors Midwestern sun with the shadows that consume Wilder’s characters when they move indoors or traverse the caverns. The contrast of lighting pulls back the curtain on Tatum and Lorraine to show their true natures as deceptive and uncaring. The lack of shadows in the film makes it one of the more unique films to come from the “classic” period of film-noir.

Ace in the Hole turned out to be one of Wilder’s less commercially successful films. Later re-titled The Big Carnival to boost sales, it has found a second life years after its initial release. It is a harbinger of the sensationalism of the 24-hour internet and TV outlets that feed on terrorist attacks, lost planes, and celebrity scandals. As Tatum prophetically announces, good news is no news.