Billy Wilder Scores a Trenchant Ace in the Hole Blitzing the Media

 

A tough, penetrating view of the power of the press and how it can weave a web of intrigue with a public willing to buy into any exciting story it’s sold regardless of fact, director Billy Wilder’s 1951 Ace in the Hole offers a fascinating, still-relevant look at the ignoble extents some ambitious, immoral media figures go to in the quest to gain prestige, money and fame in their chosen profession. Armed with a caustic, engrossing screenplay (written by Wilder, Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels, from a story by Victor Desny, inspired in part by the 1925 Floyd Collins case, which is mentioned in the film) that pulls no punches while showcasing some of the best, most incisive dialogue ever, Wilder helms an incredible tale of Chuck Tatum, a once elite-reporter who, after burning his bridges into double digits, takes a small town job at the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, then finds a chance on assignment to return to the big time after discovering a man, Leo Minosa, has just been trapped in a cave in Escudero, a tiny locale a few hours from Albuquerque. As Tatum ruthlessly takes control of the story, including gaining exclusive access to Leo with the help of a sleezy sheriff, the tension builds, with the fate of Leo, a pawn in Tatum’s scheme, hanging in the balance. Artful on-location cinematography (in New Mexico) by Charles Lang which lends a “you are there” feel to the proceedings, an acute score by Hugo Friedhofer that knows exactly when to up the ante concerning suspenseful moments, and creative playing by a roster of fine actors led by Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling in peak form make this 111-minute exercise in bleakness roll by in hypnotic fashion.

                Wilder appears fully engaged in bringing his latest bitter-tinged scenario to the public, after scoring in this mode with past hits such as the all-time noir classic Double Indemnity, and two key Wilder films that resulted in Oscars on his mantle, 1945’s The Lost Weekend and the previous year’s tough take on Hollywood and the transitory fame therein, Sunset Boulevard. Also well-known for his lighter fare after starting as a scriptwriter (including work on the peerless 1939 romantic comedy, Midnight) such as his directorial debut, The Major and the Minor and A Foreign Affair, Wilder often was able to deftly blend comedic elements in his more serious work. Ace is largely a harsh, unrelenting drama, one of the most intriguing aspects of the film is how Wilder is able to occasional throw in sardonic comedy lines without alternating the film’s stern tone. The director also handles much bigger set pieces than normally found in his films in adroit fashion, carefully illustrating the different types that form the mammoth crowds, vendors and newspaper men showing up at the cave site to curiously await Leo’s outcome, hawk their wares, and try to one-up Tatum with a scoop of their own, respectfully, while including expansive shots to show how this swarm overtakes the cave area as the story becomes more sensationalized. Ace proves what Wilder could pull off when given the chance to invest all his ample talents into a passion project with subject manner far from the Hollywood norm. After the disappointing initial reaction to Ace, Wilder would go on a largely uninterrupted host of hits and/or critical successes in the 1950s-60s, including Stalag 17, Sabrina, 1959’s smash-hit comedy Some Like it Hot, more Oscars along with big box office for The Apartment and Irma La Douce, before slowing down his film output. Wilder would receive justified major career accolades via the prestigious AFI 1986 Life Achievement Award, the Academy’s Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1988, as a recipient of a Kennedy Center honor in 1990 and the National Medal of Arts in 1993, before his passing in 2002 at age 95.

For star Douglas, Ace offers one of the prime roles of career, which he devours with relish, after breaking through a couple years earlier in electric fashion with Oscar-nominated work as the anti-hero boxer title figure of Champion. As Tatum, Douglas fearlessly illustrates the ambitions and desperate underhanded tactics of this unethical newsman, making no play for audience sympathy as the prime heel uses any method and anyone who can help him as he tries to work his way to the top, while also ably showing the guilt that plays on Tatum’s conscientious as he fully grasps the grim nature of Leo’s predicament. Coming across as a force of nature, Douglas unabashedly savors colorfully showcasing each of the character’s traits, specifically his worst ones, in a manner unfamiliar with the movie-going public of the time, who normal found a host of redeeming qualities in their leading men and the roles they enacted, even in parts conveying some difficult behavioral attributes. Douglas would have a great one-two punch in this intense mode during 1951, with equally imposing work in William Wyler’s Detective Story, which reaped the success with critics and audiences not afforded to Ace, helping to cement Douglas as one of Hollywood’s top male stars. He backed up this notion by making a major impact starring in many quality productions of the 1950s and beyond, including further Oscar nominations for The Bad and the Beautiful and remarkable work as Vincent Van Gogh in Lusts for Life; seeming having a ball in a late-1954 smash, Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; starting a fruitful partnership with Burt Lancaster with his compelling Doc Holliday in 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; up to no good again with flair in another hit, The Vikings; then gaining possible his most famous role as the title figure in 1960’s Spartacus before continuing on as a durable star, regardless of setbacks, until his death at 103 in 2020.

Starting on Broadway as a teen in 1938, then moving into films in 1947 via Tycoon, Manhattan-born Jan Sterling quickly established herself as a talented newcomer with standout work in one of 1948’s biggest critical and box-office dramas, Johnny Belinda, then moved on to a variety of roles, including providing fine, distinctive comedy relief as one of the inmates in Caged, the classic women’s prison picture. Coming from an elite background, Sterling showed a knack for playing bad girls with and without hearts of gold, making her an ideal choice for Ace’s self-centered, cold-blooded femme fatale Lorraine, who is desperate to escape her dead-end marriage and start anew, but is encouraged by Tatum to deceitfully stay around as the ‘grieving, devoted wife’ to build both of their fortunes. Sterling does a fantastic job of showing both the snide, selfish side of Lorainne, throwing out her acid-laced dialogue with skillful aplomb (the way she sarcastically draws out the word “sheriff” is an especially satisfying moment), and a more erotic side as she warms up to Tatum and seeks to add a little intimacy to their toxically driven relationship. Ace would prove perhaps the highlight of Sterling’s film career, but she maintained a strong presence in films and television, with another peak arising via a Golden Globe award and her sole Oscar nomination for a big one from 1954, The High and the Mighty, then working well with Humphrey Bogart in his final film, 1956’s The Harder They Fall. Slowing down her onscreen output in the 1960’s, Sterling would make her final feature film in 1981’s First Monday in October, then pass in 2004 at age 82.

The rest of the formidable cast also bring skill and intelligence to their acting. Robert Arthur, in films since 1945 as a male ingenue-type, with a nice turn in Twelve O’Clock High a highlight, does good work as Herbie Cook, the young colleague of Tatum at the Sun-Bulletin whose strong moral center serves as a counterpoint to Chuck’s ruthlessness, with Herbie standing in for the audience as one of the conscientious voices in the film. As the unfortunate Leo, Richard Benedict does an admirable job of detailing the trapped man’s innocence nature and simple goodness, as well as the unrest and fear that hound Leo as time passes and he stays encumbered. Ace and Ace character actor Porter Hall adds another expert portrayal to filmography as Jacob Boot, the sage owner and publisher of the Sun-Bulletin, whose ethical stance to “Tell the Truth” in reporting puts him in conflict with Tatum’s more onerous, sly approach. As Leo’s grieving parents who want nothing to do with the chaos surrounding the rescue attempt, John Berkes and Frances Dominguez lend emotional pull and a sense of humanity to the plot’s uneasy ferocity.

The uncompromising, disturbing Ace in the Hole would take time to find widespread acclaim and a solid fan base, opening in 1951 to uneven reviews and barren box office returns, with a retitling via The Big Carnival doing little to change the movie’s fortunes. However, the film did get some positive attention from the outset, including a Venice Film Festival International prize for Wilder and one for Hugo Friedhofer’s score and an Oscar nomination for Best Story and Screenplay. Sterling also received a fair amount of praise for her unusually mordant anti-heroine, with a Newsweek profile proclaiming her an important new star and The National Board of Review bestowing its Best Actress prize to her, quite a feat in the year of Vivien Leigh’s peerless work as Blanche DuBois. Over the years film historians have raised the bar considerably concerning the status of Ace in the Hole as one of the 1950’s most indelible dramas, presaging unscrupulous elements found in today’s media. Recently the movie found its way on the National Film Registry’s 2017 list and placed on the most recent Sight and Sound poll. For a richly involving tale of corruption featuring some of Wilder’s most peerless and cynical scripting and directing, as well as work by Douglas and Sterling that ranks with their best performances, film lovers will want to be in on a classic movie scoop with a screening of the insightful Ace in the Hole.