Ace in the Hole(1951)

Cast : Kirk Douglas,

Plot and Storyline

Ace in the Hole is an American Noir film directed by Billy Wilder. It is the story of Chuck Tatum( Kirk Douglas), an ambitious, self centred newsman,  who was once famous for his sensational news reporting throughout the united states. He gets fired from many newspapers and finally ends up in a small time newspaper – Albuquerque sun bulletin to search for anything fresh that could stir things up in his career.

A year passes on job and he grows tiered of the regular news, His boss and Editor asks him to cover a rattle snake’s hunt event in New Mexico.  On his way to event he stops at a gas station where he finds about Leo Minosa, a local excavator who has been stuck up in the cave and there is a rescue operation is going on to get him out. The place is very remote except for a few native Indians there are no one there. The Indians refuse to go into the mountain as they consider it as the “the land of the seven vultures” . Tatum goes to see the condition of the  Leo Minosa and finds that he is alright. Now this is where the actual story begins.

 Tatum takes this simple rescue operation and makes sensational news of it. With the help of the corrupt sheriff in the town, he makes the rescue operation to last a week long to popularize the story rather than rescuing him on the same day.The deserted place becomes a tourist attraction in few days, the radio, TV and all media personnel comes to this place to get news on Leo Minosa. He makes Leo most popular man in the US, but at the same time his health deteriorated day by day.

On the final day of the rescue operation Tatum finds out that leo cannot be saved and he has very less time, He tries one last chance at redemption by asking the engineer to save him by the usual way, but it proves to be impossible. At the end Leo dies and the moment Tatum declares this to the public everyone vanishes as there is no more excitement left for the story. The irony is that there were not even enough people to get Leo out.

Verdict:

The concept of Sensational the news nowadays can be found everywhere, “ Ace in the Hole” proves to be the pioneer for taking this concept to the public. The film was based on true incidents ones which made record sales for “New York times” in its early years.

Kirk Douglas is very convincing as the Ambitious newsman, one who knows the tricks of how to publish things. His character breaks at the end of the film when he finds out that Leo is about to die in the cave.   At the end he is stabbed by Leo’s wife when she finds that she is not going to get the fame expected. The Film ends by Tatum trying to tell the real story to Albuquerque news. Ace in the Hole will be remembered for portraying people's desire for fame and how quick fame lives and dies. Though taken in a commercial angle, Ace in the hole will be remembered for a long time.