Rating: 
Summary: Billy Wilder's Masterwork
Review: "Ace in the Hole" is one of those movies that comes around every rare often and belts you right in the kisser. Yet, to my knowledge, Paramount has never released it on VHS, and certainly not on LaserDisc or DVD. I just finished watching a tape on my VCR that was recorded in the 1980s from some TV channel in Florida. The print is grainy, the sound warbles and the dialogue is out of sync at times. It nonetheless still packs a helluva wallop.
Read the bottom of this page: "Customers who bought DVDs directed by Billy Wilder also bought DVDs by these directors:
"Howard Hawks
"Alfred Hitchcock
"John Huston
"William Wyler
"George Cukor"
There isn't one weak or less than legendary director in this list. Personally, I rate Wilder right up there with Hitch and ahead of all the others. Yet, when Paramount released their DVD boxed set of three Wilder classics ("Sunset Boulevard," "Sabrina" and "Stalag 17"), "Ace in the Hole" was conspicuously absent. What a shame! I consider this his masterwork, arguably equalling "Double Indemnity" and "The Apartment."
Critics have called it a black comedy, I suppose because it's a Billy Wilder movie, so we reflexively think of him as a comedic director. In fact, having heard and read so much about this movie, I sort of felt jinxed, because when I go into a movie with high expectations, I come out of it a little disappointing.
And, the opening of this movie disappointed a little: When Kirk Douglas' character, Charlie Tatum, falls down on his luck and lands a job with an Albuquerque newspaper, it seems to be a bit of a new spin on an old classic, "The Front Page" (which, strangely enough, Wilder resurrected in 1974 as a Matthau/Lemmon vehicle).
Yet, that's the movie's genius, because you are lured into thinking it's a comedy. Yet, once Kirk Douglas finds his potential "Pulitzer-prize winning story" buried under fallen timbers in a New Mexico cave, you realise it's a cynical farce.
But then, it's no longer a farce, but a dark tragedy. Not so quick, because by the end you'll find it's an abomination -- not the movie itself, which is superbly casted and crafted -- because it shows at root what base intentions really drive mankind.
Of all his movies, it's the oddest. Imagine a cross between "Double Indemnity" and "The Fortune Cookie." Strange, I know, but that is the closest I can pin it down. Douglas' character is an even more cold-blooded version of Walter Matthau's supreme shyster Whiplash Willie. Think of William Holden's Sergeant Seften without the heart of gold, and you'll get Chuck Tatum.
Jan Sterling is equally, well, sterling as the victim's wife, whose blood runs as ice-cold as Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson. Sterling, though, is no femme fatale: She's too tawdry, and can only aspire to the unimaginative dreams that accompany her former dime-a-dance persona. She does slip a pair of scissors into Douglas' flank, but, hey, he had it coming.
The ending, which I won't give away, is chilling and powerful. Nobody could write ending lines like Wilder could, and this one is no exception. It's right up there with Fred MacMurray's "I love you, too" ("Double Indemnity"), Shirley MacLaine's "Shut up and deal" ("The Apartment"), Gloria Swanson's "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille" ("Sunset Boulevard") and Joe E. Brown's "Nobody's perfect" ("Some Like it Hot").
"Ace in the Hole" walks on the seedy and seamy side of journalist and shows the viewer all the manipulation behind the scenes of the newspaper racket. It presages other blisteringly scathing films as "A Face in the Crowd," "Sweet Smell of Success" and "Network."
Rating:
Summary: lawsuit
Review: after this film came out there was a lawsuit as to who came up with the idea for the film. the story is based on a true incident of a man trapped in a mine, but the idea to make that news story into a film was brought to the attention of wilder by a man who later sued for compensation. the case went all the way to the california supreme court and the verdict went against wilder and the studio. this could be the reason why the film is not available for sale. it is a shame because kirk douglas in unbelievable in this movie and the subject matter of media reporters taking matters into their own hands to distort facts to create the story (to make a name and increase ratings/circulation) is more timely than ever
Rating: 
Summary: The Big Carnival
Review: An interwsting film in light of the recent mine disaster. Cynical, but true. Kirk Douglas at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Wilder's "Ace" is a hole of a good movie!
Review: Billy Wilder made this film after Sunset Blvd(1950) and before Stalag 17(1953), two of his most popular works. He once referred to "Ace" as "the runt of my litter". It is one of the most brilliant films to come out of Hollywood in the early 1950's. The idea of a newspaper man covering the story of a trapped miner, exploiting and managing the "rescue" in order to sell the story to the media, was way ahead of it's time, which is why the picture flopped at the box office. The people at Paramount don't seem to value the artistry inherent in this masterpiece. They probably only look at the numbers and figure, "well, it didn't make any money in 1951, so it won't make any now if we release it on DVD"
But they are wrong. This is a cult classic and on every film buff's must-have list. Besides the acting and direction and the bitterly pungent screenplay, the arid b&w cinematography of Charles Lang and the moody, impressionist, noir music score by Hugo Friedhofer are absolutely perfect for this story. By all means, write a letter to Paramount Home Video and demand that this film is given a DVD release. You can get their address from their website. I wrote them last year and they said there were no plans to release it. So that means waiting for it to show up on Turner Classic Movies, where I last saw it about 3 years ago.
But if they get enough letters, well, you never know...............
Rating:
Summary: "When they need you, they forgive and forget."
Review: In the film, "Ace in the Hole", unemployed newspaper reporter Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas) finds himself stuck in New Mexico. He's penniless, his car has just broken down, and he has no prospects whatsoever. One thing Tatum does have in abundance is nerve. And it's this nerve that takes Tatum into the local newspaper office where he bullies and bargains his way into a job as a reporter. Tatum has a checkered past. He used to work for big newspapers, but he's "been fired from 11 papers." He's been at the top of his field, and he dreams of getting back up there one day. Tatum realizes that his best shot at fame is through the chance of writing a killer story--and he brags, "if there's no news, I'll go out and bite a dog." Stuck in a small backwater town, the opportunities for the big break just don't materialize. Tatum is on his way to cover the annual Rattlesnake hunt, when he stumbles across the story of a lifetime. Tatum accidentally runs into a crisis--there's a man stuck in an abandoned mine shaft/Indian burial ground. Leo Minosa is trapped and buried under some fallen rubble. To extract him carelessly could cause the mine to collapse and Leo would be killed. Tatum turns the rescue into a media circus--and of course, he's the one with all the power. The three main characters all want to escape in different ways. Tatum wants to escape the small time. Leo wants to escape from the mine, and his wife, Lorraine, a former dime-a-dance girl (Jan Sterling) wants to escape from the boring humdrum existence stuck behind the serving counter at the family business. The three characters collude--from necessity--and create a media circus in the middle of nowhere. The role of Tatum is Kirk Douglas at his best--he's hard as nails, cynical, shameless and driven. He never gives an inch in his inhuman drive for fame and fortune. "Ace in the Hole" examines the issue of ethics in journalism, and I doubt there's a better film on the subject. This is simply an incredible classic film, and it's a travesty that it's not available commercially. Based on a true story, this film was a huge flop for director Billy Wilder, and the film really deserves to be resurrected from the vaults--displacedhuman
Rating:
Summary: And we still can't give it its due?
Review: Released twice, first as ACE, then as THE BIG CARNIVAL, it was a commercial failure both times, despite being mega-director Wilder's favorite of his own films (and this is a man who made SUNSET BOULEVARD, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and THE LOST WEEKEND, for Christ's sake). The sad truth is that ACE was way too ahead of its time, offering nothing but grim cynicism and brutal reality. Nobody wanted to see the awful effects of media sensationalism until the 1970's.
Rating:
Summary: A neglected masterpiece!
Review: THE BIG CARNIVAL (it was later renamed ACE IN THE HOLE upon rerelease) is Billy Wilder's forgotten masterpiece. It is also features one of the greatest performances in Kirk Douglas's career. Anyone who has seen many Billy Wilder films knows that he had a dark side, and that while he would turn out many of the greatest comedies in the history of film, he could also turn out some of the bleakest films ever made. Moreover, even some of his comedies contain many cynical elements. THE BIG CARNIVAL is the most despairing film Bill Wilder ever made. The plot is simple. A former ace reporter is so far down on his luck that he has taken a job on a tiny New Mexico newspaper. When a man gets trapped in a mine collapse, he sees an opportunity to resurrect his career. On the inside, he crawls through the collapsed mine to the spot where the miner is trapped, interviewing him, bringing him food and water, befriending him, and giving him hope and comfort. On the outside, he has an affair with the miner's wife, writes a series of stories about the miner that creates a national media frenzy, and manipulates rescue operations to delay the man's release by a few days so that he will have more time to milk the story. The great tension in the story arrives from his cold-blooded manipulation of the man's situation on the one hand, and the enormous guilt he suffers from the expressions of friendship and appreciation from the man who is trapped. Meanwhile, outside the mine, thousands and thousands of onlookers collect, to the point where it has become a virtual city, complete with souvenir sellers and even carnival rides (hence part of the meaning of the original title). Kirk Douglas has made very, very man great movies in his great career, but I am not sure he was ever better than in this one. Although the movie has a cast of thousands, there are only three truly crucial characters: Douglas's reporter, the man trapped in the mine, and the miner's wife. But of the three, it is Douglas who has to carry the film on his back. And he does so magnificently. In every way, a very great movie.
Rating:
Summary: You cannot deprive an audience of this movie!
Review: The studio that made this movie (Paramount I think) is commiting a crime by not releasing this fantastic movie by one of the greatest directors of all time on DVD or for that matter even VHS! Yesterday I was wondering which were the movies I wanted to buy, and Ace In the Hole came to me immediately but I was disappointed to see that the studios haven't released it on DVD or VHS. Please release this movie, it's Wilder's masterpiece. And while i'm at it somebody please get ED WOOD released on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: I'll Throw My Hat in the Ring...
Review: This is a great, great movie...bringing together two geniuses of cynicism, Billy Wilder and Kirk Douglas, at their most cynical.
Even more important, along with two other 1950's masterpieces, All The Kings Men and A Face in the Crowd, The Big Carnival is a devastating commentary on populist media. With the election-swaying power of present day pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'reilly, this sort of uncompromising exploration of American culture has never been more relevant, or needed.
Rating:
Summary: the floped masterpiece
Review: this is an amazing film, one of Mr. Wilder's best it is a shame that the studio is not releaseing it for douglas and wilder are at there best it was released at a time when people were not in the mood to see such an emotion wrenching film but todays world can handle it it is an amazing film help the fight to get it released. in many magazines including sight and sound have rated it high in the ranks make the studio rewatch it that's all that is needed for once they take a look at it their pant will fall down cause they got up so fast to release it. JOIN THE FIGHT FOR ACE IN THE HOLE!...
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