Ace in the Hole (1951) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

One of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a hard-to-find cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime—and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé that anticipated the rise of the American media circus.

Cast

Chuck Tatum	Kirk Douglas
Lorraine Minosa	Jan Sterling
Herbie Cook	Bob Arthur
Jacob Q. Boot	Porter Hall
Mr. Federber	Frank Cady
Leo Minosa	Richard Benedict
Sheriff Kretzer	Ray Teal
Smollett	Frank Jaquet

Credits

Director	Billy Wilder
Screenplay	Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman
Associate producer	William Schorr
Cinematography	Charles B. Lang and Jr.
Editorial supervision	Doane Harrison
Music	Hugo Friedhofer
Art direction	Hal Pereira and Earl Hedrick
Editing	Arthur Schmidt
Costumes	Edith Head

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring in-depth interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
A 1984 interview with Kirk Douglas by filmmaker and film scholar Michael Thomas
Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
Excerpts from an audio interview with coscreenwriter Walter Newman
New video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
Stills gallery
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by film critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

From the Current

Good News for Bad News

May 11, 2009

“It’s taken more than fifty years, but the world has finally caught up with [the] dark and cynical vision” of Billy Wilder’s chillingly black satire of the fourth estate, Ace in the Hole, A. O. Scott declares in a clever new video essay for the http://video.nytimes.com/video...

Ace in the Hole: Noir in Broad Daylight

by Molly Haskell Jul 16, 2007

Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole almost requires an honorary expansion of the term film noir. There are no private eyes in seedy offices or femmes fatales lurking in the shadows of neon-lit doorways, no forces of evil arrayed against a relatively honorable hero. This emotional snake...

Ace in the Hole: Chin Up for Mother

by Guy Maddin Jul 16, 2007

The celebrated divot points manfully toward the crest of the next hill, and the next, and the next, and to the horizon after that. Always forward! Into the sunset! Kirk Douglas is on the move: a wagon train of grimace, howl, and unlaunched sputum. What a range of expressions Douglas has stored...