Billy Wilder

Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole

Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is one of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter who washes up in dead-end Albuquerque, happens upon the scoop of a lifetime, and will do anything to keep getting the lurid headlines. Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé of the American media’s appetite for sensation that has gotten only more relevant with time.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1951
  • 111 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • English
  • Spine #396

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
  • Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
  • Interview with actor Kirk Douglas from 1984
  • Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
  • Audio excerpts from an interview with Wilder’s coscreenwriter Walter Newman
  • Video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
  • Stills gallery
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: Essays by critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

    New cover by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
  • Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
  • Interview with actor Kirk Douglas from 1984
  • Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
  • Audio excerpts from an interview with Wilder’s coscreenwriter Walter Newman
  • Video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
  • Stills gallery
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: Essays by critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

    New cover by F. Ron Miller
Ace in the Hole
Cast
Kirk Douglas
Chuck Tatum
Jan Sterling
Lorraine Minosa
Bob Arthur
Herbie Cook
Porter Hall
Jacob Q. Boot
Frank Cady
Mr. Federber
Richard Benedict
Leo Minosa
Ray Teal
Sheriff Kretzer
Frank Jaquet
Smollett
Credits
Director
Billy Wilder
Produced by
Billy Wilder
Written by
Billy Wilder
Written by
Lesser Samuels
Written by
Walter Newman
Associate producer
William Schorr
Director of photography
Charles B. Lang, Jr.
Editorial supervision
Doane Harrison
Music score by
Hugo Friedhofer
Art direction
Hal Pereira
Art direction
Earl Hedrick
Edited by
Arthur Schmidt
Costumes
Edith Head

Current

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Spike Lee on Ace in the Hole
Director Spike Lee is something of a superfan of Billy Wilder’s scathing American media satire Ace in the Hole, as you can see in this clip from an interview with him on our release. He even brought a piece of memorabilia for show-and-tell.
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