Ace in the Hole (1951)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwTMJ3zNqdg

All I knew about this was that it was a flop for Billy Wilder and that it has a lot of 5 star reviews. It's pretty nuts. I can't really understand why it wasn't a success. It's thoroughly captivating. I will say Kirk Douglas's performance is a little cartoonish, it could have been played a little straighter, when the action gets going it works but when he's just hanging around the newspaper office it is a little ridiculous. Also, the whole vibe of the movie is very noir and maybe in 1951 America just wasn't feeling that. At 1 hr 50 mintues it is maybe a little long and there is tension for prolonged periods of time while they do the rescue but, really if you had told me this was a huge success and a multi Oscar winner I would have not have been surprised in the least. It's a bit of a cousin to "Nightmare Alley"

Douglas plays a big city reporter named Chuck Tatum who has been fired from all the big papers for being such an a***ole. He ends up very unhappily in New Mexico covering things like rattlesnake festivals. One day on his way to cover such an event he stumbles upon a potential story: a guy is stuck in a mine shaft. He's fine, but he can't get out because his leg is caught under some rocks and wood. Remembering a similar story that had won a Pulitzer Tatum conspires to make a name for himself by blowing the guy in the mine shaft into a national blockbuster story about a harrowing rescue, Aztec curses and all sorts of nonsense.

The trapped guys vain moll-ish wife is, just like Tatum, from the big city and bored to tears in the desert. She is similarly delighted with the turn of events and ready to milk it for all it's worth at the roadside diner her and her poor husband operate. She isn't exactly beautiful by Hollywood standards but she is very well cast and she grew on me to the point where she became pretty hot. Of course, once the guy gets out of the cave how do you keep the ball rolling? Would people actually be so heartless as to SABOTAGE the rescue to PROLONG the guys hellish predicament? Come on, the media and press hungry politicians do something like that?

Highest possible recomendation 5/5