Never miss a post! 
Ace In The Hole
Another Criterion dvd I bought recently, this is a little different than some of the other ones I bought because I'm not coming to the director's work from scratch. I'm a big Billy Wilder fan and have known about the movie for years, but it was never on dvd until now. This is a drama from 1951, starring Kirk Douglas in his twelfth film, though it was either the first or second to come out after his starmaking performance in the boxing film, Champion. Douglas hadn't played a lot of lead roles yet, and he really gives his all to this one...too bad it was a commercial flop, but that's how it goes. It's no wonder, really--this movie is a bummer. And also one of Wilder's best films.
It concerns a down-on-his-luck reporter, Chuck Tatum, played by Douglas, who has been bounced from eleven big city papers for various indiscretions such as drinking, having an affair with the publisher's wife, etc., and he talks his way into a job at a small paper in Albuquerque. You know from the first scene Chuck is a prick: he greets the Native American working at the paper with a "How!" Still, with Douglas' stock of facial expressions and booming, rumbling or seething delivery, you know you're in for an entertaining movie whenever he's on screen, which is pretty much every scene. You may not like where things are going, but you can't help but watch.
And that feeling is kind of what the movie is about--the human need to watch or read about the misfortune of others. Some are concerned, some voyeurs, and some just plain exploit tragedy. Probably more journalists than not wrestle with this aspect of their work now and then, but not Tatum. He wants that big story that will catapult him out of Albuquerque and back to a big city paper where he feels he belongs.
That story falls into his lap on his way to a smaller story, when he and his Jimmy Olsenesque photog, Herbie, learn that a man has been trapped in an old Indian cave for several hours. Tatum works his way in to find the man, befriends him, and takes a few pictures, and now the story is rolling, full of human interest as well as Indian curses and all sorts of things. Tatum gets the man's wife, as cold a dame as you'll see in film, and who's about to use her husband's cave-in as a great time to hop a bus and leave him, on his side, seeing as how their little gas station/cafe could make some tourist dollars from those curious to watch the rescue efforts. Tatum also convinces the corrupt sheriff how he can help him get reelected as long as Tatum gets the story and not the big city boys. It all snowballs in a sickening but totally believable fashion. Probably the most outrageous element is that Tatum convinces Smollett, in charge of the rescue, that instead of shoring up the cave and getting the man, Leo, out that way in a matter of about a day, they should drill down from the top. Tatum's reasoning is that the five or so additional days this will take will give his story longer legs and him the best possible chance to get back on a New York paper. I imagine '50s audiences leaving this one pretty disturbed and word of mouth must've been terrible. And who can blame them? The movie still has that effect now, over 50 years later. I especially admire Wilder's ending, which manages to show Tatum affected by what he's done, if not definitively redeemed. He sure pays for it, though.
This film is a curio in Wilder's career. It's cowritten with Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels, neither of whom he worked with again to my knowledge. It's also unleavened by comedy aside from some of the blackest satire around. It's impressively shot on location in New Mexico--I wouldn't say beautifully shot because beauty isn't what's called for here, but the setting is convincing, and the interior cave set suitably dangerous and labyrinthine. Douglas is terrific--really one of those "they don't make movie stars like that" guys. I can't see anyone in the last, oh, 25 years acting as overwrought as he does and not having the audience howl. It's a great movie with a downer ending, starring two of the most loathsome lead characters you'll ever find, so no wonder it was a flop. But if you want a feel-something movie instead of an easy feel-good movie, you won't go wrong here.
It concerns a down-on-his-luck reporter, Chuck Tatum, played by Douglas, who has been bounced from eleven big city papers for various indiscretions such as drinking, having an affair with the publisher's wife, etc., and he talks his way into a job at a small paper in Albuquerque. You know from the first scene Chuck is a prick: he greets the Native American working at the paper with a "How!" Still, with Douglas' stock of facial expressions and booming, rumbling or seething delivery, you know you're in for an entertaining movie whenever he's on screen, which is pretty much every scene. You may not like where things are going, but you can't help but watch.
And that feeling is kind of what the movie is about--the human need to watch or read about the misfortune of others. Some are concerned, some voyeurs, and some just plain exploit tragedy. Probably more journalists than not wrestle with this aspect of their work now and then, but not Tatum. He wants that big story that will catapult him out of Albuquerque and back to a big city paper where he feels he belongs.
That story falls into his lap on his way to a smaller story, when he and his Jimmy Olsenesque photog, Herbie, learn that a man has been trapped in an old Indian cave for several hours. Tatum works his way in to find the man, befriends him, and takes a few pictures, and now the story is rolling, full of human interest as well as Indian curses and all sorts of things. Tatum gets the man's wife, as cold a dame as you'll see in film, and who's about to use her husband's cave-in as a great time to hop a bus and leave him, on his side, seeing as how their little gas station/cafe could make some tourist dollars from those curious to watch the rescue efforts. Tatum also convinces the corrupt sheriff how he can help him get reelected as long as Tatum gets the story and not the big city boys. It all snowballs in a sickening but totally believable fashion. Probably the most outrageous element is that Tatum convinces Smollett, in charge of the rescue, that instead of shoring up the cave and getting the man, Leo, out that way in a matter of about a day, they should drill down from the top. Tatum's reasoning is that the five or so additional days this will take will give his story longer legs and him the best possible chance to get back on a New York paper. I imagine '50s audiences leaving this one pretty disturbed and word of mouth must've been terrible. And who can blame them? The movie still has that effect now, over 50 years later. I especially admire Wilder's ending, which manages to show Tatum affected by what he's done, if not definitively redeemed. He sure pays for it, though.
This film is a curio in Wilder's career. It's cowritten with Walter Newman and Lesser Samuels, neither of whom he worked with again to my knowledge. It's also unleavened by comedy aside from some of the blackest satire around. It's impressively shot on location in New Mexico--I wouldn't say beautifully shot because beauty isn't what's called for here, but the setting is convincing, and the interior cave set suitably dangerous and labyrinthine. Douglas is terrific--really one of those "they don't make movie stars like that" guys. I can't see anyone in the last, oh, 25 years acting as overwrought as he does and not having the audience howl. It's a great movie with a downer ending, starring two of the most loathsome lead characters you'll ever find, so no wonder it was a flop. But if you want a feel-something movie instead of an easy feel-good movie, you won't go wrong here.
Posted by ChristopherAllen at 10:01 PM [Link to this post]
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home