(:)(:)(:)(:)(:) for Ace in the Hole black and white 1959 Billy Wilder film starring Kirk Douglas. I don’t know how my husband does it but he finds these great old 5 star films that I’ve never heard of and blows me away with them. This is one of them.
Director Billy Wilder (my husband reminds me that he’s known for Double Indemnity, The Apartment, and Sunset Boulevard) does it again with this one. Douglas is gorgeous and terrible as the nearly washed out big time news reporter consigned to a small-town paper who stumbles on, and then creates, a huge news story about a man trapped in a cave. As the media circus he successfully creates builds over a week, Douglas comes to see what he’s done, how he’s cost the trapped man his life in order to make a bigger story and goes into a tailspin.
Fans of Mad Men will enjoy the 1959ness of the smoking, the drinking, and the hats. For me, the cleft chin is enough.