Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection Streaming
Dimanche, août 15th, 2010 |
Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection Streaming.
Movie Title: Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection |
Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas), once an ace journalist, is now desperate for a job after being fired from the best newspapers in the East. He gets a job at a small Albuquerque, New Mexico newspaper with the intention of serving his “prison sentence” only until he can find a great story that will land him back where he belongs, at the big newspapers back East. While heading to a remote location to cover a rattlesnake hunt, Tatum stumbles by accident onto the biggest story of his life: Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), a married man, is trapped by a cave-in while looking for Native American artifacts.
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Remembering the national sensation caused by the Floyd Collins story in 1925, Tatum has big plans for Leo. In no time at all, Tatum takes charge of the rescue attempt and assumes almost god-like status as thousands of gawking spectators from around the country gather around the mountain where Leo is trapped. Shoring up the cave’s weakened tunnels would get Leo out in a matter of hours, but instead Tatum (to prolong the biggest story of his career) orders a huge drill be brought to the top of the mountain and slowly work it’s way to Leo. Tatum is in the spotlight like never before, and he loves every minute of it.
Leo’s uncaring wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) begins charging admission to spectators in order to cash in on the misery and suffering of her husband. Once Lorraine sets her eyes on Tatum it’s only a matter of time before she seduces him. Tatum is in control of everything and everyone, even the crooked sheriff, who is also using this sensational story to furthur his career. Everything is going great until Leo becomes sick with pneumonia and word gets out that unless he’s rescued within 12 hours it’ll be too late. Tatum then agrees to use the quick method of shoring up the cave’s walls, but at this point it might be too late to save Leo.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection! Click Here
Ace in the Hole’s grim and cynical nature made it a flop in 1951, even after it was renamed “The Big Carnival.” Only now has Billy Wilder’s underated masterpiece finally been acknowledged as one of Wilder’s best movies (and that’s saying a lot). It is one of the darkest movies of film noir, with superb performances by Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling. Douglas frequently played cold-hearted characters driven by ruthless, egotistical greed, but never did he play this type of character better than in “The Big Carnival.” Jan Sterling played the cold and calculating femme fatale to perfection, cooly dishing out lines like “I don’t pray. Kneeling bags my nylons.”
Wilder brilliantly portrayed a world where misery and human suffering is exploited to the extreme, yet somehow this classic film noir is still unavailable on dvd or vhs. The movie can at least be seen on cable now and then, and “bootleg” copies on dvd and vhs are available, but how much longer do we have to wait for this movie to get an official dvd release?!? Few directors captured the style, mood, and atmosphere of film noir better than Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd.), and Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival deserves at least the same kind of recognition that his other films have recieved.
This 1951 film seems as relevant today as it ever did. Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as an unethical newspaper reporter who, through his influence over the town’s sheriff, keeps a dying man trapped in a mine for several days longer than necessary in order to milk the story for all it’s worth - a strategy he hopes will help him claw his way back to the top of the journalistic world. Billy Wilder’s incredibly vitriolic film tells many truths about how reality is manipulated by the media to serve personal and political ends without regard to the suffering caused by this agenda. His film spares nobody in its critique: those who perpetuate the lies, those who directly benefit from them, even those who uncritically consume the stories are all complicit in the wrongdoing. Wilder made many great films, most of which are far better known than this one, but “Ace in the Hole” is up there with the best of them.
Criterion’s release of this film is definitely cause for celebration.
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