newcritics - Latest Comments in Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

Self Styled Siren — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:57:24 -0000

I apologize for my long delay in replying to this! I do think Boot still forms what little moral compass the movie has. Ex: his essential good-eggness is developed even as he "negotiates" salary with the hard-up Tatum: "I pay forty." (or was it fifty? anyway, more than Tatum was asking for.)

Also, the key to Tatum's attack of conscience being real is in the last rites scene. As the doomed Leo says "Bless me Father, for I have sinned," Wilder draws the camera in on Douglas's face, and there is no question in my mind that Douglas is playing the scene as straight-up, gut-wrenching remorse.

Finally, I didn't mean to imply that Wilder held Americans in special contempt (ever heard what he had to say about Germans?) but I do think that the unwashed masses are the real villains of the piece. They are filmed like gargoyles, often from weird angles or from a distance that seems to emphasize Wilder's contempt, like he's holding them up with tweezers. In general I don't consider Wilder misanthropic either, or misogynist for that matter, but in this film it is hard to absolve him of either charge. Hell, that is part of its fascination.

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

clydefro — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:24:35 -0000

I enjoyed reading this, but I disagree with a couple of things you wrote.

I'm not really convinced Tatum has a conscience. I know he's upset at the end, but that's the falsest part of the whole film. I prefer to think his misery has more to do with the quick descent of his own status as an in-demand reporter, but it's certainly debatable. I don't see Boot as any kind of moral center either, since he's the one who hired Tatum after knowing exactly what he was about and then benefits from the cave-in story through additional sales and notoriety.

Also, I don't think Billy Wilder disliked the common American so much, but rather that he pulled no punches with society in general. He respected his audience, but wasn't afraid to critique them at the same time. From watching his movies and reading about him, he can be very cynical and straightforward, but he doesn't seem misanthropic. Ace in the Hole is the absolute nastiest film he made, but it's also one of his best.

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

Sharon Thomas — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:30:59 -0000

Million Dollar Movie is long gone, but "Ace In the Hole" is on TCM this week, 2:30 am Thursday, Jan. 25 (EST), under its alternative title "The Big Carnival."

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

Tom Watson — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 13:02:22 -0000

I can still hum the theme song...and didn't it have a silhouette-style opening?

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

Self Styled Siren — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:53:19 -0000

David: Sterling is so good in this movie, she just rips into her dialogue. The only other thing I remember her in is Caged, as Smoochie (a similar character). In real life she was high-class and intelligent.

Tom, you are absolutely right about that circus downtown ... people posing in front of that ghastly spot like they're at DisneyWorld. I am surprised I didn't think of it, but then again, it pains me even now so perhaps it was just repressed.

Despite my deep love for Film Forum and TCM, count me as someone who misses the Million-Dollar Movie.

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

Tom Watson — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:31:07 -0000

Wow great post - brings to mind the T-shirt sales at Ground Zero while the smoke still wandered into the air over the city. Or at the lower end, the cruel nature of some reality shows - profit and fame from public misery.
You're right about Wilder; always with the hope. The Apartment has a downright happy ending - though you wonder, of course, how it will really turn out in a few months when things that have happened start to prey on Jack Lemmon's mind, or when Shirley MacLaine realizes her beau's not so interesting and something of a dope. Still....I have to see this one again; I seem to remember it from Million Dollar Movie in around 1977.

Re: Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951)

David Ehrenstein — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:26:05 -0000

"Shouldn't you be in church?"

"Kneeling bags my nylons."

"I've seen hard-boiled egss before but you, you're 20 minutes!"

The greatest dialogue exchange in the American cinema bar none!

To my mind "Ace in the Hole" is the most German of Wilder's films, its world connected to that he knew in Berlin as a reporter. And the last shot of Douglas falling over dead is one Rainer Werner Fassbinder would have been proud to call his own.