Since re-emerging in the 2000s, Billy Wilder's superb Ace in the Hole, so ahead of its time in the 1950s with its acidic and unflinching examination of journalistic ethics and human morality, has taken its place alongside Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, or Some Like It Hot as among the director's greatest works.
In one of the most powerhouse performances in American screen-acting, the great Kirk Douglas stars as Chuck Tatum, a newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a potentially career-making story in Albuquerque, New Mexico (nearly sixty years later, the setting for Vince Gilligan'sBreaking Bad). When Tatum begins to influence the story's outcome, a descent beings that finds more than one man caught between a rock and a hard place.
An electric narrative that stands as one of Wilder's tautest and most (melo)dramatic plots (penned with Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman), Ace in the Hole plays today as a prescient examination of the modern media landscape, and the public appetite for the disastrous news-story that leads to toxic wish-fulfilment. - "I can handle big news and little news. And if there's no news, I'll go out and bite a dog. "
Extras
Gorgeous 1080p transfer of the film, and progressive encode on the DVD
New and exclusive video interview with film scholar Neil Sinyard
Portrait of a 60% Perfect Man: Billy Wilder, a 59 minute documentary / discussion with Wilder
Original theatrical trailer
32-PAGE BOOKLET featuring an essay on the film by critic Emmanuel Burdeau, and rare archival imagery
Additional Information
More Information
SKU
5060000701371
Catalogue Number
EKA70137
Product contents
3 discs
Year
1951
Director
Billy Wilder
Format
DVD, Blu-Ray
Publisher(s)
Eureka!
Countries
USA
Subtitles
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing