Ace in the Hole (Kirk Douglas) [1951]@.mp4

AKA - The Big Carnival

User Rating: 8.2/10

Genre: Drama | Film-Noir

Release Date: 29 June 1951 (USA)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338/


Kirk Douglas ... Chuck Tatum
Jan Sterling ... Lorraine Minosa
Robert Arthur ... Herbie Cook (as Bob Arthur)
Porter Hall ... Jacob Q. Boot
Frank Cady ... Mr. Federber
Richard Benedict... Leo Minosa
Ray Teal ... Sheriff Gus Kretzer
Lewis Martin ... McCardle



with a superb acting job by Kirk Douglas as the cynical, glory-seeking and even desperate reporter whose only goal is get back in the limelight by regaining his former big-city news desk job.

The idea of such a newspaper reporter manipulating events to stretch out a story at the expense of and disregard for the victim still seems nearly inhuman, but Douglas' performance makes it instantly believable. The story scenario in which locals, then passers-by and finally distant tourists gravitate to and then make a festival or circus out of the event (the film was also released under the title "The Big Carnival") is supported by the real events on which the story was most likely based: the West VA mine disaster in 1925 that trapped miner Floyd Collins and was reported for 17 days, much as in the film, by local newspaperman Skeets Miller, who crawled into the mineshaft for face-to-face interviews with the trapped and doomed Collins.

This movie fits nicely into the Film Noir genre, although it takes place largely under the hot, harsh glare of the Arizona sun, highlighting the sweat and grime visible on the characters' skin and creating a visual metaphor for the sorry state of their souls. I wonder if Henri-Georges Clouzot saw this film before he began filming "The Wages of Fear," because the visually pervasive atmosphere of sweat and filth and opportunism are equally present in both.

Video
mped-4
w/h 576x432
bitrate 750 kbps
frame 23.976
Audio
mpeg4aac
sample 44100
bitrate 128 kbps
channel 2
duration 01:51:15