Starring Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Richard Benedict and Porter Hall
Written by Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels and Billy Wilder
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA 1951
111 mins
This week's screening is in tribute to Kirk Douglas - one of the last great stars of the golden age of Hollywood who died a few weeks ago at the age of 103. In a career spanning over 60 years Douglas was a liberal philanthropist, a writer, a producer and a director but above all a charismatic, physical and powerful actor who often played driven, obsessive and unlikeable characters alongside more conventional leading roles.
'I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you - you're 20 minutes!'
So says Jan Sterling of Kirk Douglas's ruthless newsman Chuck Tatum in this brilliant, coruscating drama about fame, ambition and the dark appetite for disaster that lurks inside all of us...
The great Billy Wilder was the director and co-writer - his glittering Hollywood output includes comedy classics like 'The Apartment' and 'Some Like It Hot' but also darker gems such as 'The Lost Weekend' and 'Double Indemnity'
'Ace In The Hole' (known as 'The Big Carnival' in the US) is firmly in the latter group. A talented but notorious journalist is fired from the big city paper where he works and finds himself broken down and out of luck in New Mexico reporting for The 'Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin' - covering uneventful local news and going crazy in the process. When he stumbles on a hot story in the form of a local man trapped underground he is determined to exploit the situation and put himself back in the limelight.
Douglas makes the most of a razor-sharp script - snarling and snapping his way through this unsparing expose of media morality and the unhealthy fascination of the public.
As true today as it was when it was made 70 years ago - don't miss one of the great screen performers at the top of his game.
Join us in the Trades Union Club for this screening - there's a very reasonably priced bar but please note no food is available.
