Plot: A down-and-out NYC reporter (Tatum) working for an Albuquerque newspaper finds a man (Leo) trapped in local Cave. He manipulates the Sheriff (Ray Teal) and Leo's wife (Jan Sterling) in order to prolong the rescue effort and exclusively feed the story to major newspapers.
Favorite Quotes:
Jacob Q. Boot: Do you drink a lot?
Charles Tatum: Not a lot - just frequently.
Reporter: We're all in the same boat.
Charles Tatum: I'm in the boat. You're in the water. Now let's see how you can swim.
A Kirk Douglas Movie
Do you like Kirk Douglas? Well, then you might like "Ace in the Hole". Because its a Kirk Douglas movie to end all Kirk Douglas movies. We view everything through Kirk's eyes - he's in 90% of the scenes and has 50-60% of the lines. And he's in full Kirkian mode: forceful, sarcastic, manipulative, obnoxious, and always within a few degrees of boiling over with rage. He punches out the County Sheriff, and slaps/strangles the victims wife, and those are his allies!
A Talky Story with Unrealistic Characters
So, what about the story? There's where we run into trouble. Far from being a "masterpiece of cynicism" full of "brutal honesty" and a "searing satire of the American society" as stated by some prominent critics, Ace in the Hole is a rather unrealistic story of an absurdly Egotistical newspaper man manipulating a lot of absurdly cowardly/evil people for his own ends.
Ace in the Hole's unrelenting cynicism/bleakness is no more realistic then Mary Poppins. The general public are shown as callous, gawking morons. And there's not one strong, good, character. Leo's wife doesn't care if he lives or dies, while the Sheriff (who keeps a pet rattlesnake!) goes further and refuses to rescue Leo from almost certain death. Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Deputy/On-site Engineer are complete cowards. Finally, we get a story set in rural New Mexico with 3 main characters/actors from New York City, I mean what are the odds? And weirdly, none of the New Mexico natives mind a New Yorker pushing them around.
Plot Problems
And the plot has big structural problems. The first 15 minutes consist of nothing more than Kirk getting a job and bitching about how much better NYC is. And in the last 25 minutes, self-centered Kirk does an unpersuasive 180. Full of remorse over Leo's death and bleeding from a stab wound, Kirk gets Leo a Priest, self-righteously tells everyone the "circus is over", and then drives back to the editors office to die! Of course, anyone as self-centered as "Charles Tatum" would've seen a Doctor *one second* after they were stabbed.
Why did Wilder Ever think this would be Popular?
This was Wilder's first movie without his partner Charles Brackett and his first Box office bomb. In 1951, it'd seem obvious that a dark, cynical, talky movie about a bunch of unlikable characters exploiting a man trapped in a cave - with no Stars except Kirk Douglas - would have little or no Box Office appeal. However, both Paramount and Wilder were surprised at the result - and judging from his biographies, Wilder never did understand it. (It says something about Paramount Studio that they turned down Ford's The Quiet Man and green-lighted Ace in the Hole).
Summary: The Critics seem to love the cynicism so much, they ignore Ace in Hole's flaws. Its unrealistic, starts slow, and ends silly. The Cave discussions between Kirk and Leo are either pathetic, sentimental, or unbelievable. And almost every character is weak/unlikable. However, its well directed and photographed, and unlike Pauline Kael, I don't think its "really just nasty, in a pushy sociological way" - I just don't think its very good.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.