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This blog will be all about film reviews. I'm going to be watching a lot of movies, writing reviews, and hopefully not spoiling any movies you plan to watch.
Director: Billy Wilder
Verdict: Thumbs Up Ace in the Hole, 1951 film starring Kirk Douglas and directed and produced by Billy Wilder, is an under appreciated classic. The film keeps the audience on the edge of their seats all the way through to the very end. Its strong plot plays a major role in pulling the film along. Married with a brilliant performance by Kirk Douglas, Ace in the Hole is a cinematic masterpiece. Chuck Tatum is a newspaper report who has been fired by major newspapers all over the country for inappropriate behavior. He arrives in New Mexico and gets a job in a small newspaper company. After a year of slow work, he learns of a man, Leo Minosa, who is trapped in a cave. Tatum jumps on the story and begins playing it up, making it a bigger story than it is. He manipulates the Sheriff and the contractors to make more of a show of the rescue and to keep other reports away. Meanwhile, Mr. Minosa’s wife falls for Tatum but he rejects her to help keep his story alive. Thousands come to the town to witness the rescue and a fair ground is set up. Tatum is rehired by his former New York employer. However, with a mere day before Leo will be able to be rescued, Tatum learns that Leo is going to die before he can be rescued. Tatum tries desperately to save Leo in order to save the story. Leo’s wife, having been bullied by Tatum yet again, stabs him with a pair of scissors. He rushes to get a priest to administer Last Rights to Leo. Moments later, he dies. Tatum announces to everyone that Leo is dead. Grief stricken, out of his New York job, and dying, he tries to confess what he did to his former boss in the New Mexico paper. However, as he is about to tell all, he falls on the floor and dies. Kirk Douglas plays the difficult role of Chuck Tatum to perfection, keeping the character in a very trick emotion for the audience. Tatum is a very complex character in how he acts. He is obviously a very confident, cocky, bold man who will do whatever it takes to succeed. This is what led him to his situation in New Mexico. Douglas must hold his character in a trick spot between being the real Tatum and the Tatum that must show he is trying to reform himself. When the plot develops into the story around Leo Minosa, we see the real Tatum as he sets about making the story as large as possible. He deliberately sabotages the rescue effort by allying himself with the Sheriff and using him to have the workers drill for Minosa instead of just shoring up walls and pulling him out. Tatum abuses Leo’s wife, Lorraine, as to keep up the role of a distraught wife. She wants to leave town and get away from Leo, whom she despises. Tatum receives offers from newspapers all over the country but decides to get his old job back in order to spite his former boss. However, things fall apart when Leo begins to die. Kirk Douglas balances Tatum’s need to keep the story, and therefore Leo, alive while also seeming genuinely concerned for him. He gives Lorraine a gift the Leo had been saving up for and becomes incredibly upset when she tries to get rid of it. This leads to him getting stabbed. It is unclear where Tatum’s true allegiance lies as he gets the priest for Leo upon his request but seems desperate to keep him alive at the same time, which he has stated is for the story. This juggling act by Douglas is a true masterpiece. The plot of Ace in the Hole keeps the viewer always wondering as to what will happen next and what Tatum’s true intentions are. Tatum is an incredibly complex character and the plot goes a long way to help shape him. It is always unclear as to what will happen next. It can be somewhat surmised, but the way it comes about is a constant surprise. The sudden change of direction with the sudden stabbing of Tatum, the deteriorating of Leo, and the ruin of Tatum, happens a pace that doesn’t blow away or confuse the audience, but is well timed so the hits just keep coming. The plot is a perfect build up of an unstable building that the viewer watches soar higher and higher before crumbling and falling apart at a greater and greater rate. However, the plot is a bit to focused on Tatum. The it seems that the plot is tailor made to move Tatum through a situation rather than a situation that the character works his way through. While this does feel a bit limited, it is not a problem at all, just a note. Kirk Douglas as Chuck Tatum makes the film with his fine balancing act. Billy Wilder set the film up perfectly so that Tatum is in a situation where he can not just exist, but must act. This is what makes Ace in the Hole so good. It makes the story intriguing as the viewers find themselves watching Tatum’s every move.
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June 2018
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