Ace in the Hole
1951, NR, 112 min.
D: Billy Wilder; with Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling.

Billy Wilder’s cynicism takes center stage in this all-too-believable movie (aka The Big Carnival) about a newspaper reporter on a small New Mexico daily who hopes to win his ticket back to the big leagues by milking a human interest story about a man trapped in some historic ruins. Behind the scenes, the reporter “encourages” a delay in the rescue operation so that he controls exclusive daily coverage of the scoop.

This article appears in July 7 • 2000.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.