Ace in the Hole (1951)

Third viewing; first seen on October 18, 1987, then on April 8, 1994.

A down-and-out journalist gets a job in a small town, in the hopes of finding a story that will enable him to make a comeback in a big newspaper. He thinks he has found such a story when a man gets trapped inside a cave.

New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote a very sensible and down-to-earth review of this movie, stressing the improbability of the journalist's scheme. I would go even further than him in pointing out that the whole mob gathering and media circus has been exaggerated, and is more akin to surrealism than realism. But I also think that movie plots shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value, and sometimes exaggeration and implausibility are valid tools to make a point, as is the case here. In terms of social and political comment, I am under the impression that Ace in the Hole is a necessary complement to Ninotchka, which was written (or co-written, if you prefer) by the same man. While Ninotchka was a critique of communism, Ace in the Hole is a critique of capitalism. As for Crowther's objections, he is right of course that no journalist could pull such a plan through. But the point is that some of them wish they could. And the film has some important insights into the inherent duality of men's actions: a good deed needs the evil which it corrects in order to exist, and it is a natural tendency of people to perpetuate good things (which in turn would call for a perpetuation of bad ones).

Rating: 80 (down from 91)