Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-08-03

There will be some who think
Producer-Director Billy Wilder S
dramatic license should be revoked
for the excuses of Ace in the
Hole" new Palace screen feature
Nevertheless this would be an
excessive punishment for movie
maker who can achieve such dra-
matte wallop in a screenplay that
swings from its heels at the NOR
bidity of mobs and the depravity
of purely sensational journalism
The co-producer of Sunset
Boulevard" can be wondrously
indignant man and he has never
been more so than in this first
solo effort.
The potential vulgarity of the
mass OF men, and the demonic
evil in a reporter such as the one
played by Kirk Douglas in Ace
in the Hole" have seldom been eX-
posed to such mastery Scorn as
Wilder works up here. In this
quality. the Palace attraction
represents the screen at its best
and, in this. it goes a long way
toward outweighing the sometimes
grotesquely exaggerated elements
of the work.
Ace in the Hole" is the story
Of a monstrously corrupt reporter
and the mob that is ready to gulp
the poison his typewriter guShes.
Douglas in the reporter role
stumbles upon a story that will
remind every one of the famous
Floyd Collins case, a Kentucky
cave entrapment of some years
ago. It is just the sort of SEN
sation he is looking for and for
which he has tie skill to develop.
He takes charge Of the rescue
with the idea of keeping the VIC
tim buried alive until the whole
country is infected with a NOR
bid interest in the search. He
brides the Arizona sheriff with
the promise of easy reelection.
He plays coy with the trapped
mans dim Witted, hard-bltten
wife. He diverts the rescue party
from the direct route to the vic
tim in favor of one that will give
him time no matter how much it
tortures his lace in the hole"
or increases the change of the
latter's death.
And, having taken all these
preparatory steps, he writes hour
~ stories that attract the morbid
like flies to his carnival. Once
launched upon this tyranny over
the crushed body of his man, and
over the minds of the curious
crowd, he could not stop if he
wanted to.
Not too strangely, neither can
Producer-Director Wilder stop
even though it must have &C.
Cured to him that his own ex-
travagances were equal to those
of his villsinous reporter.
y y y
Ace in the Hole" is a dizzily
exciting blend of the elements
that go into maddog journalism.
Its weakness is that it never pauSes
to realize that decent newspaper
men-the ones ostensibly thwart-
ed every step Of the way by Doug
las-might be just as clever in
their techniques as he is.
The fact is that they do have
a way of dealing with unmiti-
gated heels, even one played with
such authority as Douglas who
here excels the lowlife he imper-
sonated in THE Champion -
Wilder is hard put to conceal
this truth in giving his man his
head, but he is given a wonder
full assist by the dominant char
acter in Ace in the Hole" Doug
las reporter is a man not only
without a scruple He is also
cursed with an inordinate pride
in his power over the mob and an
enormous dexterity in exploiting
it. He has spent professional
lifetime perfecting his technique
for just such an opportunity as
he is given and what he makes
of it is potent beyond his owr
awarenesS.
Subordinate characters are al
most as powerfully played, the
sleazy young wife by Jan Sterling
the decent editor by Porter Hall
the trapped man by Richard Ben
edict and the opportunist sheriff
by Ray Teal.
Whatever its distortions. "Act
in the Hole" makes of these screer
figures no one is likely soon tc
forget.