ACE IN THE HOLE (Masters of Cinema) BLU-RAY [1951]

Description

Since re-emerging in the 2000s, Billy Wilder's superb Ace in the Hole, so ahead of its time in the 1950s with its acidic and unflinching examination of journalistic ethics and human morality, has taken its place alongside Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, or Some Like It Hot as among the director's greatest works. In one of the most powerhouse performances in American screen-acting, the great Kirk Douglas stars as Chuck Tatum, a newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a potentially career-making story in Albuquerque, New Mexico (nearly sixty years later, the setting for Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad). When Tatum begins to influence the story's outcome, a descent begins that finds more than one man caught between a rock and a hard place. An electric narrative that stands as one of Wilder's tautest and most (melo)dramatic plots (penned with Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman), Ace in the Hole plays today as a prescient examination of the modern media landscape, and the public appetite for the disastrous news-story that leads to toxic wish-fulfilment. - "I can handle big news and little news. And if there's no news, I'll go out and bite a dog. " - The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present our third major Billy Wilder release with this stunning Blu-ray edition of Ace in the Hole. SPECIAL FEATURES:Gorgeous 1080p transfer of the film New and exclusive video interview with film scholar Neil SinyardPortrait of a 60% Perfect Man: Billy Wilder, a 59 minute documentary / discussion with Wilder Original theatrical trailer32-PAGE BOOKLET featuring an essay on the film by critic Emmanuel Burdeau, and rare archival imagery PRESS: [The film] hasn't aged because Wilder and his co-writers ... were so lean and mean [with their dialogue, and Kirk Douglas'] focus and energy ... is almost scary. There is nothing dated about [his] performance. It's as right-now as a sharpened knife. - Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times Cold, lurid and fascinating. - Dave Kehr, The Chicago Reader As a diatribe against all that is worst in human nature, it has moments dipped in pure vitriol. - Time Out London More than 50 years after the film's release, when magazines compete to come up with the cattiest buzz terms and giddily celebrate the demise of celebrity relationships for boffo bucks, Ace in the Hole feels more relevant than ever. - Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine