'Ace In The Hole'

As the Wikipedia page notes, this was a film of firsts for Billy Wilder: It was the first for Wilder to be credited as writer, director and producer, it was the first without long-time writing partner Charles Brackett and Wilder’s first lemon. 

It cost $1.8 million to make and it was a commercial and artistic failure, although, with time, it’s clearly become a much more poignant film. Reading reviews upon its release, most disliked it because it was cynical and put the journalism world square in Wilder’s crosshairs. 

It was such a bust at the movies that the studio changed the name to The Big Carnival.

These days, Ace in the Hole speaks volumes. It’s about a drunk, down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter (Kirk Douglas) that goes west and finds himself with a newspaper in Albuquerque and a potential blockbuster story on his hand: Man trapped in a collapsed mine. 

Using his influence and probable talent, he trumps up the story making it a national headline in a vain attempt to get his old job back in New York City. Meanwhile, the ensuing publicity causes the area to become a literal carnival as the masses wait for the rescue efforts (Douglas’ character convinces them to use the slower means of excavating the man from the earth). 

The man in the cave dies and Douglas’ unscrupulous reporter gets stabbed with scissors. An appropriate end, no less. 

If all of this sounds eerily familiar it’s because Wilder predicted the state of journalism a full half century before it got to a carnival-type atmosphere. The only difference is that people are too lazy to actually go physically to a place of news and instead congregate on Facebook, Twitter and the web in general to witness a travesty.