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Ace in the Hole(Criterion Collection)(2 disc)

 

 

Produced, Written and Directed by Billy Wilder


US 1951 / Comedy Drama / Media Satire / Tragi-Comedy / 111 min / Black & White / Monaural / 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio / NTSC / In English with Optional English Subtitles



Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling , Robert Arthur , Porter Hall, Frank Cady, Richard Benedict , Ray Teal .

One of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is legendary for both its cutting social critique and its status as a hard-to-find cult classic. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter caught in dead-end Albuquerque who happens upon the story of a lifetime—and will do anything to ensure he gets the scoop. Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé that anticipated the rise of the American media circus.

 
       
Bonus Features:New, restored high-definition digital transfer
# Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
# Portrait of a "60% Perfect Man": Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring in-depth interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
# A 1984 interview with Kirk Douglas by filmmaker and film scholar Michael Thomas
# Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
# Excerpts from an audio interview with coscreenwriter Walter Newman
# New video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
# Stills gallery
# Theatrical trailer