Ace in the Hole / The Big Carnival (1951 Billy Wilder & co-scr)

A powerful film that hits you like a train, it's no wonder it didn't find an audience - there's only a handful of likeable characters in it. Paramount tried retitling it - both titles are good - it didn't help. It's utterly bleak.

"I don't go to church - kneeling bags my nylons" Billy attributes to Audrey Wilder.

Yes, like people slowing to see the accident - maybe that's why it flopped - it was too honest. The carnival tent ('Proceeds go to..') Yeah - we all know it's not true.

It was way overdue. Walter Newman had the idea, based on a real life case, the Floyd Collins story - reporter Lesser Samuels helped (Wilder was also a reporter).

Kirk Douglas is meaty, finally finds our sympathy - his redemption is that he's told his young associate (Robert Arthur) the real story and that's what the Albuquerque Sun will publish - editor Porter Hall will only publish true stories.

Has a real, on-location feel, courtesy Charles Lang. And Hugo Friedhofer's score is memorably dark (even the constant pounding of the drill makes its way into the timpani at one point).

Jan Sterling is also unlovely. Richard Benedict is the man who never moves off his back, Ray Teal the sheriff, John Berkes the trapped man's father (the way he's doling out sandwiches to the digging crew a lovely touch).

"We're all in the same boat."
"I'm in the boat, you're in the water. Now let's see you swim."

Kirk turned down Stalug 17 - Holden won the Oscar.