Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' offers eerie parallel to Utah

[Wayne Harrison]

Movies: Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' offers eerie parallel to today's news

Sean P. Means
Tribune columnist
Article Last Updated: 08/18/2007 02:12:00 PM MDT


The veteran newspaper reporter tells the rookie photographer his philosophy of journalism: "Bad news sells best, 'cause good news is no news."

<img src="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/images/19/cteq/ace_in_the_hole.jpg" align="left">The reporter, Charles Tatum (played by Kirk Douglas), puts that philosophy to work in one of the most caustic movies ever made about journalism, Billy Wilder's 1951 drama "Ace in the Hole." The movie bombed when it was released (even after Wilder tried to slap a new title on it, "The Big Carnival"), but this summer is getting a fresh look - thanks to a pristine DVD release from the Criterion Collection last month, and because of the movie's parallels to what's been happening near Huntington, Utah, the past two weeks.

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