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Title: Wilder's prescient heart of darkness
Review: Ace in the Hole has been unavailable for many years. I had high expectations, as the film sits in the middle of Wilder's string of masterpieces and near-great films from 1944's Double Indemnity to 1961's One, Two, Three. The film is darker than any other of Wilder's work's, partly because it is unleavened by humour or by having a sympathetic character who isn't a dupe. Kirk Douglas is ferociously self-serving, and brings the intensity of his 40s and 50s roles without the conscience or the warmth. The other characters are stereotypes or plot devices, and the film seems schematic at times.Despite this, the cumulative effect is stunning, and the huge set pieces of the crowds gathering outside the cave unforgettable. With Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and Chayefsky's Network, here are three films that predicted all the tawdry, amoral pervasivesness of modern media and reality tv.
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