Ace in the Hole

Directed by Billy Wilder (1951) Starring: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Richard Benedict

Chuck Tatum (Douglas) is stuck in the small town newspaper in New Mexico after being fired from the big city papers.  He offers himself to the owner of the Albequerque for cheap, sure that he’ll be on his way out in a few weeks.  A year later, he finds the story that will return him to the top: A man has gotten trapped in a tunnel under a sacred Indian Mountain.

I was torn from the start because Kirk Douglas is really hot in this movie, but he’s such a jerk!  A jerk who wears a belt and suspenders as a running metaphor from the first five minutes.  In any case, the point is to watch him fall, not really to reach some kind of redemption.  He builds up Leo’s (Benedict) predicament so it becomes a large media circus with a literal circus–like, the carnival comes in with rides and everything, as much as the big tent full of Tatum’s former co-workers.

Meanwhile, poor Leo is trapped in a cave and Tatum has made a deal with the sheriff so that he’s the only reporter allowed in to see him.  In order to make the story last, they convince the engineer to go through a more difficult route to save him, which will take days, compared to an easier route which would only take 16 hours.  The drill drives him insane so he can’t sleep, and to make matters worse he’s convinced that he has made the Indian spirits angry, which is why he’s stuck down there.

Leo’s wife (Sterling) wants to leave him and only sticks around because Tatum needs the sympathetic wife figure.  She ends up with a cash cow since the tourists coming by need something to eat and they’re the closest restaurant.  Her character is like the female version of Tatum–she just wants to get out and has no moral qualms about it.  Eh, I didn’t really find her that interesting.  She’s another one of Wilder’s highly amoral, maybe two-dimensional characters, like the boss in The Apartment.  She usually made an attempt to work against Tatum and then gives it up since he’s hot.

Wilder kind of hammers in the morals here, but he gets out some good performances and cool shots.  It’s his commentary on the media, which is lastingly relevant.  However, the throw away jokes are really awkward in their age, but they’re given in the first fifteen minutes, so it doesn’t effect the real plot.

I really like Wilder and Douglas, so this was kind of a disappointment, but that was just my high expectations.  It’s pretty decent, just not my favorite.

 

 

Double Feature: Joseph Cotton

Many moons ago, when I watched Citizen Kane for the first time, I wasn’t terribly interested by Orson Welles’ performance.  Crazy, right?  But it was another Mercury actor who caught my eye– the wonderful Joseph Cotton.  For this Double Feature, I figured that some of his best and earliest work makes for a great comparison between his various roles.

The Third Man (1949) Directed by: Carol Reed

The Third Man is considered to be one of the best film noirs out there, set in post-war Vienna.  Cotton plays Holly Martins, a writer of pulp westerns, who has come to Europe with the promise of a job by his friend Harry Lime.  Unfortunately, the day he arrives is Lime’s funeral.  While the police are willing to let go of Lime’s death as an accident, Holly digs deeper, becoming involved in Lime’s inner circle and learning about the mysterious “Third Man.”

There’s a lot about The Third Man which makes a wonderful film– the strong shadows, the famous ferris wheel scene, and the true nature of Harry Lime’s business affairs.  While Holly is the main character, the film is dominated by Lime.

In comparison, Holly Martins seems almost helpless– an alcoholic, out of work writer, who the side characters mostly push around with false leads or coddle him on and off.  Almost every time he sees the police Martins is convinced that it’s best for him to take the next plane back to the U.S. in the morning.  However, in contrast to Lime, Martins is infinitely likable, the last good guy in a post-war world.  His determination to exonerate Lime is echoed later with his desire to be close to Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), when the world wants to keep him in shadows.

Even if you’re not a big fan of Joseph Cotton, The Third Man is just one of those movies that is enormously fun to watch.  It’s a smart mystery penned by author Graham Greene and is character and plot driven.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Unlike the likable Holly Martins, Uncle Charlie is a  nihilistic serial killer.  He visits his family in Santa Rosa in order to escape from police.  Charlotte (Teresa Wright), the eldest niece, becomes the only one to know her uncle’s secret.

As one of Hitchcock’s earlier films, Shadow of a Doubt doesn’t have some of his usual signatures– no Bernard Herrmann score, no Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart, not even a cool blonde.  However, it does have a weird family dynamic, something green (in this case, an emerald ring), and vague psychology, all of which is evident in later films by Hitchcock.

Seeing Shadow of a Doubt is realizing just how good Joseph Cotton is at playing a villain.  Uncle Charlie is nihilistic, obsessive, and crafty.  The only love he seems to show is for the Santa Rosa- Family’s idyllic lifestyle, where everyone is busy.  It’s evident that he doesn’t care for anyone when he quickly turns on his neice.

If you’re ever in need of a Hitchcock fix, Shadow of a Doubt is one of the best.  The story draws a distinct line between Charlie’s big-city worldview and the idealized, small-town America applied to Santa Rosa, but each character is very unique while still fitting into the Hollywood mold.  The father’s favorite hobby is discussing various ways to commit murder with their neighbor and the youngest niece is a voracious reader who shows almost no care at all for anyone else in the plot.  The mother is sweet, but very flighty, although she seems to guess at her brother’s secret in one short scene before dismissing it.

Joseph Cotton proved early on that he was a versatile actor, able to perform good guys and villains, attracting the attentions of talented directors, big studios, and fellow actors.  Suffice it to say, I am looking forward to seeing some more of his filmography very soon.