Ace in the Hole (#396)

Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is one of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker. Kirk Douglas gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter who washes up in dead-end Albuquerque, happens upon the scoop of a lifetime, and will do anything to keep getting the lurid headlines. Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé of the American media’s appetite for sensation that has gotten only more relevant with time.

SPECIAL FEATURES

New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard

Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment

Interview with actor Kirk Douglas from 1984

Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute

Audio excerpts from an interview with Wilder’s coscreenwriter Walter Newman

Video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee

Stills gallery

Trailer

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

PLUS: Essays by critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

New cover by F. Ron Miller