Ace in the Hole is a movie that was written and directed by Billy Wilder, who I know as the guy that made Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard, two of my favorite noir films of the time. My interest level largely rested on this precedent, and while Ace in the Hole certainly does have some of Wilder’s touches that make it well-done, I ultimately found Ace in the Hole to be a bit too much on the boring side, which is disappointing considering how exciting the previous two movies I mentioned are.

The movie stars Kirk Douglas (father of Michael Douglas, who modern audiences are more likely to be familiar with) as Chuck Tatum, a really cocky journalist who’s found himself in a small town after losing multiple newspaper jobs around the country. Tatum is looking for a big breakout story to get him back into the big leagues, but unfortunately isn’t able to find any in his new small town. That is, until he hears that a man named Leo Minosa has gotten himself trapped in a cave. Tatum recognizes this big break for what it is, and ends up exploiting and manipulating the story to be as big as it can possibly be. He soon starts toying with the line between thinking about Leo’s safety and thinking about how good of a story he can get.

The closest modern analog I can think of to this movie would be 2014’s Nightcrawler, although the protagonist of that movie is certainly way more psychopathic than Chuck Tatum, so they do differ in that aspect. Tatum is more of a selfish protagonist, although it’s still just as insane to see the lengths that he’s willing to go in order to get his story. I definitely liked the movie for these reasons on a conceptual level, and thought that there were stretches where it worked really well.

I think that the comparison to Nightcrawler also shows where a movie like Ace in the Hole falls short though. I recognize that the movies were made over 60 years apart, so I’m not trying to be unfair, but it’s just hard not to admit that Ace in the Hole isn’t all it could be, and so it’s hard to recommend a movie like this when we have such better executions of the same story now. Like I said, the movie definitely has some great stretches in it, but mixed among those are also some really slow-paced stretches that ultimately just weren’t that interesting.

Do I think that Ace in the Hole is worth watching for anyone that’s already interested in seeing it? Yes, I do. It’s a movie that’s better more often than it’s not, and so I think that anyone who’s curious about it will find something to enjoy. However, I also need to recognize how old this movie is, and how most people are only willing to watch something this old if it’s a true film classic. And so do I think Ace in the Hole is worth watching for those people? No, I don’t. This isn’t a required movie for people trying to watch film classics, and so while I think it’s a perfectly serviceable movie, I also don’t consider it to be a must-see.

3/5