Ace in the Hole

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Ace in the Hole

1951

1h 52m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

88%

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88 Reviews

92%

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5,000+ Ratings

With flaws that outweigh his talent, reporter Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) has bounced across the country from job to job. Winding up in New Mexico, Tatum gets work from the local newspaper, but finds that there's not much in the way of pressing news. However, when Tatum catches wind of a treasure hunter (Richard Benedict) trapped in a mineshaft, he turns the story into a media sensation. Soon Tatum is using unscrupulous tactics to draw out the situation, an approach that comes back to haunt him.

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Critics Consensus

Spearheaded by an excellent Kirk Douglas, Ace in the Hole is an incisive and sardonic satire that, much like its opportunistic hero, never lets moral compunction get in the way of a good story.

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William Hogan

San Francisco Chronicle

Feb 3, 2026

Ace in the Hole is a grotesque document. However, it is realistic and never cheaply handled. We must say Wilder has a masterly touch while offending his customers. And he will offend many with this spectacle of personal degradation and morbidity.

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Mae Tinée

Chicago Tribune

Feb 3, 2026

As a picture of Tatum, it flops badly. Not that there are no egomaniacs in the newspaper business, but this one is neither sufficiently clever nor consistent enough for the weight of the story.

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Mack Williams

Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

Feb 3, 2026

Newspapermen could cite a dozen reasons to prove that no reporter could get away with Tatum's trick. But the film is smash entertainment, with an unflattering, documentary quality.

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Virginia Graham

The Spectator

Feb 3, 2026

It is horrible -- I don’t recall feeling so shaken for years -- but both in its crowd-scenes and in its moments in the tomb is handled with such brilliance that one can only, though feeling slightly sick at being a member of the human race, applaud.

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John McDowell

Newark Star-Ledger

Feb 3, 2026

There may be no sympathy for Douglas and Miss Sterling -- nor, to the picture's credit, is any sought. But one thing is inescapable: Ace in the Hole is a picture you won't forget in a long time.

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Ezra Goodman

Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles)

Feb 3, 2026

A powerfully disturbing picture.

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G L

@RT09869090 Sep 27, 2026

This movie is so outrageous & unbelievable, Kirk Douglas is really way out there in this one.

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Brian D

@Brian6741 Aug 16, 2026

liked the idea more than the execution. will watch a 2nd time

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Patrick C

@RT84374237 Jun 5, 2026

The more of Billy Wilder's work I see, the more I am convinced he belongs in the very highest echelon of filmmakers. Inspired writing and direction, with a great variety in his films. 'Ace in the Hole' is a wonderful tale of a newspaperman who will stop at nothing to sell a story, but ends up finding out too late that telling the truth pays a different kind of reward. A masterful piece of filmmaking.

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Petros T

@PetrosTserpelis Nov 30, 2025

Equal measures sarcastic and tragic, "Ace in the Hole" is masterfully written. It's really fascinating to watch the decision-making, morals, motives, goals and nuances of the characters unfold, and how all this subtext is represented in the script, direction and acting. The claustrophobia of the cave is juxtaposed in a gut-wrenchingly poignant, pertinent manner with the media circus springing around it and benefiting from it, and you can't help but watch transfixed, wide-eyed and in shock.

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Mike W

@MikeW269 Sep 20, 2025

The movie is excellent, though not fun or uplifting. One very cool thing is that I am 95% sure I was at the souvenir shop where the movie was done back as a kid traveling in NM with family around 1956-57, outside Albuquerque.

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Mark B

@Thelaser555 Dec 4, 2024

Kirk Douglas puts in an electrifying performance as a former down on his luck, hard-nosed, top hack, now resorting to working for a hick-town newspaper in the middle of nowhere in America to make ends meet. But Douglas suddenly hits gold in his bid to get back to the big time in New York when he stops off to get gas on the way to his original assignment and stumbles across an incident involving a man trapped down a sacred Indian tomb. With savage determination to exploit the story solely for his own gain, Douglas milks the story dry to his old newspaper boss paying him top dollar, knowing the trapped man will probably die as a result. Douglas fills the screen in this mesmerizing tale of naked, human ambition, trampling on anyone and everything that gets in his way.

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Billy Wilder

Director

Kirk Douglas

Charles "Chuck" Tatum

Jan Sterling

Lorraine Minosa

Porter Hall

Jacob Q. Boot

Robert Arthur

Herbie Cook

Frank Cady

Mr. Federber

Ace in the Hole: Official Clip - Below-the-Belt Journalism

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Ace in the Hole: Official Clip - We've Got an Ace in the Hole

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Ace in the Hole: Official Clip - Finding Leo

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Ace in the Hole: Official Clip - I Know Newspapers Backward, Forward and Sideways

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Ace in the Hole: Official Clip - A Big Human Interest Ending

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Ace in the Hole: Official Clip - You Like Those Rocks Just as Much as I Do

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Synopsis

With flaws that outweigh his talent, reporter Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) has bounced across the country from job to job. Winding up in New Mexico, Tatum gets work from the local newspaper, but finds that there's not much in the way of pressing news. However, when Tatum catches wind of a treasure hunter (Richard Benedict) trapped in a mineshaft, he turns the story into a media sensation. Soon Tatum is using unscrupulous tactics to draw out the situation, an approach that comes back to haunt him.

Director: Billy Wilder
Producer: Billy Wilder
Screenwriter: Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels, Billy Wilder
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 29, 1951, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 1, 2013
Runtime: 1h 52m

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