Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

occurred in April 1949, about a three-year old boy who tragically fell into an abandoned
well. In both cases, the victims died before they were reached by rescuers. Revolving
around the first event, the film portrays Kirk Douglas, in the role of Chuck Tatum, a downat-heel
writer and reporter, who hears about a local man who got trapped in a collapsing
cave while hunting for ancient Indian relics. The film is organised around a metaphorical
axis between Tatum’s audience (the seedy media and thousands of people who flock to the
site) and ourselves, Wilder’s audience. As one of the most derisive denunciations of media
sensationalism and manipulation, Ace in the Hole became notorious for its cutting social
critique. In an interview on the way the film depicts how some people exploit the tragedies
of others, Billy Wilder replied:
Our man, the reporter, was played by Mr. Kirk Douglas. Now, he was on the skids
and he thought that a great story would get him back into the big time, big leagues.
He remembered the Floyd Collins story. They composed a song, they were selling
hot dogs there was a circus up there, literally a circus, people came. I was attacked
by every paper because of that movie. They loathed it. It was cynical, they said. (in
Silver & Ursini 2003:111)
The rescue location is turned into an authentic carnival in the film (the title was
actually changed to The Big Carnival just prior to its release), with all sorts of amusement
and games, until the day a catastrophe happens and the whole staged festivity is brought to
an end. The attempt to rescue Leo Minosa is almost conceived as a theatrical show,
emphasising the hypocritical and manipulative aspects of the whole situation. All of these
characteristics are carefully highlighted by Billy Wilder (fig. 55), which includes an
interview with the fated man, a contemporary tune entitled “We’re Coming, Leo”, sung by
the spectators to cheer him up. The story then concludes with these same people gathering
macabre souvenirs from around the death cave. Wilder’s frontal attitude and courage were
again put in evidence in the script, when Tatum is seen to conspire with the local sheriff.
For this reason, the head of the Hays Code office insisted that this particular conspiratorial
scene, involving a crooked law enforcement officer, would either have to be completely
removed from the film or to have the sheriff paying for his fraudulent actions.
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