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

Figure 55. Ace in the Hole
All of Billy Wilder noirish dramas discussed in this section contain biting but
intelligent social content, a tone of withering disapproval that became his trademark. In
Wilder’s noir vision, the individual’s plight is seen as unmoving by the neglect of his
fellow human beings, as in Ace in the Hole, even as they imitate concern (cynical rejection
of humanity). From the serious examination of alcoholism (The Lost Weekend), to the
reclusive silent film star who dreams of a comeback (Sunset Boulevard), to the dark
cynicism which smacks of over-protestation (Ace in the Hole), or still Double Indemnity
which characteristically reveals Neff’s fatal “ride to the end of the line”, Billy Wilder’s
characters always seem to present his dry view of human existence. They have a sense of
cruel, inevitable fate viewed with mordant humour. As seen, Norma Desmond in Sunset
Boulevard descends the main staircase in search for stardom, and the flinty and ambitious
Chuck Tatum in Ace in the Hole also metaphorically goes all the way down in a (personal)
cave-in. The same traumatic descent is felt in Birnam from The Lost Weekend and Neff in
Double Indemnity collapses even before reaching the lift that would, figuratively, take him
all the way down to Mexico.
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