Apr – May 2022 Film Calendar

58

Ace in the Hole with A Face in the Crowd

Fri, May 13 | 7:30pm | TMT

Ace in the Hole

Kirk Douglas plays an amoral reporter who sees the plight of a man trapped in a cave-in as a golden opportunity for a comeback in Billy Wilder’s scathing exposé of journalistic ethics. Inspired by the Floyd Collins incident of 1925, often considered the first major media event, Wilder’s film (also released as The Big Carnival ) is one of his bleakest and most cynical, and was nominated for an Oscar for Writing (Story and Screenplay).

DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder.

WRITTEN BY: Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman.

CAST: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Bob Arthur, Porter Hall. 1951. 112 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm.

A Face in the Crowd

The writer and director of On the Waterfront , Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan, reteamed for this startling and prescient look at the insidi- ous power of celebrity. Andy Griffith (brilliantly subverting his folksy persona) plays Lonesome Rhodes, a drifter who becomes a TV sensation with the aid of an ambitious producer (Patricia Neal) who soon regrets her role in his rise.

DIRECTOR: Elia Kazan.

WRITTEN BY: Budd Schulberg.

CAST: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau.

1957. 126 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm.

Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Castle Hill Productions, Inc., with funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Film Foundation. Print courtesy of the Film Foundation Conservation Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

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