Porter Hall

Ace in the Hole -- When a man is trapped alive in a mine collapse, a self-interested reporter and the townspeople cynically create what we now call a 'media circus'.

The U.S. editor of a Tokyo newspaper smuggles out a Japanese military plan several years before World War II

A cave collapse in New Mexico traps a man, and all eyes turn toward the tragedy... including those of Charles "Chuck" Tatum (Kirk Douglas), a washed-up newspaper reporter who sees the incident as a ticket back to his former days at the top of the journalism heap. As the media circus begins to swirl around the trapped man's plight, Tatum takes command of the situation, embellishing the unfolding drama and prolonging the rescue effort … while feeding stories to the nation's reporters clamoring to cover the event. He's become the self-anointed mastermind behind what soon becomes a national media sensation - and he's desperately determined to milk it for all it is work. Celebrated director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, The Apartment) mixes gritty cynicism with a superb cast - Douglas, Jan Sterling (The High and the Mighty), Robert Arthur (Just For You), Frank Cady (The Bad Seed) - in this powerful, fascinating study of the dark side of the human soul.

Lively epic western in which William Holden appears as a wanderer heading for California, catching Jean Arthur's eye and winning her heart though she can't turn him from his wanderlust. He departs and she throws herself into the task of establishing a freight line which William and Hall attempt to destroy. Holden returns to help Arthur battle the villains.