Ace in the Hole
A disgraced reporter seizes a trapped miner’s plight as a chance to resurrect his career, but his ruthless quest for headlines turns a desperate rescue into a deadly media circus that could cost him everything.
“Rough, tough Chuck Tatum, who battered his way to the top... trampling everything in his path - men, women and morals !”
Synopsis
An arrogant reporter uses the story of a man trapped in a cave as an opportunity to revive his career.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 20
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Doane HarrisonShot by Charles LangScored by Hugo Friedhofer
Box Office
1951 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.7× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$1.3M
Also known as
- Reporter des Satansde
- The Big Carnivalde
- The Big Carnivalen
- El gran carnavales
- Le Gouffre aux chimèresfr
- L'asso nella manicait
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Cast & Crew
20 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Kirk Douglas
as Chuck Tatum
Jan Sterling
as Lorraine Minosa
Kirk Douglas Nm0000018
as Chuck Tatum
Robert Arthur
as Herbie Cook
Porter Hall
as Jacob Q. Boot
Frank Cady
as Al Federber
Richard Benedict
as Leo Minosa
Ray Teal
as Sheriff Gus Kretzer
Lewis Martin
as McCardle
John Berkes
as Papa Minosa
Frances Dominguez
as Mama Minosa
Directors
1Writers
4Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
Official ratings
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for Ace in the Hole yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for Ace in the Hole yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on Ace in the Hole?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on Ace in the Hole.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for Ace in the Hole yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on Ace in the HoleNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…