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. New Print Courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

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 insidious 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.

All film screenings in the Director’s Inspiration: Spike Lee series are available here.  

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.