Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) will do just about whatever’s necessary to stay on the front page in Billy Wilder classic
CABARET CINEMA: ACE IN THE HOLE (Billy Wilder, 1951)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, July 12, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org
Sandwiched between such hits as The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd., Stalag 17, and Sabirna, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole might just be his lost masterpiece. A major flop upon its release in 1951, Ace in the Hole is a cynical look at Americans and their values. Chuck Tatum (a classic Kirk Douglas) is a ruthless reporter who has been fired in virtually every major city in the nation because of his love of the bottle, his success with the ladies, and his penchant for playing hard and loose with the facts. He demands a job at a small-town paper in Albuquerque, hoping to land a story that will restore his luster and put him back in the big time. He finds his patsy in the person of Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), a low-rent Indian artifacts hunter who gets trapped in a cave-in at the base of the Mountain of the Seven Vultures. Sharpening his fangs, Tatum makes a deal with the sheriff (Ray Teal), choosing to take the long way to rescue Minosa in order to keep the sheriff’s name in the news and the reporter’s name on the front page for a longer amount of time. Meanwhile, Minosa’s wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling, with fabulously uneven eyebrows), who was ready to leave her husband, sees a way for her to cash in as well. The whole thing turns into a huge media circus; in fact, the studio changed the name of the film to The Big Carnival upon its release, trying for a more upbeat title. Ace in the Hole is screening July 12, introduced by humorist and journalist Henry Alford, as part of the Rubin Museum’s Cabaret Cinema series “Say a Little Prayer,” held in conjunction with the exhibition “Count Your Blessings,” which opens August 2 and explores the use of prayer beads in various Buddhist traditions. The series continues through August 30 with such other great films as Fred Zinnemann’s A Man for All Seasons, Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician, and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Black Narcissus.
Akira Kurosawa’s powerful psychological drama begins with a jazzy score over shots of a bustling Japanese city, people anxiously hurrying through as a Theremin joins the fray. But this is no Hollywood film noir or low-budget frightfest; Kurosawa’s daring film is about the end of old Japanese society as the threat of nuclear destruction hovers over everyone. A completely unrecognizable Toshirô Mifune stars as Nakajima, an iron foundry owner who wants to move his large family — including his two mistresses — to Brazil, which he believes to be the only safe place on the planet where he can survive the H bomb. His immediate family, concerned more about the old man’s money than anything else, takes him to court to have him declared incompetent; there he meets a dentist (the always excellent Takashi Shimura) who also mediates such problems — and fears that Nakajima might be the sanest one of all. Also known as Record of a Living Being, I Live in Fear is screening July 12, 18, and 20 as part of the Anthology Film Archives series “agnès b. selects,” consisting of ten films chosen by the Versailles-born fashion designer that, she explains, “taught me to appreciate other points of view, seen from a different angle, showing passion and the wounds, of every sort, that left their mark on me forever.” Among her other selections are Lindsay Anderson’s If, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, Miloš Forman’s Loves of a Blonde, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, and Ken Russell’s Women in Love. 
When old man Fletcher (Danny Glover) takes off for a week, leaving Mike (Mos Def) in charge of his soon-to-be-demolished video store called Be Kind Rewind (they don’t have any DVDs or recent movies), his most important rule is to “Keep Jerry Out.” Jerry (Jack Black) is a crazy conspiracy theorist who covers himself in metal to ward off alien rays. After a botched attack on the local power plant, Jerry becomes a walking magnet (in a laugh-out-loud hysterical scene) and unknowingly erases all the videos in the store. Taking a page from the Little Rascals plots when Spanky and Alfalfa would suddenly put on a show for some local cause, Mike and Jerry recruit Alma (Melonie Diaz) as they proceed on their very strange attempts at Sweding — making their own versions of such films as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, and Robocop and renting them out as if they were the real thing. Following the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the extremely strange The Science of Sleep, writer-director Michel Gondry has fashioned a really stupid movie that has an overabundance of heart and charm. Glover and Mos Def are soft and gentle in this Capra-esque comedy, offsetting Black’s hyperactivity. Every time you’re ready to write the film off as being just too silly and ridiculous, something comes along to make you double over in laughter. Be Kind Rewind is having a special sold-out screening July 11 at Videology in Williamsburg, presented by BBQ Films, beginning with $5 themed drinks (the Sweded Mule, the Footage Eraser) at 7:00, followed by the film at 8:00, with gourmet popcorn and a special sweded intermission featuring a live performance by DJ Cherry Magdalene and a ticket raffle for BBQ Films’ August event.
Hitting a little too close to home in recent years, Gold Diggers of 1933 is a depression-era musical directed by Mervyn LeRoy (Little Caesar, Mister Roberts) and featuring dance numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Polly Parker (Ruby Keeler), Trixie Lorraine (Aline MacMahon), Carol King (Joan Blondell), and Fay Fortune (Ginger Rogers) are four out-of-work actresses desperate to find a job on Broadway. When cigar-chomping producer Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks) teams up with newcomer Brad Roberts (Dick Powell) to create a show about the Great Depression itself, the women get excited about the possibility of getting back on the Great White Way, but mistaken identity, financing problems, and class warfare — in the form of wealthy old-money barons Lawrence Bradford (Warren William) and Faneul H. Peabody (Guy Kibbee) — threaten the show and their love lives. Gold Diggers of 1933 is screening in Riverside Park on July 10 as part of the free “Summer on the Hudson: Movies under the Stars” series, the theme of which this year is “Song & Dance,” which continues with such other films as Duck Soup, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Fiddler on the Roof, and the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors. Oh, and for this outdoor screening, the “Pettin’ in the Park” number should be particularly titillating. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings in New York City, go