deeply cynical in a different way than a lot of the noirs i’ve watched. kirk’s character already starts hopeless, clawing his way to another sensational story. abusing an indigenous legend, prolonging the search party. i loved learning that the original title was the big carnival; feels so dark knowing what that entails in the film. this aged super well, and many big news stories that ended up being sensationalized feel like they are all echoes of the titular “ace in the hole”.

it’s also insane that our leading man turns down chicken tacos because he misses chopped chicken liver and garlic pickles.

noirvember 14/30, paramount