Kirk Douglas: Disaster Tourism for Fun & Profit

This film has one of my favourite movie quotes: “I’ve met some hard-boiled eggs in my time but you, you’re twenty minutes.”

Silver Screenings

Kirk Douglas discovers the Story Of A Lifetime. Image: Criterion

We humans are fascinated by disaster and tragedy.

Many tourist attractions (politely named “Interpretive Centres”) have been built on the sites of man-made and natural disasters. You want to tour the Chernobyl nuclear power station? Click HERE!

The gritty 1951 drama, Ace in the Hole, is one of the best films to explore disaster tourism, profitable side businesses and media coverage. “Bad news sells best,” is the film’s message. “Good news is no news.”

In this film, Kirk Douglas stars as a talented journalist who can’t keep a job. He brags about being fired from 11 newspapers with a combined circulation of seven million. When he finds himself in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he talks the publisher of the local newspaper into hiring him.

On the day he is sent out of town to cover an annual Rattlesnake Hunt, Douglas stops at a small gas station/hamburger stand and learns…

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