Most of the time, journalism is not that exciting (trust us, we know). But these movies do a superb job of making the business look glamorous, dangerous and fun.
An ordinary guy named Leo (Richard Benedict) gets trapped in a cave-in, and is found by Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), a big-city reporter exiled to Albuquerque. Leo might be quickly dug out, but Chuck, believing that extended publicity will get him back to the top and out of New Mexico, manages to delay the rescue effort for nearly a week. By that time the disaster site has become a resort destination, a Lourdes for voyeurs. Ace in the Hole (a great title) casts blame not just on Chuck but on the whole journalistic process: on those who gather and manipulate the news, those who publish it, and those who read all about it. The moral is as apt today in the 24/7 news biz, where the appetite for sensational stories rarely stops short of prurience.
Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis, dazzling in the ease of his brutality) is a press agent feeding scraps of his clients’ gossip to killer columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster, steely and remote). In this exuberant jeremiad, directed by Alexander Mackendrick, J.J. and Sidney are at once the rock that crushes decent people and the vermin under it. Ernest Lehman, who had worked for a Broadway press agent, wrote the novelette and first script; but it’s the rewrite by playwright Clifford Odets, who knew plenty about fame and failure, that makes the tale sing and sting.
Odets stewed the characters in venom and peppered the dialogue with wit so acute and sarcastic that, a half-century later, viewers’ heads swim in wonder and revulsion. No one’s nice here; there are only the wicked and the weak. Bile served with brio: would that someone dared to make a movie this dark today. Please, someone — anyone?
The Foo Fighters captured five Grammys and Adele won four, including the song of the year trophy for “Rolling in the Deep,” at a Grammy ceremony that had the difficult task of celebrating music’s best while mourning the loss of one of their greatest, Whitney Houston.
From Nicki Minaj’s Red Riding Hood getup to Katy Perry’s head-to-toe blue ensemble, TIME rounds up some of the best (and worst!) sartorial choices at the annual music awards show.
