Ace in the Hole (1951)

This is the film where Kirk Douglas dies after being stabbed by a fingernail file. Yes, you read that right.
Kirk Douglas is the slimy, arrogant asshole Charles Tatum. He is stuck as a newspaper reporter in pole dunk Albuquerque New Mexico waiting for his big break so he can get famous again.  
He gets this big break when a man, Leo Mimosa (Richard Benedict) is trapped in a cave. Tatum takes matters into his own hands, forcing Mimosa's wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling) to take the role as tear-struck widow, lifts high the corrupt sheriff and urges the contractor to drill a hole from the top to lift him out though that will take much longer.
But Leo can't hold out that long, forcing Tatum to take responsibly. But he tries. And Leo becoming trapped in the cave is good for the dying family business but not for Lorraine who wants nothing more than to leave her husband, and this time she will have a head start on Leo. Tatum nearly strangles her and she stabs him, causing him to slowly bleed out as he realizes that he is the true reason for Leo's death. Murdered by a reporter.
Once Leo's death is announced, the thousands of people who gathered there leave almost instantly, the life literally sucked out of them. The circus, both media and actual, is over.
Tatum wanted to get famous again and he was very nearly there, only he denied himself the happy ending he absolutely needed.
As my dad put it, Tatum is one of the most despicable characters he's seen in film lately, which is saying something and it's true. Tatum is truly a jerk face, thinking nothing of slapping a woman who was just trying to be nice to him (Lorraine) and then strangling her because she is messing up his story and the role he cast her in.
Douglas is fearless as he played several extremely unlikable characters that year. I did think he was better and much more sympathetic as the hard and cold police detective in William Wyler's Detective Story released the same year. But to play this character takes true guts and Douglas, as he always does, is brilliant, getting the nuances down, making this character real, though you might wish he didn't succeed as you probably don't want Tatum to be a real person.
This film should be a must see, though it was unappreciated when it was first released but has since gained fans. And Billy Wilder directed this film and that alone makes it worth while viewing. Grade: A-