It's hard to mourn a guy who had such a fabulous career, lived to the age of 103 and saw his son become almost as big a movie star — or, arguably bigger. I sure hope the Motion Picture Academy is moving mountains to get a tribute to Kirk Douglas into the Oscar telecast this Sunday. Maybe, just maybe someone there had the foresight to already have something at least partially assembled, just in case. I mean, it's not like it was impossible for a man that age to leave us any day now…
I have no story about meeting Mr. Douglas because I never did…but I sure saw a lot of great performances by him in a lot of real good movies. My fave was easily Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival) which was done by Billy Wilder. It's a film that still hasn't received its proper attention and it's more relevant today than when it was made in 1951. Douglas played a truly horrible human being and there isn't one second in the film where he did a little gesture or wink to the audience to indicate he really wasn't that bad a guy or that he was just an actor playing a role. Just a fabulous performance.
If you're never seen it or you yearn to see it again, it's out on home video and isn't hard to get streamed to your computer for a few bucks. But it might be even easier than that. You just know Turner Classic Movies will schedule a Kirk Douglas Tribute shortly and show a bunch of his best films. That one should certainly be in it…and there are plenty of other classics to keep it company. Here's the trailer…