“Billy Wilder has a mind full of razor blades.” That’s William Holden’s assessment of writer-director Billy Wilder -- and few pictures illustrate Holden’s point better than Ace in the Hole (1951). Way ahead of its time and eerily prescient about ours, Wilder’s film casts Kirk Douglas as a ruthless reporter who milks a story about a man caught in a mine cave-in to advance his career. The film was inspired by a real-life 1925 incident in which spelunker Floyd Collins became tra

I once got an email from an 88-year-old man named George, praising an essay I’d written for The Washington Post . Coincidentally, I had...

...and by “some,” I mean “me.” I know, I know. I should be crazy about any film that tops most critics’ lists of classic comedies. Trust...

“Billy Wilder has a mind full of razor blades.” That’s William Holden’s mic-drop take on Wilder’s creative genius. Holden should know....

Winston Churchill called Russia “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Same goes for Greta Garbo: an introvert who sought...