Director Billy Wilder cynically observes the ugliness and readiness with which humans gawk at tragedy. When a man is trapped in a cave in a small desert town, ambitious reporter Kirk Douglas cannily whips the incident into a cause célèbre, prolonging the crisis for his own gain. Like a modern-day pied piper, he charmingly leads tourists and media consumers in a merry and hideous dance.
35mm, b/w, 111 min. DIR: Billy Wilder. SCR: Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman. CAST: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Bob Arthur, Porter Hall.