Ace High (1969)

Yes if you know your Hill/Spencer you ought to know that they did three darker, and more serious westerns in the late 60's before they find their stride in "They call him Trinity". All three were directed by Guiseppe Colizzi who later directed them in their first non-western "All the way boys" in 1972. Someone asked if this was filmed in English, and yes they were all made for an international market. But Bud was almost every time dubbed afterwords since he has a very special accent. I am pretty sure Terence was dubbed in this one as well. I enjoyed this movie. Eli Wallach is very good as the Greek. And it feels almost like he came directly from the shoot of "The good the bad the ugly" to the set of this movie. Bud Spencer is also surprisingly good here, but Terence is just a bit too stiff and almost somewhat boring. A script involving escape, robbery and revenge is not that original in these type of films but it works. Mainly because of Wallach and Spencer and a solid directing by Colizzi. All in all Spencer/Hills best movie together before their heyday.

One can see the influence of Sergio Leone writ large all over this large-scale Spaghetti Western (and not just in the casting of Eli Wallach from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY [1966]) – but Colizzi doesn’t in any way show a comparable talent! The director also receives sole writing credit, which rather explains the film’s relentless self-indulgence – padding a wafer-thin plot with lame attempts at characterization and dreary passages of local color! The film happens to be the second teaming of popular Italian brawling duo Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (the first – GOD FORGIVES…I DON’T [1967] – was actually a prequel to this!) but Hill’s atypical glum countenance robs the film of some much-needed charisma. Incidentally, neither title – American (which places an emphasis on the gambling subplot which comes into play only during the last third) or original, which roughly translates to FOUR GUNMEN OF AVE MARIA – is really satisfactory…but, then, neither is the film itself: one isn’t bothered by the sluggish pacing and extreme length of Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, but that certainly can’t be said here! Mind you, being a vintage outing, it’s moderately watchable and, at least, the print (via the Paramount DVD – how they suddenly felt the urge to release this I’ll never know!) was very nice…in contrast to its follow-up, BOOT HILL (1969), which I recently viewed by way of a horridly panned-and-scanned Public Domain edition.Anyway, the plot involves “lice-infected jailbird” Wallach being sprung from jail by a corrupt banker to retrieve a sum of money ‘stolen’ from him by Hill and Spencer; there follows an endless series of chases and double-crosses – with occasional interjections from black tightrope-walker Brock Peters and, it goes without saying, numerous stops for the duo’s trademark brawling antics. Eventually, the four join forces to clean up the gambling-house owned by Wallach’s long-time enemy (and former partner) Kevin McCarthy: this is an elaborate and mildly suspenseful sequence – climaxed by a shoot-out between the gang and McCarthy and his (anonymous-looking) henchmen on either side of the gambling table during a particularly busy night. The soundtrack is, once again, the handiwork of Carlo Rustichelli – but, while serving its purpose, isn’t especially remarkable within the impressive pantheon of Spaghetti Western scores…

I am a huge fan of the three main stars of this movie - Wallach, Spencer & Hill - so it is with sadness that I have to report negatively on it. Even as a sort of benign curiosity, it fails to work for me. This is a very poor imitation of spaghetti westerns such as 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly', and Wallach tries hard - but ultimately fails - to successfully re-create a Tuco-style character here. Hill is a good-looking, charismatic chap, but he's no Clint Eastwood. He and Spencer are magnificent together in more honest, comic capers like 'Watch Out, We're Mad' but this movie tries to be something it's not - stylish.I guess it proves how brilliant Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone are together, and how futile it is to attempt to copy their works. If nothing else it proves the old adage - stick to what you're good at.

fun, fun, fun; well made in every detail; fantastic score, beautiful photography, story with twists, lots of action, fun actors - having fun doing the movie and being fun to watch, this western comedy is a delight. By the way; I'm NOT exaggerating. One of the Hill/Spencer highlights.