Les 4 de l'Ave Maria

(aka: ACE HIGH)

Eli Wallach plays Cacopoulos, a generous bandit who gives away all he steals to those less off than he is. That is, until he steals $300,000 from bounty hunters Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy (Terence Hill and Bud Spencer) who then come trailing after him all over the southwest (or in this case, Almeria Spain) and want their money back.

When they catch up with him, Cacopoulos let's them in on his primary motive. To get back at three men who double-crossed him 15 years before, letting him get caught and sent to prison. He already killed one, and the other was killed in a Mexican shootout earlier in the film. That only leaves Drake (Kevin McCarthy) and since Cacopoulos had already gambled all Hill & Spencer's money away in Drake's gambling establishment, it's only natural that they help Cacopoulos out in getting their money back.

Reluctantly, Hill & Spencer agree and with the help of circus tightrope walker Thomas (Brock Peters), they stumble onto the fact that Drake's establishment has the roulette wheel fixed, with lookouts in the ceiling and a magnet in basement room under the roulette wheel itself. Needless to say, Drake will get his just reward for ripping the town off with his fixed gambling tables and Cacopoulos will get his revenge. I won't say how so you'll have to see for yourself.

The first half of this film is pretty standard, but the second half involving Drake is where the film really distinguishes itself, imo. It turns into a caper yarn. It also has it's funny moments but isn't as humorous as Hill & Spencer's later spaghetti western; THEY CALL ME TRINITY (1971). Btw, this is their second appearance together, the first being GOD FORGIVES, I DON'T from the year before.

The anamorphic Paramount DVD uses an excellent print although I think the widescreen is a bit too cropped on both top and bottom. Sound is also good with English subtitles (if necessary) and another excellent score by Bruno Nicolai.

If you like the genre with a little humor thrown in, then you might like this one. I did. Above average.

7 out of 10 -

When he escapes the noose, criminal Cacopoulos flees the charges against him and, on his way, robs two banker robbers – Cat Stevens (no, a different one) and Hutch Bessy. Unwilling to kill the two men, Cacopoulos heads off with the money while Cat and Hutch begin the long walk out of the desert. Getting back to civilisation, they vow to track down Cacopoulos and get their money back. They start their search for him but meanwhile Cacopoulos is also bent on revenge on those that betrayed him – and plans to get Cat and Hutch to help, whether they know about it or not.

Screened under the main English title of Ace High, I recorded this film on late night TV hoping for a typical spaghetti western. While that is pretty much what I got, I must confess to being a bit put off by how silly it was at times. I know it was meant to be a comedy of sorts but it didn't sit very well with the spaghetti western genre because it made aspects of that feel like they had been badly done, as opposed to done for laughs. The plot is solid enough but the running time is too long for the material to sustain, making many scenes feel dragged out beyond their intended time. The action (as in movement generally) also suffers because of this perceived slow pace.

The cast are suitable for the genre, but this is not the same as being any good. Eli Wallach has fun in the central role and his performance is good value. I couldn't shake the feeling that Hill had borrowed his performance from many other actors but hadn't been sure how to make it work for him; he didn't really have the screen presence required to carry off the character. Spencer is better in terms of presence but his performance is a bit wanting. The support cast are all so-so, which works within the genre and as always much of the dialogue has that strange bad ADR/bad dubbing feel to it that I think is a prerequisite for the spaghetti genre.

Overall this is an enjoyable enough spaghetti western but if you only know the Eastwood, "Fist Full" or Leone spaghetti films then you'll probably come away thinking this is a low-rent version of those (which I suppose it is). With all the trademarks and weaknesses of the genre, this one will most likely please fans but probably not the casual viewer.

I Quattro dell'Ave Maria (original title) is an entertaining and amusing Macaroni Western starred by the notorious Italian couple , Hill and Spencer , pre-Trinity and Bambino . Likable Terence Hill and stocky Bud Spencer team up again as the valiant and enjoyable duo . The agreeable crew makes a new adventure movie plenty of fist-play , action , shootouts and entertainment . This fun Pipperone Western deals with our intimate friends in Far West , they're two bank-robbers , the blue-eyes and sympathetic Terence Hill as Cat Stevens and a grumpy and goofy Bud Spencer as Hutch . Then appears Cacopoulos (Eli Wallach) , a cunning thief who arranges to save himself from being hung on a fake charge , as he breaks out and steals Cat Stevens (Mario Girotti or Terence Hill , Massimo Giroti'son ) and Hutch Bessy (Carlo Perdesoli or Bud Spencer) a lot of cash and he also robs their horses . This results in a merry pursuit and Stevens and Bessy turn into unwilling allies in Cacopoulus' vendetta against the people who double-crossed him and accused him to get their loot back . Cat Stevens and Hutch unite Cacopoulus , after that , the trio joins forces with a circus artist (Brock Peters) taking on nasties . Nevertheless , the cruel baddie is still alive and seeks avenge , he is a relentless saloon owner (Kevin MacCarthy of Invasion of the body snatchers) and supported by ominous hoodlums .

This funny story contains crossfire , the usual slight fights and a little bit of action , pursuits and circus spectacle . The humor is based on physical and personality differences of the starring , as Terence Hill is the sympathetic and brave hero and Bud Spencer is the corpulent and hunk man . The movie contains gun-play , action Western , bloody spectacle and fist-fights . The film isn't always good , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions , it's frankly delicious . Terence Hill as a two-fisted gunslinger and Spencer as a bouncing hunk are good but still not personified the Trinity hero characters . Later on , the 'big time' duo of Spaghetti Western with humor such as ¨They call me Trinity¨, ¨ Trinity is still my name ¨ and sequels as ¨Troublemakers¨ were run out and for that reason were transfered in modern era film , playing the police/action genre and adventures as ¨All the way boys¨ also titled ¨Plane crazy¨ ; after that , they starred the successful ¨ Miami police series ¨, which belong the followings : ¨Crime Busters¨ , ¨Superfuzz¨ and ¨Supercops in Miami¨. However , being the great American actor Eli Wallach from ¨Actor's Studio¨ who steals the show as Cacopoulus , a similar role to Tucco he performed in ¨The good , the bad and the ugly¨ . At the picture appears customary Spaghetti secondaries who played ordinary characters as villains in numerous Spanish/Italian Western as Livio Lorenzon as Paco Rosa , Steffen Zacharias as Harold , Rick Boyd as Drake's blond henchman , Bruno Corazzari as Charlie , Frank Braña and Riccardo Pizzuti ,habitual secondary in Hill-Spencer films . The movie is finely photographed by director of photography Marcello Masciocchi , and of course is shot in Almeria , Spain, location where were filmed hundreds of Western in the 60s and 70s . Evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by the usual Carlo Rustichelli , conducted by Bruno Nicolai , ordinary collaborator to Ennio Morricone .

The motion picture was regularly directed and produced by Giuseppe Colizzi . Giuseppe directed a trilogy starred by Hill and Spencer as Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy respectively . The first , superior and the best outing was ¨Dio Perdona..¨ with Frank Wolf and Jose Luis Martin ; this second installment also titled ¨Four gunmen of Ave Maria¨ or ¨Ace high¨ with the great Eli Wallach and more camp tendencies ; and the third is ¨Boot Hill¨ with Woody Strode , Eduardo Ciannelli , George Eastman , Alberto DellÁcqua and Romano Puppo . A bit later on , Colizzi again directed Hill and Spencer at an adventure movie titled ¨Più Forte, Ragazzi!" or ¨All the Way Boys" or "Plane Crazy" , USA title . Giuseppe subsequently realized another buddy movie ¨Joe and Margherito¨ with Keith Carradine and Tom Skerrit , being his last movie a real flop titled ¨Switch¨ , starred by Annie Belle , until his early death at fifty years old . The flick will appeal to famous pair fans , in fact , this was the second teaming of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer .

giuseppe colizzi was a fine underrated director dead too early that invented the characters of Spencer-Hill. Differently from E.B.Clucher, Hill is more Eastwood-way then Trinità but the substance is the same. Colizzi was a well competent director, more american then italian, with strong sense of spectacule and correct with the particulars. In Italy is very underrated, I don't know why. "Ace high" is, probably, his best western. It's also hard to see his movies in tv. You can only see every summertime "Arrivano Joe e Margherito", but this is not his best. I hope one day critics rediscover the art of this modest, hard worker artigian of the screen.

Character actor Eli Wallach is the real treat here as he carries his Tuco role from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" over to "Ace High." This is a pre-Trinity pairing of Spencer, Hill and most of the fun and hilarity is carried on the able shoulders of Eli Wallach, who is more than up for the assignment. Wallach steals every scene he's in and this only means total enjoyment for the viewer. A must see for all western fans!