Ace High / I quattro dell’Ave Maria (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1968)

Most probably this movie: Straniero di silenzio, Lo - The Spaghetti Western Database

Eli Wallach as Cacopoulos pretty much saves this film.

Caco is very much a clone of Tuco, in that he’s a bit goofy, a bit of an oaf. And yet, he’s mellower, friendlier and slightly smarter. Granted, he does make stupid mistakes, like when he sleeps with a hooker and wakes up to find that she stole all his money. And yet, he always has that crafty glint in his eye which sets him apart from his electrifyingly energetic counterpart. He can be deep and soulful. He can also be overzealous and eager. And somehow Eli managed to balance the two in creating this immensely likable character. I’m dismayed that he didn’t return in Boot Hill.
Also, I understand all the complaints about whitewashing (so to speak) of mixed race characters, but here, I don’t mind.

That’s the second time I’ve seen someone coin the phrase “Tuco-ish”. I agree, he’s much better than when he was Max Lozoya, but I don’t even mind Lozoya.

I like this one very much.
Eli is obviously leading the show. Blue eyes are here just for the ladies, standing in the back, looking pretty, but Bud is top notch. Back in the 80’s in ol’ Yugoslavia he was bigger than Superman and Batman. So naturally when I watched this movie for the first time as a kid in a cinema I was bought after the first hammer punch. On a second viewing some 25 years later I found this movie just average. Probably I was a little bit tired that time. This morning I watched it for a third time and it was very entertaining. Pacing was fine, beautiful scenery and sets … and Tiffany Hoyveld.
4/5*

There’s an interesting bit of Leone trivia about this one. According to Leone, Colizzi took the casino scene from Harry Grey’s novel “The Hoods” which was the initial basis for Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America”.

Yugoslavian title of this movie was “Četvorica u igri”.
Here is a poster

This lady had her eye on Eli throughout the film.

To quote myself, this one was on TV last weekend, but I forgot I’ve watched it before.

Anyway, see how on that Yugoslavian poster Bud’s and Terence’s names are much bigger than Eli’s (and Kevin McCarthy isn’t even on poster (who accidentally I watched just last night screaming “You’re next! You’re next!”)) :smile:

Ace High (1968) Last night I finally saw this, ( after seeing the brillliant Boot Hill), Ive been anticipating this for a while now. Upon viewing it I noticed that their are two storylines, One is Cacopoulos getting revenge for fifteen years of hard labor, and the other is Hutch and Cat trying to get the gold back that Cacopulos stole from them. Upon first viewing, I thought Cat and Hutch would be the main protagonists, and couldnt figure out why Colizzi would introduce them before introducing Cacopulos. Their is also a zapata moment in this in the middle, a trinity like fight, a casino run by cheaters! ( make note, the ending shootout is cool as Ive seen in recent memory). This should please most spaghetti fans, and the running time i have on my dvd is over 2 hours. Does anyone know what the exact running time should be or is?

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Approximately 132 minutes at 24 fps.

I seem to remember additional scenes when I watched it on TV. This time I watched my Paramount DVD and had the same feelings I did when I watched this about 12 years ago. The movie slows down in the second half. I can’t disagree with the reviews that have said it tries to be epic and that’s unfortunately its weakness. Interesting enough, I found that God Forgives is slower in the first half and then the second half is probably some of the best spaghetti western action ever captured on celluloid. With Ace High, I find the first half incredibly entertaining and the second rather slow until we get to the duel. I do like this film though and I’m looking forward to a rewatch. This time it won’t take me another 12 years. Colizzi’s westerns are very unusual and have a different feeling to most. I’ve wanted to acquire the Brazilian DVD for a while since it appears to be the only uncut English language release. If anybody has a copy for sale/trade, let me know.

I think this is a decent film. I got the Paramount DVD when it was OOP on ebay years back. I hope they do an uncut release for blu-ray (maybe with the rest of the Colizzi trilogy).

Hate when this happens :frowning: Lorry and Landrover in shot.

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I had this review prepared for few days. Time to finish. I’ll start with negative points for me this time. Rustichelli wrote another of his annoying classical scores for the movie. It gives the trilogy a very specific tone (I’d call it sick tone) which is the most apparent in Boot Hill. The taste in music is ofc a very personal matter so you might like it, I did not.

Ace High is an episodic movie. It is fragmented into 3 loosely connected episodes with 3 villains. Each episode differs in its theme and message making the movie feel even more incoherent. Moreover between these episodes there are sections you could call intermezzos where Hill/Spencer have fistfights similar to their later legendary comedies, where Spencer takes a photo of himself (which is hilarious), where Spencer laments about his fate (again hilarious) and lastly where Spencer/Hill follow Wallach. These scenes are all really funny thanks to their newly found comedic talent and must have been basis for later Trinity’s movies. Spencer even uses his classical hammer-fist. :slight_smile:

Throughout the movie there are two main motives for the characters. Hill/Spencer want their money back (that they were given for returning the money Bill San Antonio had stolen), Wallach looks for revenge.

The first episode takes place mostly in a city. The villain is a greedy banker who is also a coward. At this point you’ll start to slowly realize that the protagonists are not Spencer/Hill but it is actually Wallach’s character. It is pretty much standard enjoyable revenger that is there just to introduce us what is going on.

The second episode is a zappata inspired western taking place in a little fortress where the bad guy #2 is killing people accused of being goverment traitors. Everything happens really too fast, as in the case of the first episode, to get you invested into this storyline but it is also the darkest and the most serious of the three episodes and very well done. This one is about fighting for a right thing.

The last episode is the most memorable for several reasons. The cheating casino is an original idea (though bit dumb if you think about it for a moment since the house never loses and there is absolutely no reason for casino to cheat). It turns out to be something like an early Ocean’s Eleven with a funny twist to it and a classical western finale. There is also a black gunfighter who is insulted by the baddies and takes it pretty badly. There is an emotional dialogue between the former friends that you wont easily forget. Friendship is the theme of this episode and Wallach shows some pretty good acting here that will stay in your mind.

Collizzi’s direction is classy as in his other two westerns and there is again a marching scene with trumpets. 3/5

I know this film isn’t as well regarded as God Forgives, I Don’t, but personally I enjoyed it just as much. Probably has something to do with my love of Tuco as Eli Wallach’s character, Cacopoulos, is clearly inspired by him.

I think it also has to do with the-as one reviewer put it-Leone-esque quality of the movie. The film is mostly driven by the characters and their personalities which has always been my favorite part of Spaghetti Westerns

I think the criticisms about the film trying too much to be an epic and feeling disjointed are fair, but Wallach’s performance and the direction of certain scenes like the ending standoff outweighed any negatives for me.

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I Agree as This is My Favorite of the Cat Stevens Trilogy
I Even Have this In My Alt. Top 20 above GFID
It Might Even Make my Top 20
As A few on The Sites Ess Top 20 I Don’t Think are Top 20 Worthy (IMO)

I Haven’t Actually Made a Definite List Yet
That takes a lot of Time But This Is Definitely HighTeens Low 20s on a list of 1 to 40/50

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Wholeheartedly agree, I would definitely include this on my top twenty as well. Though, I’ve only seen about 36 Spaghetti Westerns so I guess that doesn’t say much.

I kind of think so as well. While I enjoyed Face to Face, I think either this film or God Forgives I don’t are stronger contenders for its spot.

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I Would Drop (From Ess Top 20)
Duck You Sucker
Django Kill, If You Live Shoot
If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death

I’ve Seen Little Over 60ish
I Never Counted Nor Do I remember All the Plots to the Weaker Ones (Ones I Didn’t Enjoy Much First Viewing and Haven’t Seen Since)

This is off the main topic here, but I must agree on 2 of those 3, but the orginal and a bit “arty” Django Kill is a gem IMO, qualitatively different even for SWs due to the quantitatively most of the time slightly weird and a bit complex story but very well executed and performed with a music theme emphasizing this.
That all but one of the initial “real” bandits are eliminated within a short time is probably rather unique, and that the last surviving one actually becomes the leading antihero is amusing and fits the general mood. Of course the town people including prominent citizens also have some trouble with the law…
I like this and that the story is varied with the hinted homosexual gang of Sorro as another unusual but entertaining ingredient.
In 3 years I have seen around 120 SWs and Django KIll is my number 7. I have probably watched it close to 10 times.

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Not to get too much off topic, but personally I would say Duck, You Sucker and If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death both deserve some spot on the essential list. Duck because I think it’s the best of the zapata westerns and Sartana because it’s the best of the gimmicky, Bond-esque ones.

I agree Django Kill, if You Live Shoot is a little out of place, though. Like Runner said, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in the film but I think it’s appreciated more by people already familiar with the genre. Would absolutely have it on the alternative twenty, though, for that very reason.

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