ma-cortes
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 .
tpalovaara
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.
westerner357
(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 -
Mark-371
I have to say this is in the top 5 best movies with both Terence Hill and Bud Spencer! I don't want to tell you the plot. ( read other reviews for that ) But it's very interesting. It may be 2 hours long, but if you see it in a movie store or a video rental, get it! One bad thing about this movie is Eli Wallach. I wish he didn't act in this one!!!! Every time it shows him, this movie seems to get boring. ( Thank god they don't show much of him in this movie ! )Aces High get a 7/10.
