Review: Ace High

A crooked bank owner (Stephen Zacharias) breaks wrongly convicted Eli Wallach out of jail in exchange for Wallach taking down bounty hunters Cat Stevens (Terence Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Bud Spencer) who he feels previously wronged and humiliated him. He kills the banker instead because the banker had once betrayed him alongside two others, as he then goes in search of the other two men (one played by Kevin McCarthy). Brock Peters turns up briefly as an African-American acrobat who joins up with Cat and Hutch.

 

A great cast is wasted in this meandering 1968 spaghetti western from writer-director Giuseppe Colizzi (“God Forgives…I Don’t!”, which is this film’s predecessor). The film has its moments, especially with Bud Spencer and Eli Wallach who are quite funny, but it’s just not a memorable or interesting whole. The story seems awfully thin for it to be given a near epic-length treatment and even then some important characters are barely even featured. Like most spaghetti westerns it also lacks the style and panache of Sergio Leone. It definitely needed a lot more action (it’s good when we get it), and a heck of a lot more Brock Peters and Kevin McCarthy. The latter has barely more than a walk-on in a very important role, whilst the former plays an acrobat in a film where star Terence Hill does far more acrobatics. Look out for an appearance by a cool seven-barrel rifle, it’s a shame the film doesn’t better showcase it.

 

The three main stars do good work, the film just isn’t worthy of them. A huge disappointment this one, though Eli Wallach’s double – and triple – crossing character is peak Wallach. Even the music score by Carlo Rustichelli (Mario Bava’s “The Whip and the Body” and “Blood and Black Lace”) isn’t much to write home about.

 

Rating: C

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