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5
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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This
is the middle entry in the "Cat and Hutch"
trilogy of spaghetti westerns starring Terence
Hill and Bud Spencer, who would later gain international
fame as the comedic gunslinging brothers in They
Call Me Trinity (1971) and Trinity
Is Still My Name (1972). In Ace
High the duo takes a back seat to top-billed
Eli Wallach, here playing a kinder, gentler and
slightly smarter version of his Tuco character
from Sergio Leone's The
Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Saddle
tramps Cat Stevens (Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Spencer)
think they've pulled a fast one on a corrupt banker,
making off with a fortune in easy money. To stop
them the desperate banker springs a condemned
outlaw, the half-Greek, half-Cherokee Cacopoulos
(Wallach), from the local jail. Former partners
in crime, Cacopoulos was double-crossed by the
banker in the past but is now needed for his special
skills. If he kills Cat and Hutch and recovers
the money then their old partnership can resume.
Instead, the vengeful Cacopoulos shoots the banker
dead and goes after the loot himself.
He rather
easily gets the drop on Cat and Hutch, but although
he robs them he spares their lives. (He may be
an outlaw but he's not a cold-blooded murderer.)
The two men immediately set out after Cacopoulos,
determined to get back the stolen money that was
stolen from them. The trail leads them from Mexico
to Mississippi, during which they encounter their
quarry on a number of occasions only to be outfoxed
at every turn. Cacopoulos
actually cares less about the loot than he does
settling the score with his former partners, who,
along with the dead banker, were responsible for
his spending 15 years in
prison. When Cacopoulos
loses all the money in a crooked gambling house
run by Drake (Piranha's
Kevin McCarthy), one of the men he's sworn to
kill, Cat and Hutch have little choice but to
team up with him in a scheme to break the casino.
Cacopoulos
promises them even more cash if they help him
take Drake down. Joining in the plan —
and vital to its success —
is Thomas (Brock Peters
of Soylent Green),
a circus acrobat whose aerial skills are needed
to sneak into Drake's establishment.
(He's pretty handy with a six-shooter, too.) The
confrontation with Cacopoulos'
old enemy will either leave the four adventurers
dead or richer than they could have ever dreamed.
Episodic
and derivative, Ace
High meanders at
a leisurely pace from one set-piece to the next
with director Giuseppe Colizzi more intent on
indulging Wallach's scenery-chewing method acting
than telling a good story. Cacopoulos pretty much
is the Tuco character, only more good-natured
and quirky — he even carries his pistol, sans
holster, suspended on his hip by a rope as in
the Leone film. As
Cat, Terence Hill (real name: Mario Girotti) plays
it straight; his character is just a bland clone
of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name and Franco
Nero's Django. Bud Spencer (aka Carlo Pedersoli),
although pretty much doing the same shtick he'd
later perfect as Bambino in the Trinity films
(to include his signature move of punching guys
on the top of their heads), is much more interesting
than his handsome, higher-billed co-star; his
Hutch is almost manic depressive in his wild mood
swings. Brock Peters' tightrope-walking acrobat
is featured far less in the story, with limited
screen time, but is instantly likable. As the
real villain of the piece, Kevin McCarthy doesn't
even appear until the final 20 minutes or so.
The fact that we haven't truly been given enough
reason to hate him robs the otherwise satisfying
climax of some punch.
Don't
expect a lot of gunfights here. The action is
generally well-handled (despite occasionally sloppy
editing in a couple of fight scenes) but is spaced
far apart. Spencer's brawls with a gang of toughs
and a bare-knuckle boxer are pure filler that
have virtually nothing to do with the plot. A
pitched battle between revolutionaries and peasants
in Mexico livens things up mid-film; Hill gets
to man a machine gun a la Django. Where
Ace High gets interesting
—
and
ultimately redeems itself —
is
in the final act, when it becomes a curious fusion
of spaghetti western and heist/caper film. Cat,
Hutch and Thomas break into Drake's casino during
the night and hide inside as part of Cacopoulos'
plan to turn the tables on his enemy, using Drake's
own rigged roulette wheel against him. The resulting
climax is nicely staged and certainly different
from your typical spaghetti
western fare. So is the setting for this
denouement: a gambling mecca in Mississippi, "near
Memphis". (I wonder... Is this where they
got the idea to build all those casinos down in
Tunica?) Though the change of scenery is
interesting, as a resident of the area I found
it rather amusing to see a large mountain
in the distance as Cat and Hutch ride along the
banks of what is supposed to be the Mississippi
River.
While
director Colizzi
is certainly no Sergio Leone (or Sergio Corbucci,
or even Enzo Castellari for that matter), Ace
High should prove a pleasant enough diversion
for serious fans of the genre. Wallach seems to
be having fun, and though they play it straight
for the most part Hill and Spencer are a reliable
screen team. Their participation, along with the
atypical set-piece that caps the film, makes
it worth a view despite its derivative nature
and relative lack of style.
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A bargain priced release from Paramount, the Ace
High DVD offers a 16x9 enhanced anamorphic
transfer in the film's original aspect ratio of
2.35:1. Minor grain is occasionally evident but
otherwise this is a first-rate print. Audio quality
of the disc doesn't meet its visual standards,
however; the mono track, while clear and distortion-free,
sounds somewhat flat. (No great loss considering
Carlo Rustichelli's completely unremarkable score.)
Not a single extra is included, not even a trailer.
It can be found in retail stores like Best Buy
for 10 bucks.
5/29/05
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