I quattro dell'Ave Maria (1968) YTS

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 6 / 10

Ok, so perhaps it is a stretch too

Ok, so perhaps it is a stretch too far to picture Eli Wallach as a Greek gent called “Cacapoulos”, but he does look like he is having some fun in this adequate western. He only just manages to save himself from the noose then he “borrows” the possessions and horses of “Stevens” (Terrence Hill) and “Bussy” (Bud Spencer) and flees preparing his own unique form of revenge against those who would, believe it or not, wrongly have strung him up. What he didn’t know at the time was that there was $300,000 in their poke and these bounty hunters aren’t going to just wave it goodbye, so after many adventures they do finally reunite and "Cacapoulos” let’s them into his cunning plan to track down “Drake” (Kevin McCarthy). He is the last man standing from his original would-be hangmen and as he also advises them that their money has long since lined the pockets of gamblers and casinos across Arizona, they conclude that they don’t really have much to lose anymore so they unite with their erstwhile enemy and the nimbly acrobatic “Thomas” (Brock Peters) and set off. “Drake” is fairly easy to find, but how to get at him? He owns a well defended, entirely crooked, casino so that’s the task - and who knows, possibly there will be some loot in it for them too. There is plenty of action here, but it’s really Wallach who keeps it rolling along with his tongue firmly in his cheek throughout as we build to quite an enjoyable last twenty minutes. I suppose that Nick Cravat had probably hung up his leotard by 1968 but Peters does well enough in support and with Hill always with a glint in his eye, this works fine. It is far too long and some of the dubbing was clearly done in the pub after ten-too-many shots of tequila, but it’s still an amiable enough outing for a star that you’ll probably never recall, but will probably enjoy.

Reviewed by John Chard 7 / 10

Well, no. Money corrupts men, it softens him

Well, no. Money corrupts men, it softens him. So to keep you young and pure, I think I'll take everything. Ace High is directed by Giuseppe Colizzi and Colizzi co-writes the screenplay with Bino Cicogna. It stars Eli Wallach, Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Brock Peters and Kevin McCarthy. Music is by Carlo Rustichelli and cinematography by Marcello Masciocchi (Technicolor/Techniscope of course). After Cacopoulos (Wallach) manages to save himself from being hung on a false charge, he robs Cat Stevens (Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Spencer) of a lot of money and steals their horses. This results in a merry chase and Stevens and Bessy become unwilling allies in Cacopoulus' revenge against the people who deserted him and framed him towards the rope... Is it a spoof or a parody? Well I'll leave that to the hard core Spag Western fans to decide, what I do know is that it's good entertainment. Plenty of daft sub-genre staples are adhered to, as are the many cool action sequences as our gruff anti-heroes go about their greed and revenge fuelled ways. Colizzi wisely keeps his cards close to his chest as regards our trio of lead characters, who in true Spag convention are making it unclear where we are heading. The action is wonderfully kinetic, with some sterling sequences unfolding when our leads get involved in a Texan/Mexican battle. Why I'm still not so sure, but it's exciting stuff! It's all very derivative, there's no getting away from that, and as the genre often does, it renders the porotags/antags under developed. Yet for fans of such fare this is well recommended, with lovely cinematography that gives some authenticity to the era, Wallach channelling a Tuco clone, and Hill and Spencer doing their Spaghetti Abbot and Costello thing, it's all good really. 7/10

Reviewed by ma-cortes 6 / 10

Ravioli and Fagioli Western from Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy with Terence Hill as Cat Stevens and Spencer as Hutch

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 .

I quattro dell'Ave Maria

1968 [ITALIAN]

Action / Comedy / Western

I quattro dell'Ave Maria

1968 [ITALIAN]

Action / Comedy / Western

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Movie Reviews

Ok, so perhaps it is a stretch too

Well, no. Money corrupts men, it softens him

Ravioli and Fagioli Western from Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy with Terence Hill as Cat Stevens and Spencer as Hutch

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