When Sergio Leone started his landmark Dollars trilogy in 1964 he proved to the world that the western wasn’t just an American genre.  By adding a unique European influence to the tales of the Wild West, Leone created an entirely new type of film experience, The Spaghetti Western.  In this world, violence was more shocking, heroes more enigmatic, and the overall tone was far more operatic.  It’s ironic then to find that by 1968 Italian directors were making films that were no longer interested in deconstructing the American western, but were in fact analyzing the very nature of the Spaghetti Western.  Giuseppe Colizzi’s Ace High is an incredibly fun film that earns much of its enjoyment by continually referencing Leone’s earlier films, most notably The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Eli Wallach stars in Ace High as Cacopoulos, essentially the long lost brother of Tuco from Leone’s western classic.  Here, Wallach steals a fortune from Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (a famous spaghetti western duo).  The two don’t take kindly to Wallach’s thieving ways and track him down only to find that the money has been spent.  Not wanting to die a slow, painful death, Wallach convinces the two that he will reclaim the fortune if they help him track down some old “friends”.   Before you know it a shifty alliance is formed and the film kicks into high gear.  Taking his cues from the Dollars trilogy, Colizzi provides ample room for backstabbing, visions from the past, and intense shootouts.  In the film’s greatest sequence (and one of the best I have seen from this genre), Colizzi tries to one up Leone’s classic final shootout from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  Ace High throws in nine shooters, has a “won’t start shooting till the roulette wheel stops” timing system, and utilizes waltz music as the men get themselves into position amidst a group of cowering bystanders.  It’s an incredible sequence that is only hampered by the fact that Colizzi doesn’t quite have the rhythmic genius of Sergio Leone. Like much of the film, Ace High falls just short of greatness because it is too concerned with emulating a genre instead of expanding its potential.  Still, in the end, Ace High is an entertaining homage to the work of one of Italy’s master directors.     

If only the same loving attention that Colizzi allows Leone had been given to the video transfer of the film, we might have had a great DVD.  Unfortunately, the image is incredibly grainy and filled with scratches.  The audio fares slightly better.  The dialogue track is inconsistent (probably to do with the fact that most of the dialogue was recorded after the movie was shot), but the music is nicely presented in Dolby Digital.