Contraband, 1980.
Directed by Lucio Fulci.
Starring Fabio Testi, Marcel Bozzuffi, Ivana Monti, Saverio Marconi, Ferdinand Murolo, Lucio Fulci, and Enrico Maisto.
SYNOPSIS:
A cigarette smuggler goes out for revenge when his business partner and brother is murdered by a rival drug smuggler.
It is amazing that Italian splatter maestro Lucio Fulci found the time between making Zombie Flesh Eaters and City of the Living Dead to make another movie, but 1980 was a banner year for the director and Contraband (a.k.a. The Smuggler, a.k.a. The Naples Connection) was not a horror movie, so it was probably a relief for Fulci to do something a little different. That said, there is still plenty for horror fans to enjoy here as Lucio Fulci didn’t do subtle.
Luca Ajello (Fabio Testi) and his brother Mickey (Enrico Maisto) are part of a racket smuggling cigarettes and booze up and down the coast of Naples. After a run-in with the police, the brothers suspect rival gang boss Scherino (Ferdinand Murolo) of setting them up and go to their boss for help, but after their car is stopped by a fake police road block Mickey is gunned down. Vowing revenge, Luca breaks into Scherino’s house and threatens him, but Scherino protests his innocence, saying he had no involvement in Mickey’s death, and proceeds to have his henchmen beat Luca severely, but he spares his life. Once recovered, Luca gets a tip about who really killed Mickey, and then all bets are off.
The thing about Contraband is that, on paper at least, the plot is fairly simple and straightforward – one brother is killed, the other brother goes out for revenge – but in true Italian style things get overcomplicated, most likely due to Lucio Fulci having to pad out the running time because the bare bones of the plot don’t really add up to much. Hence why it takes a third of the movie to get to Mickey’s death and for Luca to vow revenge, when that really could have been done in the first 15-20 minutes, leaving more time for the revenge itself.
But when that revenge hits, it is a glorious sight to behold as Fulci does not hold back with the brutality. Naturally, the killing of Mickey is paying homage(!) to Sonny Corleone’s death in The Godfather, and Fulci makes full use of seemingly all the blood squibs available in Italy as characters are mowed down and fountains of blood spray the streets of Naples; one poor soul even gets his throat shot out with a latex effect that looks like it was borrowed from Zombie Flesh Eaters, giving this crime thriller a huge crossover appeal for horror fans, as does the scene where a disgruntled gang boss goes to town on a woman’s face with a Bunsen burner. Coppola didn’t dare go there, did he?
Featuring a funky score from Fabio Frizzi, car chases, uncomfortable sexual assaults and plenty of recognizable faces from Italian genre cinema, Contraband ticks all the boxes for what you would want from a poliziotteschi directed by Lucio Fulci at his infamous peak, and is certainly a violent delight if you are in the mood for gore in a more grounded setting than a Caribbean island full of zombies or a haunted hotel in New Orleans.
Featured on the disc are interviews with Fulci’s daughter Antonella and star Fabio Testi – whose tales of the making of the movie are worth hearing – plus a huge video essay, courtesy of the ever-insightful Stephen Thrower, that is as informative as it is definitive, making this Blu-ray edition of Contraband pretty much the last word on the movie. However, be prepared to wait a bit for the good stuff to happen and don’t try to follow everything that is being said onscreen, because it can get a bit confusing.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
