![]() I feel that the poor English dubbing really hurt this movie, more than some of Fulci’s others, and hopefully this Italian language release will increase its reputation, though I will say that my review copy suffered from some background hiss during some scenes of the Italian language version. It’s taken till now for Contraband to get an uncut UK release, and Shameless, one of my favourite UK DVD labels because of both their dedication to releasing as many obscure and strange gems as possible and their yellow covers, has even given usm in addition to the familiar English language version, an Italian language track with English subtitles. After a reasonably successful if hardly striking domestic release, UK and US cinema releases didn’t happen, and the film unsurprisingly was cut in many places, the UK video losing around three minutes, and even an early DVD release was cut. One of the two overseas titles The Naples Connection was probably chosen because Marcel Bozzuffi had also been in The French Connection. ![]() ![]() Filmed mostly on location in Naples, it began life under the title Vicious, and was shot as Mean Blood before being eventually called what translates as Luca The Smuggler in Italy. It was shot between Zombie Flesh Eaters and City Of The Living Dead during the director’s most fertile period, and the period where he also gained an international cult following as well as notoriety. Like many of Fulci’s films it’s a little sloppy in places and was obviously somewhat rushed, while the story sometimes seems like a compilation of gangster movie cliches, but it shows an adeptness and fondness for its genre that makes me wish Fulci had done more films in this world, and is overall highly enjoyable as long as you can stomach some extreme violence, and boy do I mean extreme violence! Of course, if you’re already familiar with some of his horror work, then you know what you’re going to get, and actually Contraband is a good film with which to start exploring some of his non-horror stuff. Contraband is his only entry in the gangster movie genre, or more specifically the poliziotteschi sub genre that was very popular in Italy in the 70’s and virtually took over from the westerns, though typically Fulci tweaks the formula and has the police as bystanders for most of the time while the gangsters are the centre of the action. In any case, Fulci usually comes third, but then again he also made far more films outside the horror genre: in fact, the man made movies of all sorts, and not just when he was beginning his career, from westerns to family movies to even a film about bottom pinching. The Holy Trinity of Italian horror is generally regarded as Dario Argento, Mario Bava And Lucio Fulci, though true to form I would slightly tweak that and have Bava at the top. Luca barely escapes with his life and swears revenge, despite the pleas of his wife Adele…. Lucia and Mickey take their accusations to their boss Perlante, who agrees to look into it, but after a night-time fire at Mickey’s racing stables kills a valued racehorse, he and Luca drive over to inspect the damage and Mickey is machine-gunned to death by assassins dressed as cops. ![]() After a run-in with the police, Luca and his brother Mickey suspect Scherino, the head of a rival gang of smugglers, of passing on their actives. Luca Di Angelo is a smuggler, one member of an organized team trafficking cigarettes and booze up and down the coast off Naples, Italy. REVIEWED BY:Dr Lenera, Official HCF CriticĭISTRIBUTED BY SHAMELESS SCREEN ENTERTAINMENT 221: CONTRABAND AKA LUCA IL CONTRABANDIERE, THE NAPLES CONNECTION, THE SMUGGLER Starring: Fabio Testi, Ivana Monti, Marcel Bozzuffi, Saverio Marconi Written by: Ettore Sanzò, Gianni De Chiara, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Lucio Fulci ![]()
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