Alongside LIZARD, CONTRABAND is among the best non-zombie movies Fulci would make. Made right after he made ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, Fulci was obviously quick to cotton on to the money-making potential for extreme gore. With this late-in-the-day crime thriller, made when the Italians were just beginning to ease off from that genre, he came out with one of his most shocking movies.
The Mafia operations in Naples are being set back by unknown parties. A massive contraband deal is interrupted by the police, a Mafia stables is burnt to the ground, and the brother of minor league Mafioso Luca (Testi) is assassinated at a phony police roadblock. This sends Luca on an obsessive hunt to find out who's causing all the mayhem. He's not long in finding out - a French drug racketeer known as 'The Marsigliese' (Bozzuffi) is killing his way through the Neapolitan crime lords, hoping to replace the penny-ante contraband pipeline with his own drug network.
Though CONTRABAND lacks the pace and conviction of the dynamic Lenzi and Di Leo police thrillers, Fulci does well enough and handles the action scenes well. Shootouts at a traitor's house and on a dawn street (the latter involving geriatric assassins - one of whom is Fulci himself in a witty cameo!) are standouts, as are the fight scenes at a sulphur-pit and a deserted liner dry-docked at an angle.
It certainly is way more violent and unpleasant than any American thriller you'd care to name, if not necessarily realistic in its approach. Submachine-gun fire literally disintegrates a guy's head, pistol-shots take out huge chunks from necks and skulls, shotgun blasts blow stomachs WIDE open, and in one of the most effective killings, one poor sod has an entire machine-gun clip emptied into his body until he takes a tumble down a cliff! This isn't mentioning the other unfortunates who are stabbed, boiled in pits, pistol-whipped, or blown apart in bomb-blasts. The make-up FX vary wildly from good to bad, but their extremely brutal approach do make it a film you won't forget in a hurry.
Two scenes in particular are especially hard to take. The first involves a pretty female drug courier. Her face is blow-torched to a horrible crispy, steamy black when she tries to double cross the villain, who sees through her attempt to pass him virtually worthless cut cocaine. This goes on for almost one full seriously unpleasant minute. The second has the villain attempting to force the hero into a deal - by having Luca's kidnapped wife beaten and sodomised, with her screams echoing down the phone line as an additional push. The rape itself isn't shown, but the convincing turn by the actress involved, and gloating manner of the villain ('This time, we have to do it right!'), make the scene nigh-on impossible to sit through without provoking some sort of reaction.
One of the most extreme crime thrillers, CONTRABAND further benefits from a great Euro-funk Fabio Frizzi score and some better-than-usual acting. Testi is likable as the 'honourable' hero, even if he does sometimes use sadistic torture. But his character is pretty much the same as the one he played in Fulci's ultra-sadistic 1975 western FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE.
The French/Italian actor Bozzuffi, well-known for his appearance in international productions, is excellent as the main villain of the piece, playing his ever-grinning sadist as an amalgam between his two most famous roles (his beaming gay thug from Z, and his sleazy cold-blooded hit-man from THE FRENCH CONNECTION), and presenting a character with no virtues at all! Romano Puppo, as the villain's imposing hit-man (who kills off most of the cast!), also makes a big impression, and has a great face that was perfect for crime movies. You can't wait for both to meet painfully gory deaths, and Fulci does score in that department! It's a shame that neither turn up until the halfway mark, but the film picks up considerably when they do. Sadly, both actors are no longer with us in real life, depriving the world of two vastly under-appreciated talents.
Other appearances are clocked in by Luciano Rossi as a hunchbacked drug chemist, Venantino Venantini as a lazy cop named 'Tarantino', and hardcore starlets Ajita Wilson and Cinzia Lodetti as the playthings to a playboy mobster. The latter gets a great scene rubbing her tits in a gay gangster's face before she gets blown up! So, CONTRABAND is a sleazy movie, and sleazy enough to make it worth seeing, BUT there are some irritating flaws. The English dubbing is chronic, and seriously mars some otherwise good performances (Bozzuffi gets saddled with a particularly bad gay voice, while Testi's voice turns up on at least three other different characters). Plus, the first third of the film is slow and boring.
Since virtually all of Fulci's movies are flawed in some way, at least CONTRABAND does deliver the goods, and is essential viewing for anyone into Fulci or European crime-slime in general.
The Mafia operations in Naples are being set back by unknown parties. A massive contraband deal is interrupted by the police, a Mafia stables is burnt to the ground, and the brother of minor league Mafioso Luca (Testi) is assassinated at a phony police roadblock. This sends Luca on an obsessive hunt to find out who's causing all the mayhem. He's not long in finding out - a French drug racketeer known as 'The Marsigliese' (Bozzuffi) is killing his way through the Neapolitan crime lords, hoping to replace the penny-ante contraband pipeline with his own drug network.
Though CONTRABAND lacks the pace and conviction of the dynamic Lenzi and Di Leo police thrillers, Fulci does well enough and handles the action scenes well. Shootouts at a traitor's house and on a dawn street (the latter involving geriatric assassins - one of whom is Fulci himself in a witty cameo!) are standouts, as are the fight scenes at a sulphur-pit and a deserted liner dry-docked at an angle.
It certainly is way more violent and unpleasant than any American thriller you'd care to name, if not necessarily realistic in its approach. Submachine-gun fire literally disintegrates a guy's head, pistol-shots take out huge chunks from necks and skulls, shotgun blasts blow stomachs WIDE open, and in one of the most effective killings, one poor sod has an entire machine-gun clip emptied into his body until he takes a tumble down a cliff! This isn't mentioning the other unfortunates who are stabbed, boiled in pits, pistol-whipped, or blown apart in bomb-blasts. The make-up FX vary wildly from good to bad, but their extremely brutal approach do make it a film you won't forget in a hurry.
Two scenes in particular are especially hard to take. The first involves a pretty female drug courier. Her face is blow-torched to a horrible crispy, steamy black when she tries to double cross the villain, who sees through her attempt to pass him virtually worthless cut cocaine. This goes on for almost one full seriously unpleasant minute. The second has the villain attempting to force the hero into a deal - by having Luca's kidnapped wife beaten and sodomised, with her screams echoing down the phone line as an additional push. The rape itself isn't shown, but the convincing turn by the actress involved, and gloating manner of the villain ('This time, we have to do it right!'), make the scene nigh-on impossible to sit through without provoking some sort of reaction.
One of the most extreme crime thrillers, CONTRABAND further benefits from a great Euro-funk Fabio Frizzi score and some better-than-usual acting. Testi is likable as the 'honourable' hero, even if he does sometimes use sadistic torture. But his character is pretty much the same as the one he played in Fulci's ultra-sadistic 1975 western FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE.
The French/Italian actor Bozzuffi, well-known for his appearance in international productions, is excellent as the main villain of the piece, playing his ever-grinning sadist as an amalgam between his two most famous roles (his beaming gay thug from Z, and his sleazy cold-blooded hit-man from THE FRENCH CONNECTION), and presenting a character with no virtues at all! Romano Puppo, as the villain's imposing hit-man (who kills off most of the cast!), also makes a big impression, and has a great face that was perfect for crime movies. You can't wait for both to meet painfully gory deaths, and Fulci does score in that department! It's a shame that neither turn up until the halfway mark, but the film picks up considerably when they do. Sadly, both actors are no longer with us in real life, depriving the world of two vastly under-appreciated talents.
Other appearances are clocked in by Luciano Rossi as a hunchbacked drug chemist, Venantino Venantini as a lazy cop named 'Tarantino', and hardcore starlets Ajita Wilson and Cinzia Lodetti as the playthings to a playboy mobster. The latter gets a great scene rubbing her tits in a gay gangster's face before she gets blown up! So, CONTRABAND is a sleazy movie, and sleazy enough to make it worth seeing, BUT there are some irritating flaws. The English dubbing is chronic, and seriously mars some otherwise good performances (Bozzuffi gets saddled with a particularly bad gay voice, while Testi's voice turns up on at least three other different characters). Plus, the first third of the film is slow and boring.
Since virtually all of Fulci's movies are flawed in some way, at least CONTRABAND does deliver the goods, and is essential viewing for anyone into Fulci or European crime-slime in general.