Translation of an Italian newspaper ad from August 1980: ‘Experience First-Hand All the Battles and the Violence of Italian Smuggling!’
In spite of the usual hyperbole given above, nothing could possibly prepare audiences for Lucio Fulci’s CONTRABAND (1980), which turned out to be the bloodiest Italian crime movie of them all! Original Italo pressbooks inevitably compared CONTRABAND to William Friedkin’s THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) and that film’s prime villain, Marcel Bozzuffi, here plays “the gangster from Marseilles who unleashes a chain of violence.” While it clearly derives its inspiration from Friedkin’s groundbreaking picture, Fulci’s film is your standard tale of Camorra in-fighting and revenge, albeit liberally splattered with outrageous scenes of graphic violence that rival anything in his much-discussed/praised cannibal zombie films. Produced by Sandra Infascelli, this was her next big Italocrime production following Umberto Lenzi’s last great contribution to the genre, FROM CORLEONE TO BROOKLYN (1979), but unlike the prolific Lenzi, CONTRABAND was Fulci’s only all-out crime film, which has finally made its worldwide Blu-ray debut thanks to the dedicated folks at Cauldron Films.
When motoscafi blu (“blue speedboat”) bandits Luca (Fabio Testi) and his brother Mickey (Enrico Maisto) are almost apprehended by the pappagallo (local slang for “police boat”) while smuggling cigarettes into Naples, they’re convinced that a rival contrabander named Sciarrino (Ferdinando Murolo), has ratted them out. They plan on teaching Sciarrino a valuable lesson with the help of Luigi Perlante (Saverio Marconi), a hot-headed but powerful gangster. However, Mickey is gunned-down the following day by a hitman disguised as a cop and Luca soon realizes that Sciarrino wasn’t responsible for betraying them to the Guardia di Finanza after all. In actuality it was the work of François Jocois better known as “The Marseilleise” (Bozzuffi, natch’), a vicious Marseilles drug lord out to replace the prosperous cigarette trade with a far stronger addiction… heroin.
As discussed earlier, CONTRABAND is very similar in concept to any number of camorra pics that take place on the Neapolitan docks (i.e., the Alfonso Brescia / Mario Merola films such as THE NEW GODFATHERS [1979]), but the primary reason for the film’s continued popularity— especially among fans of Fulci’s horror films—is the excessive amount of gore spilled: heads are blown apart, bodies are messily riddled with bullets, et cetera. As one of the film’s innumerable hitmen, Italian character actor Nello Pazzafini winds up boiled alive in a bubbling sulphur pit (“Asshole deserved ta end up like this!”), while Testi goes on to skewer his brother’s killer with a 9-inch nail. When one character is shot in the Adam’s Apple, his wound gushes voluminous quantities of gore, which is comparable to anything seen in Fulci’s splatter classics ZOMBIE (1979) or his pièce de résistance, THE BEYOND (1981). Come to think of it, this is one of his splatter classics!
As the ruthless French connection, Bozzuffi is especially effective herein and actually tops his star-making turn in Friedkin’s influential film for general nastiness. When Ingrid (Ofelia Meyer), a member of the Frankfurt cartel, tries to sell him some heroin cut with baking soda (“You stupid cunt! …It’s half bicarbonate!”), Bozzuffi decides to torch her face with a Bunsen burner belonging to his hunchbacked chemist (Luciano Rossi, who filled a similar function in Ferdinando Baldi’s THE SICILIAN CONNECTION [1972]). In another highly exploitable scene, when Luca finds himself all on his own, his wife Adele (Ivana Monti) is brutally raped by one of the Marseilleise’s goons (the great Romano Puppo) as Luca helplessly listens on the phone. Like one of his gory, drawn-out horror set-pieces, the camera lingers on the vile act, which turns out to be one of the more unpleasant scenes in Fulci’s entire oeuvre. As Luisa, one of Perlante’s molls, transsexual actor Ajita Wilson bares her “tasty set o’ coconuts!” in a feverish strobe-light disco sequence, but also suffers further abuse at the hands of rival gangsters.
Efficiently handled by Fulci (who also briefly appears in front of the camera as a shotgun-wielding hitman) and his now famous accomplices including DP Sergio Salvati, editor Vincenzo Tomassi and composer Fabio Frizzi, CONTRABAND seems oddly out-of-place when compared to other poliziesco or mafia pics. The extreme gore and hyper-stylized photography imbue the entire film with a haunting, almost otherworldly feel, which is especially evident during the finale at a desolate seaside locale. Some of the slow-motion action scenes also add plenty of visual appeal and take the cinema stylings of Sam Peckinpah to almost ridiculous—but very welcome—levels, all of which is ably complimented by Frizzi’s bass-heavy rhythms and chugging percussion.
Originally released on U.S. home video by Mogul Communications in 1987 (“They want revenge… and the city is about to explode!”), this once collectible VHS tape was, for the most part uncut, but featured a hazy transfer, which did no favours for Salvati’s eloquently grey-and-blue drenched photography. The film eventually made its DVD debut in the U.S. in 2003 via Blue Underground (a non-anamorphic Dutch DVD was also released in 2001 courtesy of Italian Shock, but the less said about this edited DVD, the better), which was a vast improvement in terms of picture quality and also retained the proper 16x9 widescreen format. The film was subsequently released on DVD in several European countries including Germany and Denmark, however a UK DVD from Shameless also included an Italian language audio track with optional English subtitles. For the time, the jump to DVD was a considerable upgrade, but all of these releases can now be rendered obsolete with the arrival of Cauldron Films’ new Blu-ray.
Licensed from the film’s Italian rights holder, Surf Film, S.r.l., CONTRABAND has been “restored from a 4K scan of the negative”, and looks absolutely magnificent. The 1080p resolution adds solid contrasts with plenty of shadowy detail and remarkable sharpness when compared to its SD counterparts. The image is, for the most part, still distinguished by Salvati’s cool grey-and-blue hue, but Cauldron’s new transfer also conveys an abundance of rich colours in several sequences (i.e., the disco club sequences), which also helps the many scenes of copious bloody violence really stand out. In a nice gesture, Cauldron has included both English and Italian audio options in LPCM 2.0 mono, which includes some slight differences in music cues, and while the Italian audio track sounds slightly more robust, the more familiar English variant also sounds perfectly fine, even if the English dubbing leaves a lot to be desired. Properly translated English subtitles are provided for the Italian audio (which again includes some minor differences) while English subtitles for the hearing impaired are included for the English version.
The extensive extras begin with a lively audio commentary with Cinema Arcana’s Bruce Holecheck, Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, and author and film historian Troy Howarth all of whom have plenty to discuss about the film’s “atypical” nature and the film’s storied production history, which was partly financed by the local Camorra! They also talk about the overall “darker and somber” mood of the entire film, and how it plays out “very much like a horror film” with an “emphasis on sadism”, a point which is later expanded upon when discussing Fulci’s unfairly labelled “misogynist” tendencies. They also spend a lot of time talking about the many principal actors and their interesting careers including that “woman of mystery” Ajita Wilson and her brief but memorable time working in Italy. Of course, they discuss much, much more in what amounts to a thorough and very informative listen.
Further extras are provided by several revealing on-camera interviews conducted by Eugenio Ercolani, which begin with A Woman Under Fire (21m54s) wherein actress Ivana Monti discusses the early stages of her lengthy career, her move into film, and of course, the complicated and wonderful experience of working with Fulci. In From Stage to Slaughter (19m58s), theatre actor Saverio Marconi also recollects his time working in the Italian film industry in this career-spanning interview where he also chats about his “terrific rapport” with Fulci whom he recalls was “clever with a wicked sense of humour.” Sergio Salvati, one of Fulci’s most trusted DP’s is interviewed in Lucio and I (17m52s), wherein he fondly remembers their working relationship, the “tight-knit group of collaborators” Fulci assembled, and of course, he also discusses his rather gruff personality, which even bled into his private life. In The Real Lucio (13m24s), writer/director Giorgio Mariuzzo is very nostalgic about his experiences with Fulci, but he too, has nothing but positive things to say about the director and his working process, and freely admits he has an “aversion to horror.” A quartet of archival interviews featuring actors Fabrizio Jovine (5m34s) and Venantino Venantini (5m11s), Salvati (5m51s) and Fabio Frizzi (2m07s) are taken from the PAURA: LUCIO FULCI REMEMBERED VOL. 1 DVD and are a nice addition to an already over-stuffed package. Both the Italian and English language trailers, and a generous image gallery (4m22s) comprised of fotobuste, lobbycards, video artwork and other ephemera are also included. And if that weren’t enough, the first pressing includes the complete Fabio Frizzi score on a bonus CD (16 tracks, 33m23s), along with 5 mini-fotobusta/lobbycard reproductions, and a slick slipcover!
Enlivened by several stylish action sequences and gruesome gore, Lucio Fulci’s outrageous CONTRABAND amounts to a consistently engaging crossover of obvious appeal to both fans of Eurocrime or straight-ahead horror, and thanks to Cauldron Films, this key title in Fulci’s illustrious career finally gets the respect it deserves. Highly recommended! Order it from Cauldron Films with the Italian art cover or Graham Humphreys cover.
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