Luca il contrabbandiere (1980)

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Gianni De Chiara (screenplay)
Gianni De Chiara (story)

Release Date:

8 August 1980 (Italy)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Cigarette smugglers in Naples run into problems with cocaine operations being set up by a rival smuggler...

Plot Keywords:

Smuggler | Italy | Violence | Rape | Drugs

Cast

Fabio Testi	...	Luca Di Angelo
Ivana Monti	...	Adele Di Angelo
Guido Alberti	...	Don Morrone
Enrico Maisto	...	Micky Di Angelo
Daniele Dublino	...	Assistant Prosecutor
Giordano Falzoni	...	Charlie, the doctor
Giulio Farnese	...	Alfredo
Fabrizio Jovine	...	Chief of Police
Ofelia Meyer	...	Ingrid
Ferdinando Murolo	...	Scherino
Tommaso Palladino	...	Capece
Venantino Venantini	...	Captain Tarantino
Ajita Wilson	...	Luisa, "Little Nepolitan"
Marcel Bozzuffi	...	François Jacois, the Marsigliese
Saverio Marconi	...	Luigi Perlante

Also Known As:

The Smuggler (International: English title) (UK) (video title)
Contraband (USA)
Luca the Smuggler (literal English title)
The Naples Connection (UK) (video title)

Runtime:

97 min | UK:88 min (25 fps) (cut version)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:(Banned) | Norway:15 (uncut) (2007) (DVD) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Sweden:15 (2007, DVD version) | France:-16 | UK:18 | Italy:VM14 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:(Banned) | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Finland:K-18 | Australia:R (DVD release) (2005) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Naples, Campania, Italy

Goofs:

Continuity: The police arrested a woman with a blue pullover - when they later catch all the men and the wives are crying this woman is not arrested.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Alenbi Romance (2005)

Gruesome Crime Flick From The Godfather Of Gore

Although no highlight of the Italian Crime genre, Lucio Fulci's "Luca Il Contrabbandiere" aka "Contraband" is a rough, tough-minded and ultra-violent Gangster flick that certainly delivers, especially for a Fulci fan. Lucio Fulci is widely renowned as the 'Godfather Of Gore', and "Contraband" is a movie that is certainly not going to deprive him of this well-deserved reputation. Although the plot may not be as original as it was the case with many other of the (generally violent) Italian Crime Thrillers of the 70s and early 80s, "Contraband" scores in means of roughness, intransigence and gruesome, gory violence.

Luca Di Angelo (Fabio Testi) and many of his friends make a living as cigarette smugglers in Naples. After their refusal to deal with drugs instead of cigarettes, ruthless drug dealers, amongst them a sadistic gangster from Marseille start to target the cigarette smugglers' families. Luca, however, is not the kind of man who gives in to threats...

Fabio Testi, who had already worked with Lucio Fulci in "Four Of The Apocalypse" in 1975 (aside Tomas Milian and Lynne Frederick), delivers a good leading performance as Luca, and Marcel Bozzuffi is wonderfully evil in his role of the villain. I also found several of the supporting actors, such as Guido Alberti (who only has a very small role) very good. Some other supporting cast members deliver rather bad performances. The violence is pretty brutal and includes several very nasty scenes of torture and sexual violence. There are some scenes that don't really fit in, such as some cheesy looking and kitschy slow-mo sequences of horses at a racecourse, and the music is sometimes out of place, but all in all, the movie's qualities come up for its flaws. "Contraband" is certainly no highlight of Italian crime cinema, but a brutal and uncompromising flick that highly entertains. Fans of Lucio Fulci and Crime thrillers of the rough kind should be pleased.