Luca il contrabbandiere

Plot synopsis:
Luca Di Angelo (Fabio Testi) is a smuggler, one member of an organized team trafficking cigarettes and booze up and down the coast off Naples, Italy. After a run-in with the police in which the smugglers manage to get away by faking a boat explosion resulting in the police motorboats responding to the false emergency allowing the smugglers to get away, Luca and his brother Mickey suspect Scherino (Ferdinand Murolo), the head of a rival gang of smugglers, of passing on their actives. Lucia and Mickey take their accusations to their boss Perlante (Saverio Marconi) a sleazy playboy withy numerous Mafia connections, who agrees to look into it. After a nighttime fire at Mickey's racing stables kills a valued racehorse, he and Luca drive over to inspect the damage. But on the way, they are stopped at a fake police roadblock where the assasins dressed as policemen trick Mickey into getting out of the car and machine-gun him to death over and over again (think Sonny Corlone's death scene in 'The Godfather'), while Luca barely escapes injury by hiding on the floor of the car.Afterwards, Perlante suggests that Luca leave town for a few days, but he refuses. After his brother's funeral, conducted on the gang's speedboats in the Bay of Naples, with the police surveying them, Luca vows revenge. Despite his wife Adele's (Ivana Monti) pleas, Luca goes after the prime suspect: Scherino. That night, Luca breaks into Scherino's house, but gets spotted and severely beaten up by Scherino's henchmen. However, Scherino spares Luca's life and instead has him thrown out of the house. He tells Luca that he's got it all wrong: he had no part in Mickey's killing.After Luca recovers from his injuries thanks to a local doctor named Charlie (Giordano Falzoni) who treats injuries for large bribes of cash, Luca meets with an informant who gives him a tip to who ordered the hit on Mickey. Traveling to a derelict fishing boat in the marina where a hood is making a drug pick-up, Luca tortures him for information about his boss, whom Luca learns is a Frenchman called Francois Jacios, aka: The Marsigliese. Luca calls Perlante, who tells him more about the vicious gangster, and who is muscling into Italian organized crime to deal in hard drugs. At his hideout in Naples, the Marsigliese (Marcel Bozzufi) is meeting Ingrid, a German drug courier from Frankfurt wanting to sell him some heroin. When the Marsigliese sees that the heroin is 'cut', he has her face horribly burned by a blowtorch while he watches with sadistic satisfaction.Over the course of one day, the Marsigliese orders a series of shootings of all the rival Mafia Dons all over Naples as part of his plan to become the sole kingpin of Naples. Perlante barely escapes an attempt on his life when his right-hand man Alfredo (Giulio Farnese) triggers a bomb which has been hidden under Perlante's bed, killing Alfredo and Perlante's mistress. Perlante calls Luca and tells him about the series of hits. He sets up a meeting between them and the Marsigliese at the local soccer stadium where the Frenchman discusses merging their criminal concerns. Afterwards, Luca meets with his fellow smugglers and persuades them not to accept the Marsigliese demands for the inflow of drugs into their community would only escalate the number of addicts and drug-overdoses, plus they would not receive any profits since the Marsigliese would keep most of the money for himself and his close associates.In response to the Mafia killings, the Naples police chief (Fabio Jovine) orders Captain Tarantino (Venantino Verantini) to conduct a massive sweep of the Neapolitan bay area to clean it up of crime. The dragnet has many smugglers arrested. Luca is saved from a police raid on his house by, of all people, Scherino, who suggests they form an alliance to defeat the Marsiglise. They meet that night at Perlante's house to discuss their plans with him. But Luca soon smells the tell-tale odor of the Marsiglieses personal 'parfum' in the room. Luca realizes that Perlante is in league with the Marsgliese just as the gangster and his henchmen burst into the room and kill all of Scherino's henchmen as well as mortally wound Scherino himself. Luca's split-second reflexes of diving out a glass window and running away from the house ensures his escape. The mortally wounded Scherino manages to shoot off one shot from his gun at the treaterous Perlante, hitting him in the neck, before he drops dead himself.The Marsigliese abducts Luca's wife, Adale, and again insists that Luca should turn over the smuggling network over to his drug operation. To help Luca make up his mind, the sound of Adale being beaten and gang-raped are relayed to Luca over the phone. Luca agrees to the Marsigliese demands. In desperation, Luca calls upon the elderly Don Morrone (Guido Alberti), the leader of the old-guard Italian Mafia who has been reading the news throughout the movie of the numerous killings. Morrone is more then happy to come out of semi-retirement to deal with the French sadist. Morrone relays his plans to his various middle-aged associates who swing back into action for their cause.The following morning, at a meeting between Luca and the Marsigliese in a local open square where the handover to Adele is taking place, Luca sees that it is indeed a set up to have him killed. Then Don Morrone and his men, using a series of hit-and-run attacks, appear and blast away all of the Marsigliese's henchmen. Luca then chases the crazed Marsigliese through the deserted streets and allyways where after the Frenchman runs down an alley which is a dead end, Luca catches up to him and shoots the Marsigliese dead who lands on a pile of garbage bags. Across down, the police raid the Marsigliese hideout where they find the tramatized Adele and a large stash of cocaine and heroin, while the rest of the Marsigliese henchmen surrender.The final scene has Captain Tarantino meeting with Don Morrone and his housekeeper at a wharf marketplace where the policeman thanks the elderly Mafia don for his tip leading to the discovery of the Marsigliese hideout and drug shipment seizure. But when Tarantino asks Morrone about the murder of the Marsigliese and his men, Morrone claims to know nothing about it, and also not to know Luca Di Angelo. From Tarantino's sarcastic tone of voice, he knows that Morrone is lying. But out of sympathy, the policeman lets Morrone go without arresting him.

Tags: cruelty, murder, violence, cult, revenge, sadist

Review:
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.
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.
(aka: CONTRABAND)Normally I don't comment on non-horror or mondo films but since Fulci directed it, and since there's enough gore splatter in here to finance a small horror film, I'm gonna put my two cents in.Fabio Testi plays a Neapolitan cigarette smuggler who's territory is being muscled in on by the Margliese (Marcel Bozzuffi) who wants a clear way to smuggle heroin into Italy using Naples as an entry point.
One by one, Testi's comrades are being killed off in many different gruesome ways, including the backs of heads being blown off, a rotting cadaver thrown through a window, blood bags exploding in stomachs with intestines flying out, and a pretty female drug courier getting half her face burned off by one of the Margilese's henchman.This has to be one of the goriest crime thrillers I have seen so far.
"Contraband" is Lucio Fulci's sleazy and gloriously violent gangster flick that tells the story of how cigarette smuggler and gangster Luca Di Angelo played by Fabio Testi overcomes the threat of violent cocaine smugglers attempting to muscle in on his operation and overturning the existing order.Being a fan of Lucio Fulci's uncompromising gory mayhem I always wanted to see "Contraband",which is his mix of mafia and poliziotteschi genre.It's undoubtedly the goriest gangster film ever made with its scenes of rape,the brain blow-outs,burn victims and shotgun blasts to the throat.The film has some dull spots and lifeless sequences,the cast is mediocre,but if you are a fan of sadistic Italian gore "Contraband" certainly delivers.Still I prefer early 80's horror movies of maestro Fulci.7 out of 10..
Fabio Testi is the focal point as Luca Di Angelo, an idealistic family man and cigarette smuggler in this tale of mob warfare in economically depressed Naples.
When a rival gang massacres his brother and abducts his wife, Luca goes berserk and triggers an all-out mob war, with virtually every Don in town getting involved.Testi is OK in the lead and Marcel Bozzufi (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) makes quite an impact as "The Margliese", a Frenchman who tries to muscle his way into the Neapolitan crime world.
Nasty French drug dealer, the Marsigliese (Marcel Bozzuffi), is trying to take control of the crime scene in Naples; unable to convince the Neapolitan 'capo's (Mafia crime bosses) to deal in his narcotics (they prefer to smuggle harmless cigarettes instead), he has them bumped off one by one.Eventually, only family guy smuggler Luca Di Angelo (Fabio Testi) stands between the Marsigliese and his total domination of the Naples underworld.
But Luca's wife is kidnapped by the megalomaniacal mobster, and it looks as though all is lostuntil help arrives in the form of several retired Mafia leaders who do not wish to see the Marsigliese succeed.Taking a break from the horror scene for which he is better known, director Lucio Fulci has a go at a different genre, but still manages to gross out the audience with the high level of violence and gore he delivers.
And when he's not trying to turn your stomach with blowtorches to the face, bullets through the throat or shotgun blasts to the abdomen, he chucks in some gratuitous nudity for good measure.It is this sleaziness that makes Contraband watchable despite its mundane story, and even more enjoyable than quite a few of his horror films.
When Luca refuses, the gangster gets mad, and makes Luca's life a Hell, namely by killing his friends and abducting his wife.Like all Fulci movies, this one is pretty slow going some of the time, but wait til the gang war gets started!!!
Fabio Testi, who was solid in "Revolver", plays a very weak character here and I didn't buy his campaign to wage revenge one little bit.The action has a muscular quality to it and Fulci makes the most of his access to half a dozen boats.
When his brother gets killed, Luca and other fellow smugglers are being killed in overly violent ways by a rival smuggler from France, known simply as the Marsigliese (the late Marcel Bozzuffi of "Countdown" and "The French Connection"), naturally he wants some good old fashion revenge.
It comes right at the end of the Italian crime movie phase and is probably the most violent of the lot, right up there with Ruggero Deodato's LIVE LIKE A COP DIE LIKE A MAN.
This flick's got it all: loads of violence, some imaginitive photography, and two of the coolest leads in history:  Fabio Testi as the good guy and Marcel Bozzuffi as basically the same guy he was in THE FRENCH CONNECTION, a greasy slimeball.
Luca is ready for revenge when one of the first victims is his brother Mickey (Enrico Maisto), but the bad guys, led by the power hungry Marsigliese (Marcel Bozzuffi) up their game when they decide to kidnap Lucas' wife and son.The script, credited to four people (including Fulci) is ultimately very routine.
A face is burned to a crisp with a torch, a throat is torn open, a head is shot apart, and bodies are continuously riddled with bullet holes.Supporting Mr. Testi are Ivana Monti as Lucas' wife, Saverio Marconi as the cocky young mafia man Perlante, Fabrizio Jovine as a police chief, and Ajita Wilson as Luisa.
The actors are fine, especially Mr. Bozzuffi as a thoroughly nasty and despicable villain.The action set pieces are not spectacular, but they are fun, and Fulci gives this trashy story (complete with full frontal female nudity as well as gore) decent pacing and a visceral appeal.Fans of Fulcis' bloody horror films from this period may also like this feature.Look for Fulci near the end in a cameo as one of the gunmen.Seven out of 10..
Contraband will surely please fans of his work in the horror genre as this film delivers big time on extreme violence and gore.
This film is centered around Luca(Fabio Testi), a cigarette smuggler who is at odds with a ruthless French gangster that is into selling narcotics and looking to dominate the underworld in Naples at any cost.
In this brutal and depraved mob flick, the violence is very extreme and sadistic including scenes of torture and rape.
The film is some pretty solid piece of gangster action, with great direction acting and sick gore f/x.
I will watch a film and if it contains a rape scene that IS integral to the story or it has to be SHOWN graphically to inflict that shock upon the viewer in order to understand the message then yes, I will give credit and watch it as part of the bigger picture without getting too upset.(I still prefer NOT to see it happen) Fulci has done some real bad movies.
Fellow director-friends like Umberto Lenzi ("Almost Human"), Ruggero Deodato ("Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man"), Sergio Martino ("Violent Professionals") and Enzo Castellari ("Street Law") had been making loads of money with their outrageous cop-thrillers since the early 70's already, but Fulci didn't benefice from the profitable sub genre until the release of "Contraband".
Recommended to trained fans of Italian crime thrillers and Lucio Fulci, newcomers to either of them are advised to postpone their viewing of "Contraband" until you've seen some of the aforementioned titles..
And then, of course, we've got all the blood and guts in the shootouts that you'd expect, and it's obvious that Fulci enjoys his gore, as most of it is overly gratuitous considering that this isn't even supposed to be a horror film.
Of course, Fulci never lets this downtime last for long as there's always another brutal and bloody murder just around the corner, and the action scenes are genuinely exciting and well filmed.
Fulci's direction is good enough, and while the film is never as gritty and sleazy as it could have been; Contraband still benefits from a nice atmosphere.
When it comes to gore, Lucio Fulci knows how to deliver, even if this is not a horror movie.
Good performance of Fabio Testi, in the role of "Luca""Contraband" was made after the success of Zombie 2, another Fulci masterpiece.Plot: Luca is a cigarette smuggler, "working" in Naples, Italy.
Contraband (1980) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Luca DiAngelo (Fabio Testi) is a loving husband who also just happens to be a cigarette smuggler.
After his brother is assassinated he sets out for revenge and learns of a new family pushing cocaine and trying to take over the streets.Lucio Fulci was coming off his success of ZOMBIE when his career got a jump start, which led to a number of graphic horror movies.
There's one sequence where nothing happens but one death scene after another.The violence and gore is certainly what separates this from other films of this genre.
Luca il Contrabbandiere/The Smuggler(1980) is a very good Italian mafia flick that is overlooked by the gothic films of Lucio Fulci from that period.
Fabio Testi is good as the head smuggler, Luca Di Angelo.
Lucio Fulci's extremely brutal, gritty and violent crime Mafia action flick.
Easygoing Naples cigarette contraband smuggler Luca Di Angelo (a solid performance by the handsome and charismatic Fabio Testi) ain't having an easy time of it: his beautiful, but fed-up wife (the luscious Ivana Monti) can't stand his law-breaking lifestyle, the zealous local police are closing in for an arrest, and ruthless narcotics baron the Marsiguese (a splendidly hateful'n'heinous villainous turn by Marcel Bozzufi of "The French Connection") wants Luca and his fellow smugglers to start peddling hard drugs.
Things go from bad to worse after Luca's brother gets rubbed out, leading to an all-out ferocious turf war in which various criminals gets bumped off in assorted grisly ways.Lucio Fulci compensates for the occasionally poky pacing, a rather tedious opening third and the grinding predictability of the standard crime/action thriller scenario by pouring on the excessively gory and gruesome graphic carnage with his customary rough and lingering aplomb: One guy gets tossed into a pit of sulfuric acid, another dude has his brains blown out, a lovely lady courier has her face viciously disfigured with a Bunsen burner, yet another fellow has his stomach blasted wide open, and countless crooks bleed several pints worth of blood when they get filled full of bullets.
Topped off with a rousing climax and a perfectly bleak bummer ending (Luca gets his revenge, but it comes at a horrible and substantial personal price), this no-holds-barred cruel and wicked film rates as one of Fulci's most unjustly neglected and underrated movies..
Lucio Fulci's lone foray into the Euro-crime genre stars Fabio Testi as Luca Di Angelo, the brother of a slain mobster who must somehow survive the mafioso takeover of the sadistic Marsigliese(Marcel Bozzuffi)in Naples, Italy, also vowing revenge against him and his sleazy gun-toting henchman.
The Marsigliese is targeting all the mob gangs who run illegal smuggling operations, wishing to take over the whole city as chief crime-lord, but the thorn in his side is Luca, who is willing to do whatever it takes to avenge his brother's murder(..which, adding to the agony, happened not far from him).My very first Poliziotteschi was entertaining for it's graphic blood-letting and enthusiastic staging of gangsters and hoods being killed/beaten in ultra-violent ways(..I do wonder if the slow motion action set-pieces, where characters fall from great heights or through windows, was inspired by Bloody Sam).
Even though Fulci wasn't directing a horror flick, he could still serve up the blood shed unrestrained within a serviceable plot dealing with a criminal world wrought with violence and corruption.The cast and story are quite familiar to what you often associate with mafioso tales featuring betrayal, revenge, & violent methods at securing power, prestige, and wealth.
All of these things are wonderfully true and make Contraband such a weird addition to your Fulci collection.Luca Di Angelo smuggles near Naples with his brother Mickey.
If you haven't realized that you are watching a Lucio Fulci movie, this would be the point in the film where you realize that fact.The Marsigliese starts killing all of the Mafia leaders so that he can become the sole boss of Naples.
Scherino is mortally wounded, but not before shooting Perlante in the neck, killing him.Again, in case you wonder who directed this film, The Marsigliese kidnaps Adele and demands Luca turn over his smuggling operation over the phone...and then plays him the sounds of our hero's wife being beaten and gang-raped.
They take out most of his men and Luca guns him down in a garbage-strewn alley in a scene packed with blood spraying everywhere.Adele and rescued and Morrone, the leader of the old school mob guys, tells the police that he has no idea who Luca is.Contraband was made as Fulci was starting to claim his gore crown.
Contraband is Lucio Fulci trying his hand at the Italian Crime genre, adding his very own touch to the proceedings, and producing what results in a very gory thriller with all his eccentricities intact.
Add to that the very cool scene in the disco (You can see it on YouTube), Fabio Testi's presence, and the overall laid back atmosphere, and you've got a great film right here.There's a good few cameos from Italian Movie land - Romano Puppo, Venantini Venantino and Fulci himself.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
This attempt at crime drama by Fulci is a success for probably the wrong reasons but Contraband is still an entertaining piece of ultra violent Pasta for the dedicated Fulci-phile and other adventurous film-goers in search of Italian junk-food.Luca and his brother Adele make their living smuggling cigarettes in Naples.
If you surround your blatantly fake fx around enough solid, real world material apparently it's not as hard to swallow.Concerning the rape of Luca's wife, not to mention the loving detail with which the blowtorch scene is filmed (the damsel's face frying to a crispy black in a typical Fulci leering zoom) Contraband is one of the Maetsro's anti-woman exercises.
Fulci makes the most violent Italian crime film ever.
Fulci, best known for his gory horror films like ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, inserts plenty of his trademark excessive violence into his film with people being shot and hit and spraying blood all over the place.Things really get going with a choppily-edited series of murders, where we get to see people machine gunned for what seems like an endless time - they even turn around halfway through in order to get the full treatment.
***SPOILERS**** Extremely brutal and violent crime Mafia movie taking place in Naples Italy involving a gang of illegal cigarettes traffickers with members of the French Mafia who are trying to take over their speed boat smuggling operation.
It's when Il Marsigliese' goons kidnap Luca's wife Adele and hold her as a hostage, while brutally beating and raping her, that he gets the help of the local Mafia Dons who are still left alive, after all the carnage, who set up a trap for Il Marsigliese' men with the brave Luca using himself as bait.***SPOILERS*** Far more violent and bloody then all the three "Godfather" movies put together "Contraband" never lets up in the action and some of it is way over the top.
Especially when it comes to the women in the film who in once case has her face burned off with a blow torch courtesy of the deranged sadist Il Marsigliese and another Luca's wife Adele getting viciously worked over by him as well as raped by his #1 henchman Nello.
Luca with the help of the Naple Mafia Dons does get his revenge by wiping out Il Marsigliese' goons, both French & Italian,in a mob style like ambush.