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Contraband AKA Luca Il Contrabbandiere AKA The Smuggler AKA The Naples Connection (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Shameless Screen Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Rick Curzon (20th May 2025). |
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The Film
 Renowned as the “Godfather of Gore” for legendary cult supernatural horror films like “The Beyond” , Lucio Fulci delivers the suspense of noir with the punch of a horror film in his unapologetically brutal crime masterpiece, CONTRABAND - creating a raw, uncompromisingly visceral vision of organised crime with horror-style set-pieces - including one of the most notorious scenes in Italian crime cinema, the "melting face" sequence. Fulci lays bare the raw - and completely unromanticised - brutality of the Camorra in one of his most hard-hitting and unrelenting films, merging crime thriller with Horror’s shocking aesthetics. “It got so real that the local underworld got involved in the actual making of the film”, explains star Fabio Testi in an exclusive interview for this release. CONTRABAND stars the ever-charismatic tough-guy Fabio Testi (‘Revolver’) who delivers a powerful, career-defining performance as Luca - a tough-as-nails cigarette smuggler whose world explodes when his brother is murdered and his wife abducted. This ignites a ferocious mob war, with a ruthless new order attempting to replace the old criminal order with deadly narcotics. What follows isn’t just revenge - it’s a one-man war against a ruthless drug lord portrayed with unhinged intensity by Marcel Bozzuffi. His performance is so disturbingly sadistic, it makes his assassin role in “The French Connection” look tame. Here, Bozzuffi’s cool menace curdles into something purely psychopathic. Fulci spares no one in the ensuing bloodbath, turning the sun-drenched Bay of Naples into a blood-soaked battleground. Brace yourself for a visceral on the senses as Fulci unleashes his signature gut-churning gore and eye-popping graphic cruelty. This definitive edition is presented fully uncut, restored from 4K vault negative with additional colour correction and upgraded sound - exclusive to this version. It also uniquely features two optional seamless colour-version openings. Presented in FullHD 1080p Encode, it features both the English and the original Italian audio (with newly translated English subtitles), plus several extras including a unique new interview with star Fabio Testi.
Video
Lucio Fulci's nihilistic, brutal crime film is his one and only poliziotteschi. It tells the story of Luca (Fabio Testi) who operates a cigarette smuggling operation out of Naples and how he falls afoul of a new criminal The Marsigliese (Marcel Bozzuffi). It's an extremely violent film with two fairly horrific set-pieces involving violence against women, alas. We also have bloody shootouts and plenty of squibs. Overall, it's a fine gritty, involving film even of it does get a tad silly in it's final bloodbath. Shot by Sergio Salvati in his usual filtered style, Contraband hasn't been an easy film for low resolution home video formats to handle but Shameless's new 1080p presentation displays his skills throughout with rich colour values typical of the era, deep dark black levels with mostly good shadow detail and layered supportive contrast. Salvati's filtered look does mean that the film has a soft cast throughout, especially noticeable in the opening smuggling sequence which can be played with choice of the original day for night filter or with an alternative full colour variation. The former is preferable as it jibes with the narrative in that the scene takes place at dawn. Grain is near constant and generally fine although at times (night time scenes, skies) it does get courser. It's all handled very well by the encode with no de graining or noise reduction having been applied. It looks organically filmic; an excellent presentation and leaps ahead of all DVDs and on a par with the US BD ('A-'). 1080p24 / AVC MPEG-4 / BD50 / 1.85:1 / 96:49
Audio
Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) Subtitles: English (Italian Soundtrack), English HoH (English soundtrack) The only soundtrack worth bothering bout is the Italian one as that is obviously the language being spoken on set and it matches the lip movements the most; like most Italian films of this era, Contraband was shot silent and all variations of dub-tracks were created in post production. Both are a good examples of a mono tracks from this period, good fidelity and range for what they are: Low budget mono tracks, so don't expect the dynamic range of modern versions. Mild hiss can be heard if both are cranked up with the music and effects being identical on both. The English dub is cruder and done with less finesse and less effective performances. The Italian one has had greater care in the acting and as has been said, it matches the lip movements well. Both sets of subs are excellent and optional; I watched the film in Italian with the English subtitles. Overall these tracks are fine representations of their original theatrical iterations and have been cleaned up beautifully with mostly no pops, crackles or other signs of damage etc although around 15 minutes in some muffling occurs (tail end of the nightclub scene) ('B').
Extras
"Video Essay by Stephen Thrower" 2024 interview (58:19) Typically excellent, thorough piece by Thrower who write THE book on Fulci. He covers the films titling, it's history on video nd at the cinema. We get the usual low down on everything one could want to know about key cast and crew. Essential. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 224Kbps) and no subtitle options. "Daddy Dearest: Antonella Fulci Shares Memories of Her Father and His Films" 2020 interview (35:03) What it says on the tin really. Fulci's surviving daughter (of two) gives much detail about her father's early life, how he got into the film business and her memories of him and his films; plenty of good stuff in this one. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 224Kbps) and with optional English subtitles. "The Naples Connection: A Conversation with Fabio Testi" 2024 interview (22:05) Leading man Testi (with moral support from his doggie) tells us all about Fulci, his friendship and working on The Four of the Apocalypse and Contraband. Rhere are some musing anecdotes involving Fulci's smoking and him being covered in ash so the costume designer had to knock him up new outfits (as usual, Fulci appears onscreen as a Camorra boss). Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 224Kbps) and with optional English subtitles. Startup Trailers (2:41) - The Psychic (0:49) - The Beyond (0:59) - The New York Ripper (0:53) Trailers for other Shameless releases presented in 1080p24 1.85:1 (The Psychic), 2.39:1 (The Beyond, The New York Ripper) all with uncompressed English (albeit called German) LPCM 2.0 mono (48kHz, 16-bit); no subtitle options. Outer Card Slipcase Features the newly commissioned artwork done for this release.
Packaging
Slimline clear BD Keepcase.
Overall
Fulci's only crime film gets a first rate transfer and treatment in this release from Shameless in the UK, almost certainly utilising the same excellent master created for the 2022 US release from Cauldron Films. Image and sound are as good as can be given the tricky original source elements. Extras are all new and if you have the US disc then provide a nice compliment to that stacked set with no crossover. Pride of place for me goes to the excellent, comprehensive interview with Stephen Thrower who wrote THE book on Fulc; essential for ll Fulci fans and fans of Italian crime flicks ('A-').
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