thecynictheratandthefist Reviews

Contraband (1980)

"It's very good your perfume...where is it you get it?"

[8/10 · 20 May 2007]

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.

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)

It was her ego...

[10/10 · 20 May 2007]

Though Fulci had flirted with violence before (1966's brutal western MASSACRE TIME and 1969's pessimistic medieval family drama BEATRICE CENCI), LIZARD represents his first venture into hardcore gore.

Intended as one of hundreds of cash-ins on the then-popular giallo thrillers popularised by Dario Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, LIZARD isn't only Fulci's best movie by a mile - yes, I WOULD include in that statement THE BEYOND, ZOMBIE or DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, all of which have slow spots that LIZARD doesn't - it's on an equal with anything Dario Argento ever did. Indeed, Argento's SUSPIRIA, the maestro's most well-known movie, borrows several touches and ideas from this movie.

Carol Hammond (Bolkan) is a born-into-privilege London woman who has a lawyer husband (Sorel), an aspiring politician father (Genn), and a lush flat in Belgravia. She also has a tendency to suffer repeated weird/violent/sexual fantasies concerning her slutty next-door neighbour (Strindberg). When the woman turns up dead in exactly the same way Carol describes to her psychiatrist (Rigaud) in one of her dreams, all the evidence points straight to her. But the smart Inspector Corvin of Scotland Yard (Baker) doesn't think the case is quite as simple as it appears. When a red-haired hippie, who was also an important part of Carol's dream, shows up for real, it seems that the good detective does have a point. Meanwhile, Carol's state of mind is worsening quickly, with dreams involving the rotten corpses of family members, swarms of bats, and a hostile giant swan...

Few films use London locations as well as this one does, and Fulci demonstrates a talent and virtuosity that he'd never achieve again, even though he'd work with much of the same crew on later movies. I won't go into how Fulci squandered his talent on absolute crap later on (his post-1982 career demonstrates very little that's of interest), but watching this side-by-side with something like AENIGMA or TOUCH OF DEATH, you wouldn't believe they were done by the same guy! Good acting helps also, with Bolkan's paranoid 'heroine', Baker's sarcastic chain-smoking detective, and Genn's stuffy father in particular standing out - it's a shame this would be one of the last movies for the latter two, both long since deceased. Sorel is under-used, as is Anita Strindberg, though Fulci has the good sense and taste to ensure she's naked for most of her role.

The gore is used sparingly, but it's extremely well-achieved (apart from this movie, Fulci's movies do tend to have very unconvincing gore FX), though most of it was snipped out of many prints of the movie, chiefly the entire 'notorious slit-open dogs sequence', and close-ups of a knife whacking into Strindberg's tit. So was a lot of sex and nudity, including a neat split-screen edit between a drug-fuelled orgy and a mechanically formal yuppie supper.

Other pluses include Luigi Kuvellier's exceptional camera-work, which showcases some great shots and angles, Vincenzo Tomassi's superb editing, and one of Ennio Morricone's best and most varied all-round scores.

If there are any flaws, they're only teething ones, but the film does maintain interest throughout and it's safe to say that everything that does happen in this movie has some kind of relevance. The last third does tend to bog down slightly, with a bit too much reliance on psychoanalysis and the disproving of alibis. But Fulci has actually created a genuinely effective suspense movie, and the dream scenes and chase through Alexandra Palace in particular, are among the best moments in European thriller cinema.

Even in its cut version released in the States, it garnished good reviews but was unseen for many years. For Fulci's true vision, only uncut and widescreen does the film the justice it deserves.

The Mad Bomber (1973)

Mr B.I.G hits B.I.G

[10/10 · 4 May 2007]

Far and away the best film Bert I Gordon ever put his name to, THE MAD BOMBER is, on the surface, a routine police thriller that's uninspired as far as music, photography, etc goes. Where it's made much better than it had any right to be is with three great performances by the main leads - none of whom are . In an even better twist, it's the rapist who's probably the most 'sane' of the three! Vince Edwards is a bitter, almost Hitler-ish detective who routinely abuses his authority - where it be threatening witnesses at gunpoint, breaking and entering, or beating them half to death. He's out to catch a broken-down madman (Connors) who starts blowing buildings up out of revenge. And the only person who can provide any clues to finding the bomber is a rapist (Brand).

Edwards is great as the unhinged cop who falls slightly to the right of Judge Dredd. Brand - well-versed in dealing with gruff, sleazy characters - gives another memorable turn as a gruff and sleazy rapist. But it's Connors that steals the show (this is definitely his best performance!), and every scene he's in are the highlights of the movie. His villain is actually quite sympathetic, even though for a criminal, his behaviour isn't exactly low-profile - he can't even leave the house without attacking or arguing with somebody.

Gordon keeps things nice and fast-moving, and there are very few slow spots in the movie. And there's a good deal of suspense to be had in the last 15-20 minutes, where the bomber hopes to right the wrongs done to him, and he's going make the whole of L.A listen! How come movies like this don't get made now?

Though it's well worth seeing even in its cut version, THE MAD BOMBER is much more effective in its entirety and actually emerges as one of the more violent and sleazy thrillers to come out of the 1970s. As one reviewer has already pointed out, it has more gore, more nudity and more profanity (there's about five minutes extra footage) than most releases. For those who are curious to seek it out, the versions to get are either the American 'Program Hunters' tape or the Canadian 'Marquis' tape (which has quite a dark print) under the title THE POLICE CONNECTION. Every other video release - Stateside or no - and ALL DVD releases are the cut version.