 |
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
|
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
Naples: Luca (Fabio Testi), who runs a cigarette smuggling racket with
his brother Micky (Enrico Maisto) and too-slick-for-his-own-good playboy
gangster Perlante (Saverio Macroni), is pretty much the best in the
business, escaping the coastguard using more and more elaborate tricks.
However, of late business doesn't run as smooth as usual anymore, as
someone seems to blow the whistle on Luca and gang every time they are
importing cigarettes by their speedboats. And while thanks to Luca's
careful planning they manage to escape the coastguard every time, losses
are still high and raids are just not good for the business to begin with.
Brother Micky is sure that it's Scherino (Ferdinando Murolo), a
competing gangster boss who also runs a cigarette smuggling outfit, who
blows the whistle on them, and when he's killed after voicing his
suspicions, Luca is sure that Micky was right, especially after one of
Scherino's hitmen (Nello Pazzafini) kills one of Luca's informers before
his very eyes. Luca kills the hitman in return and takes his corpse for a
visit to Scherino, intending to kill him out of revenge. Somehow though,
Scherino's men overcome Luca and give him a sound beating, but they
refrain from killing him because Scherino insists he is innocent and tells
Luca instead to open his eyes.
Soon enough, Luca finds one of the assassins who have actually killed
Micky and tortures the name of his boss out of him: Marsigliese (Marcel
Bozzuffi), a newcomer to Naples from France who wants to start a
drugrunning business in the city and is looking for partners, at the same
time killing all those who are in his way. And really, in one single day,
several of Naples' gangsterbosses are brutally killed, and Luca's
associate Perlante only very narrowly escapes an attempt on his life.
Finally, Luca decides it would be best to team up with Scherino, Luca's
old rival, to deal with the situation, however, when they arrive at
Perlante's place to discuss the whole thing with him, he already has
assassins waiting for them, and turns out to be in league with
Marsigliese. A shoot-out ensues in which Scherino as well as Perlante are
killed.
Despite everything, Marsigliese still wants, needs Luca as a partner,
and to get him in line, he kidnaps his wife (Ivana Monti) and has her
tortured and raped while on the phone with Luca. But Luca still has
someone to turn to, Naples' old generation of gangsterbosses, who are by
now all retired but who still care for their city (in their own way), and
who promise to help him strike the final blow against Marsigliese at the
proposed handover of his wife. And indeed, Luca and the old generation of
bosses manage to finally defeat Marsigliese, basically by gunning down him
and his gang, and ultimtely Luca's wife is freed too, by the police
actually ...
Romano Puppo plays Marsigliese's hitman, sex star (and alleged
transsexual) Ajita Wilson has a small role as one of Perlante's
girlfriends.
Hard-hitting and unrelenting Italian gangstermovie from the trashier
side of the genre. Though there are some feeble attempts at social
commentary (like the repeated mention of 200.000 people in Naples who have
no choice but make a living from smuggling), the film's emphasis is
clearly on action, and Lucio Fulci - nowadays a renowned gore director but
back then he had no more than one gore flick, Zombie
Flesh Eaters, under his belt - delivers the action in a most
brutal way without flinching an eye: His shootouts are all immensely
bloody, he presents the audience with quite a few ghastly corpses, and in
more than one scene you can see bodies (or at least bodyparts) being blown
apart. Yet somehow all of the violence makes sense in a film about
gangsters shooting each other, and by and large, Fulci handles the genre
pretty well, especially considering that The Smuggler was his only
gangster/action film.
That all said, The Smuggler might not be a masterpiece (and
wasn't intended to be one), but a solid, fast-moving and exciting genre
film, and every now and again, this is just what the doctor ordered.
|
Flix.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find The Smuggler at adultvideouniverse.com
