The Opium Connection (1972)

The Opium Connection: Directed by Ferdinando Baldi. With Ben Gazzara, Silvia Monti, Fausto Tozzi, Steffen Zacharias. An American underworld up-and-comer relocates to Europe and immerses himself in the dangerous and mysterious world of heroin production.

“This is a movie about a relatively small-time New York mafia hood (Ben Gazarra) trying to establish a heroin smuggling route from Turkey to New York City via Sicily (thus the English title). It was doubtlessly inspired by u0026quot;The French Connectionu0026quot; and while, itu0026#39;s certainly not as good, itu0026#39;s an interesting movie in that itu0026#39;s told from the point of view of the smuggler as he uses various elaborate ploys (dead bodies, frozen fish shipments)to get the drugs to New York City, all the while having to deal with the underworld powers that be in Turkey, Sicily, and the Big Apple as well as the international police who are tailing him the whole time. Of course, the charismatic Gazarra is not going to turn out to be quite as a despicable of a character as he first seems, but the game he is playing here turns out to be even more dangerous.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is Gazarrau0026#39;s show all the way. Silvia Monti plays a love interest, but she is only there for the first third of the movie that takes place in Turkey. Gazarrau0026#39;s brass-balled character then stays at the villa of a powerful Sicilian godfather and repays his hospitality by banging his adult daughter (Malisa Longo, gorgeous and butt-naked as usual), who just barely manages to beat the godfatheru0026#39;s young second wife in a lustful race to get to the American gangsteru0026#39;s bed. The first two parts of the movie are rather slow, as another reviewer said (but they seem to have been genuinely filmed in Turkey and Sicily). It is when they get to New York City, however, that the action really starts.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFernando Baldi is an interesting director who managed to direct everything from classic Spaghetti Westerns like u0026quot;Texas Addiou0026quot; (the film that really introduced the world to actor Franco Nero)to ridiculously sleazy sex-soaked garbage like u0026quot;Terror Expressu0026quot;. Heu0026#39;s not one of the great Italian directors perhaps, but clearly he has SOME talent. I would recommend this, especially to Ben Gazarra fans.”