Danger: Diabolik (1968)

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Being a fan of auteur film maker Mario Bava,I was absolutely thrilled to get the DVD from a very kind fellow IMDber of Mario Bava's adventure in the Comic-Book genre,and decided to save it for a special event. Doing some major film viewings as ICM held a best of 1968 movie poll,it felt like the perfect time to find out how diabolic things could get.The plot:Aware of the government staging a fake transfer of $10 million in order to distract them,master criminal Diabolik and his partner Eva Kant turn the tables on the law,and steal the real money. As the government approve a return of the death penalty to bring crime down,Diabolik makes the government a laughing stock,by setting off laughing gas at the conference. Deciding they want the same thing,the police and the underworld team up,as Diabolik sets off on a diamond robbery filled with danger.View on the film:Setting the film off like a rocket,the score by Ennio Morricone sends the rocket into space with a Surf Punk score that was ten years ahead of its time, with Morricone's rumbling drums and waves of guitar riffs flying along the superhero caper. Expressing in the commentary how proud he still was of the movie, John Phillip Law gives an energetic performance as Diabolik,with Law giving Danger a devil may care attitude,to outwitting the law at every turn.Shimmering when stepping in her first Comic-Book panel, Marisa Mell gives an enchanting performance as Eva Kant,who along with looking gorgeous in disguises,is also given a quick-wit by Mell,making Kant the perfect partner in crime for Diabolik. Putting his own paint brush on the astonishingly beautiful matte painting,co- writer/cinematographer/directing auteur Mario Bava puts his distinctive bright colour designs into vivid Comic-Book pulp Pop- Art, with limited sets being seamlessly blended to lush matte painting covering the pages of Diabolik's adventure in exploding red,greens blues and yellow. Masterfully using the matte paintings to create Comic-Book panel framing, Bava draws an exciting,adventure atmosphere with high- stylised whip-pans and circling camera moves unmasking the danger of Danger Diabolik.

Thief Diabolik wreaks havoc on a generic European country for his own financial gain and amusement. He shares an extravagant underground lair with his curvaceous, yet shallow girlfriend...who uses her looks and allure, to help Diabolik kill innocent people and steal billions from the government. Because of the origins of his wealth, Diabolik must face off against bumbling cops and revenge-seeking mafia........You done just see this film, you experience it, because its one of the most trippy, psychedelic, and surreal movies you will ever see. Yes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, has that trippy sequence, and all around stoner feel to it, but this is just blatantly in your face bonkers.For starter, we are rooting for a quite despicable person, a murderer, a robber, who in any normal film would be the main villain, but here, you cannot help but like him, because the film almost brainwashes you to do so, as the other characters are so superfluous to the narrative.Law is brilliant as the titular character, and proves that he made some wonderful decisions in the sixties, as this, along with Barbarella, are two of the most iconic movies from that decade. Yes, there are more popular movies, but these two films are referenced so many times, that you may think you've already seen them numerous times before.It out Bonds Connery, and Myers could only wish Austin Powers will be as fresh a this still feels thirty years from now.The soundtrack is wonderful, and although the film makes no sense in the slightest, it's still an amazing piece of cinema....

This baby is funny, but only in a "so-bad-it's-good" way. What were they going for here? Was it camp? Was it supposed to be serious? I'm lost for an answer. One thing's for sure, you should never point your machine gun at your girlfriend, as Diabolik does in this film. Pointing a gun at your woman is really bad policy. Firstly, because it's not very nice. Secondly, because she might have a gun of her own and kill you.I've never seen the comics that this movie was based on, and I'm sure that would have helped me understand it better. Seen on its own merits though, this movie sucks. I loved and laughed at it, but it was nasty laughter. The kind of laughter I'm sure a movie director is not looking for.Why is this movie available in discount bins? For one thing, it's not Goldfinger. It's also not Police Squad. I'm not sure what it is, but it's pretty funny on a silly scale. What is it? Why was it made? I don't know. It heads way off into oblivion in the last 30 minutes too. Let's all go nuts. That must be an Italian thing. And speaking of Italians, why are they making movies in English? And I'm not talking English English, I'm talking American English. Did they think we were going to buy into this? Diabolik is kinda funny, in a drunken sort of way, but you won't want to watch it twice.

Watching the featurette that accompanies this DVD did help me to appreciate this movie more. Namely, that Diabolik (pronounced Dee-abolik in the Italian) is an anti-hero thief rather than a government sponsored spy and is all about 'sticking it to The Man' as befits the 1960s counterculture. Being Italian, it also contrasts with the American idea of a superhero. The Italians lost the last war, they had Mussolini and no faith in the government. This anti-hero is on the same page, whereas Superman is all in favour of the President. I suppose this is the superhero's answer to Burlesconi.Point no 2: unlike Fleming's James Bond, Diabolik is based on a comic strip hero and many of the shots mirror that panel shape in the way they're framed: the shot of the couple talking, reflected in the rear view mirror of a car, for instance. For all that, the style is more dynamic than other comic-based films like Barbarella.Otherwise, it's astonishing how many scenes anticipate similar ones in Bond films, from the opening helicopter car chase along the winding mountaintop road which predates that of The Spy Who Loved Me by nine years, along with other scenes that pop up in Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, A View to A Kill and GoldenEye.Sadly Diabolik (played by John Philip Law, who was the angel in Barberella) is a humourless blank, a charisma-free zone who scarcely utters a witticism in the entire film. I think the only reason such lusty or promiscuous attitudes prevailed in the 1960s is because the likes of Sean Connery and Michael Caine put a positive spin on it.This is a guy in superhero guise who has no alter ego - and therefore no social life. Batman has Bruce Wayne, Superman has Clark Kent. He is just Diabolik and when he retreats to his lair to bang his bird, fine, but he doesn't actually have any mates at all so it's hard to connect with him. It's like if Superman decided to not bother to save lives but just went on Viking-like pillages once in a while, holing up in the Fortress of Solitude every so often to shag his mistress and count the cash.The anti-hero and his girl are so unlikeable and ruthless that you do feel excluded from their activities. They remind me of the charmless pair from Topaki, though the film has more to offer than that and is superior to many Bond knock-offs of the day.