Danger: Diabolik!

Unbelievable! The majority of comment-authors here on this site haven't got the slightest clue how far the brilliance of this film reaches...Here you have one of the coolest, most ingenious productions ever, and they're calling it "awful" and an ideal climax for the Mystery Science Theater?!? Aren't there any people left who appreciate sweet pop art? Or a healthy dose of delightful kitsch? Danger: Diabolik is a cult masterpiece and part of the greatest achievements of the brilliant director Mario Bava (or God, like I tend to call him). Bava easily is one of the most diverse directors who ever lived and delivered horror classics, solid thrillers, old-fashioned westerns and ... Danger Diabolik! A film that can't possibly be categorized entirely. Pivot figures are a young, vital couple of criminal masterminds. They steal from innocent people as well as from dangerous maffiosi, while killing innocent bystanders. Our funky couple single-handedly takes away billions that belong to the government, and then cheerfully retire in their underground lair in order to make love on top of a pile of money! It comes this far that the police cooperates with the entire gangster-network in order to finally arrest them...but our hero always is multiple steps ahead of them. Danger Diabolik introduces more kinky gadgets than 20 James Bond films ever could and the amount of creativity in just endless. The used scenery and experimental cinemathograpy mark this film with an undeniable cult-status that even impressed Mike Myers! Just compare this film with the Austin Powers trilogy!! Add to this a dazzling soundtrack and a ravishing siren (Marisa Mell) and you've got yourself an intolerably misunderstood cinema milestone. If you're a tiny bit open-minded and/or a bit less prejudiced on non-American films, you just HAVE TO see Danger: Diabolik.

Another great visual piece by the great Bava, this film is a faithful adaptation of the popular European comic about the anti-hero master criminal Diabolik. Almost overdosing on intense 60s color and style, the film moves through comic-style adventures with considerable European flair and well captures the atmosphere of the original material and the time.

(Yes, I understand that this made the last installment of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and I'm a MiSTie myself. But Diabolik is a good film, whether it has riffing potential or not.

Say you never heard a thing about Batman (as so many seem to never have heard a thing about Diabolik)--if you saw the 1988 Batman film, you'd think it was pretty stupid and over the top, wouldn't you? Unrealistic? Stupid, even? Maybe even think that the main character wasn't much of a hero, so dark, so sinister? And if you think that a lot of 'stylish' 90's films with their music-video montages aren't going to look dated in twenty years, you're kidding yourself. I'd advise supposed 'reviewers' to stop being such contemporist snobs.)

This tale about a super criminal mastermind is perhaps the most exciting stylized inventive "true to its source" comic book adaptation ever filmed. Without a doubt, one of the finest performances, if not the finest, by John Philip Law in the lead role. But this film is mainly a feast for the eyes...a common quality trait true of most Mario Bava films.

This is one film that never feels slow to the viewer...it's always fast-paced and is never dull.

The only problem I have with the film is it makes a hero out of a character who sometimes goes too far but again it was simply being true to its source..excellent film! Much too good it should be vandalized by Mystery Science Theater 3000 (which it most unfortunately was).

What's the matter with you people? Doesn't anyone enjoy a good, fun, cheesy Italian spy flick anymore? These are the same people who don't like Godzilla films because they can't get over the low-budget special effect and the "silliness", and who can't tolerate anything different than mega-budget hollywood blockbusters, and that just breaks my heart. I kind of enjoyed seeing it on MST3K, but I was dissappointed that they included it in the same league as the truly awful (but no les enjoyable) Hobgoblins and Space Mutiny. This is one of the great 60s films as far as i'm concerned. What really sets the films apart is stylish cinematography and direction by the great, sadly underappreciated Mario Bava, also responsible for great films like Black Sabbath, Planet of the Vampires, Bay of Blood, Lisa and the Devil, and the gritty, cynical Rabid Dogs, which was a real surprise after Diabolik. (Even if you hated Diabolik, you owe it to yourself to track down a copy of Rabid Dogs). Also noteworthy is the psychedelica-tinged score by the great Ennio Morricone, my favorite film composer.

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.