Danger: Diabolik (1968)

Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

As Good As It Gets

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One does not make a movie as bad as this by accident, it takes hard work and loving devotion. Since it is almost impossible to review "Diabolik" in a traditional way, I'll just mention the points which struck me the most. Other viewers will be able to mention additional points : movie- wise, this is the gift that keeps on giving. First : our anti-hero protagonist giving us these really, really intense looks, with his eyes being shown in close-up. John Phillip Law has striking, unusual eyes, but that's no reason why we, the viewers, should have to look at his peepers for what seems like half a lifetime. About the only people who like that kind of thing are oculists. (Still, looking at Mr. Law's eyes beats looking at Mr. Law's hair, since the poor man was given one of the most abominable haircuts in movie history.)Secondly : the music. It's pretty hard to believe that Ennio Morricone was involved ; much of the score sounds as though it was composed by, say, one Mr. Etienne Albert Froschenstomper "Frenchie" Ladurie III, a drifter with incipient deafness and a liking for drugs and alcohol, whose only qualification was that he had a great-uncle with a vague background in New Orleans zydeco. "Diabolik" proves that even composers of genius can have a (very) bad day.Lastly there's the ending. Or rather THE ENDING !!! since this must be one of the strangest, weirdest, silliest endings ever filmed : its inept lunacy could swallow a black hole. The protagonist gets covered in - wait for it - molten radioactive gold, but this does not keep him from looking good. And no, he isn't dead or dying in agony : although encased in a hard shell, he survives the whole thing, winking at the viewer with commendable good humor. (Did I mention the many close-ups of his eyes ? I believe I did.) Well, "Diabolik" may be dire, but at least it's not dire in a boring way.

Lavishly produced but extremely low on credibility, this movie featuring a comic-strip super-villain runs for an extraordinary length of time. Its repetitious plot is over-acted by everyone in the cast except John Phillip Law – who plays the frozen-faced, impersonal, uninteresting and uninvolving Diabolik. Marisa Mell makes up for some of Law's deficiencies, but Terry-Thomas grossly over-acts. Fortunately, his role is small. Michel Piccoli is okay as the hero. It's Adolfo Celi who comes out of the movie with flying colors, but unfortunately his role is comparatively brief. Morricone has contributed a disappointing score. As I said right from the start, lots of money was wasted on this one.

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.

Deliriously psychedelic pop-art crime-spoof mini-masterpiece! Although many people mention the Bond films, Mario Bava borrowed quite a large number of ideas from the brilliant US 'Batman' TV-series of 1964-65, such as Diabolik's underground cave-lair with its secret opening, the use of comic book artwork, and especially the scene at the 'Live on TV Police Press Conference' where the authorities are announcing their new "Anti-Crime" plan designed to catch Diabolik. Diabolik is there, of course, disguised as a news photographer. But his camera actually sprays "Exhilarating Gas", and so to protect himself, Diabolik swallows an "Anti-Exhilarating Gas Pill". Everybody in attendance begins laughing uncontrollably in front of the TV cameras including the Police Commissioner and the Minister of Finance, making total fools of themselves on live TV while Diabolik slips away undetected! This scene is straight out of the Batman TV show, of course.The sets and costumes - like 'Batman' - are wonderfully mind-blowing examples of mid-to-late sixties fashion and pop art; all vibrantly bold colors, weird geometric shapes, huge sunglasses, and transparent plastic furniture. When he started shooting his films in color, Bava always used deep, richly colored lighting with bold, angular shadows. By the early 70's, it seems he (and every area of the arts from fashion to film to music) eschewed this 'plastic' look for a more natural, 'earthy' style. 'Diabolik' (released 1968) is perhaps one of the last of Bava's films to use this Pop Art look. His later films that I have seen are much less colorful.This also may be one of the reasons it did rather poorly at the time; it was more 1965 than 1968, and popular tastes changed very, very quickly in those days. What was cool last week was suddenly considered passe this week, and by 1968 when 'Diabolik' was released, its kitschy style was simply too 'last week'. 1968 saw many films which were "heavy" and addressed social and political issues. 'Diabolik' would've seemed silly and childish in the face of 1968's realities such as MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, and the May '68 revolts in Paris.Time has treated it well, however, and Diabolik is a pure delight. Morricone's score is one of his best - it's tragic the tapes were lost - I could listen to it over and over. Marisa Mell (as Diabolik's girl, Eva) also disappeared, dying early in 1991. She is lusciously foxy in that 60's go-go girl way with the long legs and boots and the various outfits she wears, especially the black one with silver rivets all over it! Diabolik and Eva's underground lair is certainly THE ultimate swingin' pad with a revolving bed, transparent his-n-her shower stalls and about 30 Jags parked around the giant living room.