Danger: Diabolik! (Mario Bava, 1968) Mario Bava's psychedelic adaptation of the Italian comic about a master-thief, who preys on the pompous and the puerile, owes an awful lot to the 1966 "Batman" TV-show (though the panel of "experts" in the DVD Features documentaries say "Oh, no, no, nothing could be further from the truth!" Holy Denial's-not-just-a-river-in-Egypt!*). At the time, the Batman-camp style of doing things was spreading throughout many tried-and-true properties that had previously only skirted the edges of parody and satire. The popularity of the TV "Batman" sent them right over the edge into mock-serious comedy and "camp".
And, so, too does Danger: Diabolik, with its dutch-angles (though "Bava'd" with more extremity), shadowed wide-screen compositions, chromed model-work that looks like it might have come out of a Super-marionation series and dodgy blue-screen work, which looks like it could have been done for episodic television.
Plus, folks, c'mon...it's based on a comic-book property...with comic book sensibilities. The beginning even rings like a "Batman" episode with a dastardly crime as a masked man (our "hero" played by John Phillip Law) runs rings around the local constabulary and the Treasury, stealing $10 million, foiling the law's diversionary tactics, and hiding his tracks with multi-colored smoke generators (you may well ask "why does he need multi-color smoke when regular smoke will do?" but then that would be logical), stealing their riches and making them appear like fools.Then, mission accomplished, he drives his souped-up Ferrari to his high-tech underground lair with his mini-skirted girl-friend (name of Eva Kant and played by model Marisa Mell) in tow to indulge in some high-tech something-or-other, and then some nude frolicking in all the money. It makes as much sense as anything else in the movie.Inspector Ginko (Michel Piccoli, playing it fairly straight) of the local Constabulary is embarrassed, flummoxed and at a loss of how to deal with such a nefarious threat, and things reach a crisis point when the Minister of the Interior (Terry-Thomas), who has just reinstated the death penalty especially for the crisis, is forced to resign after a humiliating experience orchestrated by Diabolik at a public press conference. Ginko is given special powers to deal with this menace. So, when a local Mafioso named Valmont (Adolfo Celi) calls him to offer his own under-handed services to capture the super-criminal, Ginko is only too happy to agree.They bait a trap for Diabolik involving a priceless emerald necklace with both the police and mafia waiting to apprehend him and the master-thief has to climb a sheer tower (using his "Diabolik-Super-Suction-Handholds!") to get to the one room where he thinks the necklace might be. Diverting all the security-cams (using a polaroid!), he manages to snatch the necklace, as well as double-cross Valmont—who has kidnapped Eva!—and gets him killed in the process, as well.But, the ultimate Diabolik coup happens when he arranges for several ministerial buildings to blow up, resulting in the loss of every citizen's tax records, which the government fully expects won't deter people from dutifully paying their taxes.
They're wrong, of course, and so, to forestall economic catastrophe, a big-whopping share of their gold supply is made into a big, whopping ingot to be sold to try and keep the government solvent. Diabolik, naturally, plans to steal it. I mean, a several-ton gold block that will be impossible to move? How tough can it be?
And, of course, he's figured out a way to spend it...
Over-the-top, bombastic...and mind-numbingly absurd, Danger: Diabolik is true to its comic roots, but the tone is puerile and is devoid of the gravitas Bava brought to his Italian horror films. Apparently, it was a troubled production from the start. It started out in 1965 as a production of Italian producer Tonino Cervi to be directed by Seth Holt and distributed by Dino De Laurentiis. But after some filming was done with leads Jean Sorel and Elsa Martinelli, De Laurentiis pulled the plug on the film, ordered a new script and hired Bava to make a quick, cheap production that he would produce in tandem with another film based on a European comic property, "Barbarella." Bava borrowed Barbarella's upcoming actor John Phillip Law to be paired with Catherine Deneuve as Eva, but the two had no chemistry on-screen and Deneuve and Bava frequently clashed on-set. Bava replaced her with model Marissa Mell. Bava had made a name for himself with his well-regarded horror films done on the cheap, and he managed to pull off a miracle given the frenetic circumstances,
only spending $400,000 of the film's proposed $3 million budget, money De Laurentiis was able to spend on his next production, Barbarella.
It didn't help the lead performances much, though. Law does all of his acting with one eye-brow (although one can hardly blame him, as when he's masked that's all of him you can see!), which is one muscle more than Ms. Mell is willing to use. Adolfo Celi is the mafioso willing to deal with the police to get the master-thief out of his hair. The tone is a malevolent light-heartedness, combining James Bond with comic book hi-jinks. Nothing is meant to be taken too seriously, which might explain why Terry-Thomas is inexplicably in the cast!
The movie did inspire Roman Coppola's CQ, a few years back, and since 2021 there have been three more "Diabolik" films recently produced, directed by the Manetti Brothers.
* You want a definitive proof? During Terry-Thomas' short scene at The Minister's press conference, Diabolik and his moll, Eva Kant, crash it posing as reporter and photographer. Diabolik's camera-flash emits something plainly labeled as "Exhilarating Gas" (basically laughing gas to disrupt the press conference). And to ensure that they aren't affected by it they take out a little pill bottle clearly labeled "Anti-Exhilarating Gas Capsules" because, gosh, international criminals don't want to get their capsules mixed up. Everything was labeled in the "Batman" TV show from the Bat-computer to the Bat-Anti-Shark Repellant (although that was from the movie).