Danger: Diabolik (1968) – Film Review

Director: Mario Bava
Cast: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli
Certificate: 12

By Sarah Morgan

The Cold War might have been a difficult time, but it certainly had a positive impact on popular culture. Without it, James Bond might not have made such a big impact around the world, and without the movie versions of his stories, we might not have had a wide range of copycat espionage agents and high-concept adventures.

Danger: Diabolik is one of the projects to have benefitted. The film was based on the popular adult Italian comic-book series Diabolik, created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani in 1962, but the gadgets, supervillain and escapades owe almost as much to 007’s early films as they do the source material.

Alain Delon was the original choice to play the central character, that of a dashing thief who carries out audacious heists while wearing a skin-tight rubber costume, but proved too expensive to hire for producer Dino De Laurentiis, so John Phillip Law, with whom he’d just worked on Barbarella, released the same year, was drafted in instead.

“Daring duo”

Michel Piccoli also stars as Inspector Ginko, a police officer from somewhere in Europe (the setting is never nailed down) entrusted with the safe delivery of $10 million. He knows Diabolik, who’s already a notorious criminal, will be on the trail, and sure enough, the anti-hero steals it from under his very nose, with help from the alluring Eva Kant (Marisa Mell, in a role originally intended for Catherine Deneuve).

The daring duo then set their sights on other valuable goods, while catching them in the act becomes a personal mission for Ginko.

On paper, the plot probably sounds quite ordinary, but the inventive way in which Diabolik goes about his ‘work’ and the stunning visuals from master Italian director Mario Bava mean the film is anything but run of the mill.

Bava was noted for his ability to make incredible looking productions on even the most meagre budget, and that’s exactly what he does here. He reputedly found the conditions placed on him by De Laurentiis difficult, but nevertheless pulls off a remarkable feat that looks like a big-budget Hollywood picture despite costing only a fraction of the price.

“A little comedy”

The 4K restoration means it’s perhaps even more impressive now than it was on its cinema release almost 60 years ago.

Terry-Thomas has a glorified cameo as a politician, adding a little comedy to the proceedings, while the rest of the cast are fine without doing anything particularly spectacular – then again, they don’t need to because Danger: Diabolik is more about style rather than substance. What a shame the same cast and crew never got back together to make more in what had been a proposed series.

Listen out too for a wonderful score from Ennio Morricone, and stay tuned for a wealth of special features, from audio commentaries to a video essay and documentary.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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