It’s one of quite a few European movies of its era to be influenced by European comics, especially Italian fumetti. These European comics are very very different in flavour to American comics. They’re aimed at adults and they’re sexy and witty and exciting and they provide perfect material for movies. Diabolik was one of the most successful comics in the Italian fumetti neri genre, adult-oriented comics focusing on crime, sex and violence. The Diabolik comic was created in 1962 by two sisters, Angela and Luciana Giussani. By the mid-60s the comic had become a pop culture phenomenon in Italy and the time was right for a movie version.
Bava’s movie has no sex and the violence is fairly restrained and it has a fairly lighthearted tone (it’s much less violent than the Diabolik comic). It does however retain the comic book flavour and the comic book aesthetic. The movie has zero interest in realism. There are incidents which could have been silly (such as Diabolik disrupting an official press conference with laughing gas) but if you accept that this is the world of comics then these incidents just add to the comic book feel. We don’t mind the amazing and indeed impossible escapes from danger.
This is not a spoof and it does not have the high camp sensibility of the Batman TV series. That’s something that needs to be emphasised. It’s a fun movie and it’s very amusing at times but you cannot appreciate this movie properly if you treat is as a spoof or an exercise in camp. Bava is having fun but the movie takes the fumetti genre seriously. There’s a respect for the source material and for the conventions of the genre.
Danger: Diabolik starts with a ten million dollar heist. Elaborate precautions have been taken to ensure the money’s safety. The authorities know that such a large amount of money will be a temptation that the notorious Diabolik will be unable to resist. But Diabolik has been one step ahead of them all the way.
Diabolik makes it back to his huge underground headquarters after the heist, with his girlfriend Eva. And we start to get a sense of what motivates Diabolik. He’s a thief and he likes money but there’s more to it than that. Being a super-criminal is fun and it excites him, and it excites Eva. They already have money but it’s the challenge of planning and executing a heist rather than the money that really excites them. And it’s a chance to thumb their noses at authority figures. There’s a definite anti-authority tone to the movie (which was very much in tune with the zeitgeist of the late 60s). Diabolik and Eva are the villains but they’re a whole lot more likeable than those authority figures. They have chosen an outlaw lifestyle.
Diabolik’s next coup will be the theft of a fabulously valuable emerald necklace. Because the idea of possessing that necklace thrills Eva, and Diabolik will give Eva anything she wants. And Eva knows he will enjoy stealing it for her. They’re madly in love with each other, and they’re madly in love with the idea of being outlaws.
Then there’s the gold heist, and this is a heist that is purely an anti-authoriatrian gesture.
Inspector Ginko isn’t a particularly nasty cop as cops go but he represents the law and we want Diabolik to win. The Minister for Home Affairs (a terrific comic performance by Terry-Thomas) is an absurd figure because he represents the government. If it’s a duel between a bungling pompous government and two glamorous sexy outlaws whose side are you going to be on?
John Philip Law was not the world’s most expressive actor but he is perfectly cast as Diabolik. He looks like a cool handsome sexy super-criminal and Mario Bava was always primarily interested in the visuals. And Law gives the right performance - he’s super-cool and always in control.
The gorgeous Marisa Mell is also perfect as his girlfriend Eva. She looks like the kind of super-model who would be dating a super-criminal. Interestingly enough Catherine Deneuve was originally cast in this role but was fired by Bava because she thought some scenes were too sexy. Deneuve was a major star and a great actress but she would have been totally wrong. Marisa Mell wasn’t a star but she was the right choice.
Which brings us to the eroticism of the movie. There are no graphic sex scenes, not even moderately graphic ones. There’s no actual nudity. But it’s still a very very sexy movie. There are scenes that go tantalisingly close to nudity and Marisa Mell wears some extraordinarily revealing outfits but Bava is teasing us, and it makes the movie more erotic rather than less so.
Apparently the budget was around $3 million but Bava had no idea what to do with all that money and ended up making the movie for $400,000.
The sets are spectacular, particularly Diabolik’s underground headquarters, but they aren’t sets. They’re Bava’s visual magic tricks. The scenes cost almost nothing to shoot, much to the amusement of producer Dino De Laurentiis who joked that he was going to tell Paramount the set cost a million dollars. And they’d have believed him. What they wouldn’t have believed was that Bava could do stuff like that for a few hundred dollars. And Bava preferred doing it the cheap way because then he had perfect control.
There have been countless movies and TV series based on comic books but the only director who has ever done it properly was Mario Bava. Bava understood what made comics work, he understood the structure and the grammar and the vocabulary of comics and the dynamic of the comic book medium. Danger: Diabolik remains the only comic book movie ever made that captures the authentic flavour of comics.
Bava also understood the tone of the fumetti neri. He understood that comics have their own logic. Things that would seem ridiculous in a novel or a straightforward movie make sense in the comic book world. The fumetti neri were intentionally outrageous and frenetic and supercharged. If you try to adapt a comic and you adopt a mocking or ironic tone or if you aim for camp you will fail. Diabolik is not a figure of fun. He’s a particular kind of super-villain, a comic book super-villain, but he has to be played straight. Eva is a comic book super-villainess and she has to be played straight. There can be no tongue-in-cheek aspects to the performances.
Mention must be made of Ennio Morricone’s score. It’s not just brilliant. It captures the comic book feel to perfection.
Shout! Factory’s Blu-Ray includes two audio commentaries (both worth listening to) and a very good documentary on the links between the movie and the fumetti neri.
It should be added that one of the inspirations for the Diabolik comic was the Fantomas novels, and the 1964 Fantomas movie undoubtedly had some influence on Bava's movie.
Danger: Diabolik is just so much fun, and so stylish and fast-paced. Very highly recommended.
Danger: Diabolik is just so much fun, and so stylish and fast-paced. Very highly recommended.
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