Danger: Diabolik
"Bava's superb visual sense him in good stead in this comic-strip adventure which looks like a brilliant pastiche of the best of everything in anything from James Bond to Matt Helm"
Monthly Film Bulletin
After spoofing the spy genre in his 1966 film "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bomb Girls", Bava created a colorful and intriguing look into the similar genre. While “Danger: Diabolik” might not be a perfect film, it is successful in being an interesting journey through a comic book version of the spy genre. Diabolik owes more of its aesthetics to Adam West’s Batman than Sean Connery’s James Bond.
The film centers around Diabolic, an expert thief who steals from the rich, but unlike Robin Hood does not give back to the poor. In the beginning of the film, we see Diabolic pull off a heist of epic proportions and when he returns home his girl asks him to steal a set of emeralds for her. This request sets in motion a sequence of events that features Diabolic driving a submarine, derailing a train, climbing a tower, and finally, ending the film, by being covered in molten gold.
On top of already being filled with a strange mixture of comic book and spy aesthetics, Bava seems to fill every frame with strange psychedelic lights and imagery. He is able to use the bright lights and colors that fill his previous gothic dramas to merge into the hippie culture of the late 1960s. At one point, Bava has a camera slowly pan through a party as women dance in short skirts and people pass a joint. Bava’s camera focuses on the faces of these nameless characters that are painted in bright blues, greens, and reds as the wiggle through the dance floor.
Now that we have talked about the plot and some of the aesthetics of the films, lets move on to Diabolik’s hilariously useless disguise. Diabolik’s costume merges the gap between the 1960s comic films and the modern super hero craze. This costume is ridiculous. It seems to be a mixture between a man in a leather BDSM suit and a Mortal Kombat character. It is basically a head to toe black leather skin that clings to his body ( a comparison could be made to Adam West’s Batsuit) And do not worry about Diabolik, he has thought of everything because at one point in the film he removes his black leather suit to reveal an identical grey suit. This film willingly deserved its place on the final episode of “Mystery Science Theater 300”
In the end “Danger: Diabolic” is an interesting look into an early comic book adaptation. Roger Ebert claimed that with his film “Mario Bava has exploited every cliché in the book.” I can't help but agree with Ebert’s review, but there seems to be something unique inside the way Bava combines the cliches. It certainly is more inspired than Bava’s last film, which comes from the fact that “Danger:Diabolik” was actually a kind of passion project for him. While I wouldn’t call it the best comic book film ever made it’s also not “Howard the Duck”. It stands somewhere in the middle between inspired film making and Kitsch.
