1968 - DANGER DIABOLIK, an early comic book film

 Probably the last person in the world to be directing a comic book film would be Mario Bava a filmmaker usually associated with the horror genre.  Surprisingly Danger Diabolik turned out pretty well.

Diabolik, a master criminal created by two sisters, is a comic book character that started in 1962 and ran for approximately 900 volumes.  The rights to the character were purchased by Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis.  De Laurentiis produced this film along with another comic book movie Barbarella at the same time. After an abortive start which saw De Laurentiis firing the original director Seth Holt and the recasting of the female role originally played by Catherine Denevue of all people, director Mario Bava took charge.

As was the case with Bava, he brought his considerable visual skills to the film.  He was also a master of trick photography and was known as a director who could class up a film production without spending a lot of money, something that probably must have appealed to De Laurentiis.

 

John Phillip Law played the master criminal Diabolik who pulls off one spectacular robbery after another with the help of his very sexy mistress/assistant Eva Kant played by Marisa Mell.  The rest of the cast had actors like Michel Piccoli who I usually think of as working with directors like Bunuel and Goddard.  Thunderball villain,  Adolfo Celli playing the real bad bad guy of this film and English comedian Terry Thomas who has a small role as the Minister of Finance, who has to persuade people to pay their taxes after Diabolik blows up all the tax offices.

 

Considering how overblown the comic book to film franchise has become since the domination of Marvel studios, it's kind of a relief to see a film that actually knows when to play up the camp with colorful visuals and entertaining but not go so over the top on the action scenes. 

The film was written by Dino Maiuri, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates and Mario Bava.  The running time is 105 minutes.