I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Simply Perfect

Just perfect...

Absolutely the worst movie.

Being a fan of auteur film maker Mario Bava,I was absolutely thrilled to get the DVD from a very kind fellow IMDber of Mario Bava's adventure in the Comic-Book genre,and decided to save it for a special event. Doing some major film viewings as ICM held a best of 1968 movie poll,it felt like the perfect time to find out how diabolic things could get.The plot:Aware of the government staging a fake transfer of $10 million in order to distract them,master criminal Diabolik and his partner Eva Kant turn the tables on the law,and steal the real money. As the government approve a return of the death penalty to bring crime down,Diabolik makes the government a laughing stock,by setting off laughing gas at the conference. Deciding they want the same thing,the police and the underworld team up,as Diabolik sets off on a diamond robbery filled with danger.View on the film:Setting the film off like a rocket,the score by Ennio Morricone sends the rocket into space with a Surf Punk score that was ten years ahead of its time, with Morricone's rumbling drums and waves of guitar riffs flying along the superhero caper. Expressing in the commentary how proud he still was of the movie, John Phillip Law gives an energetic performance as Diabolik,with Law giving Danger a devil may care attitude,to outwitting the law at every turn.Shimmering when stepping in her first Comic-Book panel, Marisa Mell gives an enchanting performance as Eva Kant,who along with looking gorgeous in disguises,is also given a quick-wit by Mell,making Kant the perfect partner in crime for Diabolik. Putting his own paint brush on the astonishingly beautiful matte painting,co- writer/cinematographer/directing auteur Mario Bava puts his distinctive bright colour designs into vivid Comic-Book pulp Pop- Art, with limited sets being seamlessly blended to lush matte painting covering the pages of Diabolik's adventure in exploding red,greens blues and yellow. Masterfully using the matte paintings to create Comic-Book panel framing, Bava draws an exciting,adventure atmosphere with high- stylised whip-pans and circling camera moves unmasking the danger of Danger Diabolik.

I knew director Bava mainly from his horror movies before I watched this colorful comic adaption. Surely it gives you a rough first idea if I describe "Danger: Diabolik" as a mixture of an early Bond with Batman plus the 60s psychedelia and sexiness of "Barbarella", but it is even more. First, it is quite anarchic, for example when Diabolik blows up the ministry of finance so nobody needs to pay his taxes anymore, after all the documents were destroyed. Second, in opposite to most of its contemporaries, it doesn't show the cartoon characters as simplified shallow people - Diabolik (John Philip Law) is a strong character, he has a so much love for his girlfriend (Marisa Mell) that he is willing to pay any price to rescue her. Third, the movie totally lacks a convenient, nice, healthy moral. Diabolik commits crimes just for fun, gets away with it and intends to keep all the money for no reason except to take a bath in it! Fourth, the former photographer Bava creates a visual style (and manages to keep its pace throughout the movie) that is surprising you with highly original shots again and again - it's just like turning a page in a comic book and - whoa! - see something new. Stylistically, "Danger: Diabolik" was ahead of its time for sure. Adolfo Celi plays a similar villain as in "Thunderball" (although I am sure he was capable of much more as an actor, but he can't show that in this movie), the poorly dubbed Michel Piccoli has a lot of plans to capture Diabolik just to fail again and again, Terry-Thomas grimaces as a panicking minister. That makes a good international cast, but it's a must-see in the first place for the camera work and speedy fun and action. By the way, if you get this on DVD, don't watch the included trailer first, because it has a real spoiler in it.

MASTER PLAN: steal everything. Based on the Italian fumetti/comic strip, this was director Bava's follow-up to "Dr.Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs" and, at first glance, would seem merely a slight upgrade from that earlier unfortunate campy fiasco. But, with the availability of a decent DVD version, the picture's strengths become more readily apparent. Bava's ability with design and color enables a fairly successful transposition from comic books to movie screens. Many might point to "Dick Tracy"(90) as another such heartfelt attempt to capture comic strip ambiance on the screen, but that one was far more blatant & apparent. Bava's creativity due to a lack of a huge budget resulted in a more subtle interpretation of comic book action, as incongruous as that sounds when talking about an adaptation of a comic strip. Some of the images here, whether large buildings or close-ups, are startling - something seems a little off in the image but you're not sure what it is. When you think about it or view it again, you realize it's a comic book come to life. Bava was also fond of filming a frame within the frame, resulting in some intriguing compositions. This also invites comparisons to "Barbarella," released a little later. But, Barbarella's images are awfully static when compared to all the movement we see here - everything and everyone moves here - whether on foot, in a sports car or on motorcycles.Since this was the sixties, one also can't help but think of the James Bond craze of this period. The obvious difference between this and the Bond imitators is that the central character is a villain, not some agent-hero. Diabolik (Law) specializes in outrageous acts of thievery; at the point the film begins, the establishment (government & police) are well aware of him, to the point that they resort to unusual methods of transporting valuables in an attempt to avoid him; of course, they fail. Diabolik wears a weird comic book-styled suit, with a mask that covers the lower half of his face; yet, you can still see the outline of his mouth. He also has a weird, sinister laugh, though this is not over-indulged. He operates from a fantastic underground hideout, an expansion of the Batcave from the "Batman" TV show. Of course, he does not work with the authorities but against them, a rather subversive message in those pre-Watergate times, where-in the audience is placed in the position of rooting for this, at best, anti-hero; but, remember, this is from Italy (see Sergio Leone's 'Man-With-no-Name' western trilogy). Also, rather than hanging out with a younger version of himself, as Batman did, this guy gets it on with a cool chick; ah, yes, the villains do have all the fun. Keep in mind, though, his violence does extend to killing cops, so it's not just a laughing matter.There's no 'main' plot line; the authorities make a deal with a local bigshot gangster (Celi, the villain from "Thunderball") to capture or eliminate Diabolik, but this plot is wrapped up way before the conclusion. The story switches to an attack by Diabolik on all the economic bastions of power, a rather direct act of terrorism (though there are no realistic repercussions, such as showing fatalities) and then there's some climactic action involving all the gold on a moving train. It's as if the filmmakers took several disparate plots from the comic strip and welded them together in one film; but, it holds together pretty well, against expectations. The ending is a little on the eerie side. Since this is, overall, an amusing and even silly take on the super-hero/super-villain genre, it may be why "Mystery Science Theater 3000" chose it as one of the films they made fun of, an honor they saved for the most silly movies out there. But, this has enough esoteric style and panache to place it above those clunkers and MSTK3 should have saved their efforts for some other truly dumb film. Anti-Hero:6 Villain:6 Femme Fatales:6 Henchmen:5 Fights:5 Stunts/Chases:7 Gadgets:6 Auto:7 Locations:6 Pace:6 overall:6

If there's a failing of most filmmakers when it comes to bringing a comic book to the big screen, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of the term "comic book." It goes all the way back to the origin of the comic book in this country, when "comics" were primarily humorous. These "funny strips," which appeared originally in newspapers, were eventually cobbled up into collections and sold as "comic books." Hence, the label. Like an albatross, that label was draped around the neck of one of the darkest characters to ever grace the pages of a comic book- BATMAN- when television producer William Dozier brought The Dark Knight to the small screen in the 1960s. Campy and as in-the-closet funny as the law would allow, it became a huge success. When Mario Bava decided to bring the fumetti DIABOLIK to the screen, he took his cue from the BATMAN TV series. The sometimes psychedelic 60s silliness (characters passing around "whacky tobaccy") was a perfect blend for the telestupidness of the series. One can't help but groan, remembering Batman's anti-shark repellent, when Diabolik, prior to unleashing laughing gas on an unsuspecting audience, takes his anti-laughing gas pills. Terry Thomas's prissy performance, the whirling images come-a-whirling straight out of the TV series, and John Law's exaggerated posturing all help make DANGER: DIABOLIK forgettable. Nor does the plodding snail's pace help.