THIS WEEK'S PIX: DANGER:DIABOLIK
STARS: JOHN PHILIP LAW, MARISA MELL, MICHAEL PICCOLI, ADOLPHO CELI, TERRY-THOMAS
DIRECTOR: MARIO BAVA
Each and every week in "Popcorn's Pix!", I turn the spotlight on a personal favorite movie from the past, be it recent or distant, and give it the ol' once-over.
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As everyone knows by now (or maybe not..), I have extremely weird tastes in movies. Not necessarily weird movies, mind you, but weird tastes in movies. I love movies other people think are dumb or stupid. However, this weeks' Pix is most definately a weird movie.
Danger:Diabolik is one of those types of movies you either love or hate. I happen to love it. It's a piece of the cinematic 60s that is not destined to be forgotten anytime soon. It is a TRUE cult classic in every sense of the word.
The movie follows the exploits of anti-hero Diabolik and his girlfriend Eva, who do everything they can to make the italian government miserable. As the movie's ad states, he's 'out for all he can take, seduce, or get away with..." This superthief can't get enough of the expensive things in life and does his best to get them while making the authorities chasing him look like oafs and idiots. In doing so, he also makes the local crime boss look like an idiot, so the boss ends up teaming with the authorities to try and stop Diabolik's reign of terror. Only it doesnt quite work out that way, and Diabolik triumphs again...
The movie is full of action from start to finish, as Diabolik uses a variety of devices to make his way through his crimes. His base, a secret underground lair, is one of the most fantastic sets in film history, a maze of tunnels, driveways, and a huge psychiedelic house all included there.
There ARE problems with Diabolik, the most obvious being the fact that he has no qualms about commtting murder to achieve his ends. He offs several police officers and a number of other ordinary citizens throughout the course of the movie.
The police are portrayed as slightly incompetent but still persistant, and even when they think they've beaten Diabolik, one last shocker comes along to let you know that they probably haven't.
Fresh from his turn in another cult classic, Barberella, John Philip Law is excellent as the ruthless, cunning thief, and Marisa Mell is excellent as his stunningly beautiful companion, Eva.
I first saw the movie (as i'm sure most americans did) as the final episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, and the first thing that I immediately fell in love with was its intensely wonderful & kitchsy "Space Age Bachelor Pad" score by Ennio Morricone, later known for his scores to the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. The films' look is very late 60s, with super psychedelic clothes, sets, and imagery, in many ways similar to the Dean Martin Matt Helm movies of the same general period, which, not surprisingly, I also love.
In watching the DVD of Diabolik this past week for the first time since I purchased it about a year ago, another mystery has emerged from the movie. Both the MST version and the DVD version were obviously redubbed, although it's easy to see that the dialogue was originally said in english. The DVD makes no attempt to disguise that fact. However a whole legion of fans for the movie spring from the fact that the MST version has one of the most inane lines of dialogue uttered. In one scene of the movie, which was also selected to be the MST episodes "stinger" at the very end of the show - - the VERY LAST MST STINGER EVER - , Adolpho Celi as the crime boss stands on his yacht, and looks out at another boat approaching, delivering the immortal line, "Is that Stud coming?"
That line, from the MST version and classic stinger, is NOWHERE to be found on the DVD version. The line, as actually recited by Celi on the DVD is "Who's that Coming? It Must be Stud."
Now a new question arises: Did Mystery Science Theatre 3000 deliberately recut the line to get the desired effect? Or had someone else already done the creative reediting beforehand and it just happened to be on the version aquired by MST? I sure hope it's the latter, because if it's the former, i'd be very disappointed...I thought Mike, Kevin, Bill, Mary Jo and the others around that final season were funny enough without thinking that they felt it necessary to have to resort to editing tricks to get a line that never actually existed in the movie. I mean, come on, the whole point of MST was to celebrate the wonderful weirdness of lesser known, and usually badly acted and written, movies as they already were out there. If you have to change part of it to get the effect, then you lose the whole point of the show, I think.
Oh well...
The DVD of the movie also includes a number of extras, including commentary from Diabolik himself, John Philip Law, along with Tim Lucas, the biographer of director Mario Bava. It also includes the original trailers for the film, a "making of" feature looking at how the comic was adapted to film, and the Beastie Boys video "Body Movin'", a loving tribute to the movie, and optional commentary on the video with Beastie Boy Adam Yausch. All in all, a nice bonus package.
DANGER:DIABOLIK has to be seen to be believed. And I believe it to be good enough to be this week's Pix!
