Friday, September 21, 2007

Danger: Diabolik (1968)


I finally got round to watching this Italian-made movie based on a comic character of the same name. First thing that hits you is a great Ennio Morricone score - a mix of his usual idiosyncratic noises and twangy spy type guitar - and if that's not reason enough to watch it then you're not a music fan. Diabolik is in a black latex frogman type suit and is a master criminal with a ludicrously expensive looking underground hideaway and a chic girlfriend sidekick with the colour hair that only exists in movies like Barbarella. The plot is of course a series of cliffhangers reminiscent of the tv Batman series but I suppose the twist is that he is the criminal - an anti-hero, as my son pointed out. It's got Terry Thomas in it as an inept politician. It's a fantastic movie - I can't believe I got this old without having seen it before but it is up there with the great 60s classsics.

Danger: Diabolik