Danger: Diabolik

A film set in an unnamed European country. Diabolik is a thief. His face is never seen, his mask is black, and he speaks so little he almost does not speak. It opens with the theft of a state cash shipment. The police are helpless. Inspector Ginko has been after him for years and has found nothing. From there the film is a series of robberies. Each section is a separate job. An emerald necklace. A tax record. A gold ingot. Diabolik is not alone. Eva Kant works with him and half the plans are hers. The two live underground. The lair is a cavern; it holds a revolving bed, a laboratory and cars. The government makes a decision. Pressure is put on the crime syndicates and the mafia is charged with finding him. Valmont is the mafia boss. He is looking for him too. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but form: the film's whole concern is the image; colour, framing, sets and movement. The narrative offers no motive. Why Diabolik steals, who he is, his past; none of it, and the film does not count that as a lack. The source is an Italian comic series. The film's language comes straight from it; the framings resemble panels and the colours are like a printed page. Mario Bava used very little of the budget. The producer had set aside a large sum and Bava finished far below it; what was left was returned. The effects are entirely mechanical. Models, rear projection, painted glass and optical tricks. The lair set is the most remembered thing about it. The music is by Ennio Morricone. The last scene takes place in a pool of gold and is wholly absurd. John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli and Adolfo Celi are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1960s pop cinema and visually extreme films. Who it is not for: anyone looking for narrative; the plot is thin, the characters have no depth, and the film hides none of it.