Film

Danger: Diabolik

Name: Danger: Diabolik
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Released: 1968
Cast: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Adolfo Celi, Claudio Gora

Mario Bava turns a lurid Italian comic strip into two hours of pure visual candy: a black-clad supercriminal and his glamorous partner rob, seduce, and cackle their way across a mod European fantasyland while a weary inspector fumes. Plot is an afterthought; the point is the lava-lamp lairs, the go-go soundtrack, and Diabolik's shameless, victimless glee. Style-first cinema at its most delighted with itself.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love pop-art camp, gleefully over-the-top set pieces and a comic-book sensibility where style is the whole point, the way Mario Bava's wilder colour-soaked films reward a viewer who just goes along for the ride.

Skip it if you need a tight, grounded crime story; the plot is loose and episodic, the jokes land unevenly, and the cool surface can feel like it is covering for thin substance.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a brisk hour and forty-odd minutes of playful capers, with little interest in logic and a readiness to let the look of each scene carry you.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Barbarella1968

Same year, same appetite for candy-colored excess and cheerful disregard for plot — Jane Fonda drifts through a psychedelic space opera with the same wink Diabolik gives to crime.

But The pacing is even looser and the jokes land softer; it's more mood board than movie.

Modesty Blaise1966

Another glossy comic-strip thief turned movie star, all mod fashion and self-aware camp, made two years earlier — Diabolik's stylistic older sibling, right down to the impossible hideouts.

But The plot is even more incoherent, and the tone flips between spoof and straight spy thriller without warning.

Casino Royale1967

A spy spoof so drunk on its own excess it hired six directors and still made something gorgeous — same year, same appetite for throwing money and absurdity at the screen until it works.

But It's a mess by design, and if you need a spy film to actually function as one, this will frustrate you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Danger: Diabolik

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Fantomas1964

Diabolik's comic-book creators openly modeled him on Fantomas; this is literally where the black-suited, laughing-at-cops supercriminal archetype was born, decades earlier and a country over.

The pulp supervillain who invented this whole genre decades before Diabolik borrowed his cape — a masked master criminal who mocks the police, wears disguises like costumes, and treats crime as performance art.

But It's broader, sillier, and more overtly comic — closer to a live-action cartoon than Bava's cool psychedelia.

The Italian Job1969

British heist cheek instead of Italian villainy, but the same devotion to the job as spectacle rather than suspense — gadgets, getaway cars, a plan more interested in looking cool than being plausible.

But It's cheekier and more patriotic than sexy — expect Mini Coopers, not lava pits full of cash.

The Thomas Crown Affair1968

A wealthy thief and his glamorous adversary trade smoldering looks between crimes, in a film as besotted with 60s style as Diabolik — same year, same conviction that theft looks better in silk.

But It's cooler and more restrained; there's chess instead of car chases, seduction instead of shootouts.

To Catch a Thief1955

Hitchcock's glamorous thief-versus-detective romance did sun-drenched jewel-heist chic first, and arguably better — Cary Grant and Grace Kelly made 'stylish criminal' a genre worth stealing from.

But It's a classy Hitchcock picture, not a pop-art fever dream — no lairs, no lasers, no nudity.

Kill Bill: Vol. 12003

Tarantino loved Diabolik enough to lift its score cues and its motorcycle helmet outright — watch this and you'll spot the homage everywhere, filtered through his own blood-soaked comic-book brain.

But It's a revenge saga, not a caper, and the violence is played straight where Diabolik's was cartoonish.

Ocean's Eleven2001

Modern heist cinema's gold standard for style-over-plausibility — a crew of pretty people executing an impossible plan with more attitude than logic, exactly Diabolik's spirit in a sharper suit.

But It's slicker and more polite; nobody's diving into a literal pile of gold or getting theatrically evil.

The Pink Panther1963

Same era, same jewel-thief glamour, but played for laughs instead of camp — a reminder that the 60s heist film could be a farce as easily as a fantasy.

But It's gentler and more bumbling; Inspector Clouseau is no Ginko, and there's no villainous glee to root for.

The Castle of Cagliostro1979

Lupin III descends from the same pulp-thief lineage as Diabolik, but reborn in anime — proof the charming-criminal-outwits-the-law engine runs just as well animated as it does in latex.

A dashing gentleman thief, an impossible castle, and gadgets galore — directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who turns the whole genre into something warmer and more wondrous than any live-action version could manage.

But It's animated, family-friendly, and gentler in tone; there's no sex or menace, just pure adventurous joy.

Le Cercle Rouge1970

Same bones as Diabolik — a master thief, a relentless inspector, one last impossible job — but played dead straight, as tragedy instead of comic-book fantasy, showing how far the same skeleton can stretch.

Melville strips the same premise — a cool criminal, a dogged cop, one impossible job — of every ounce of camp, replacing lava-lamp glee with silence, trench coats, and existential dread.

But It's slow, somber, and almost entirely humorless — the tonal opposite of Diabolik's cackling energy.