DANGER DIABOLIK

Danger Diabolik, 1968, is Italian director Mario Bava’s stylish, psychedelic adaptation of comic book anti-hero, Diabolik. Created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. The film is a lush, Technicolor feast, boasting jaw-dropping sets, real visual élan and just about the coolest, sexiest, criminal couple in cult cinema history.

Diabolik white cool Jaguar E-Type.

From the swirling, psychedelic opening credits to the groovy Ennio Morricone scored soundtrack, Danger: Diabolik is an acid-laced love letter to the swinging sixties. Ensconced in his cavernous, space-age, underground lair, Diabolik spends his time either plotting yet another dastardly heist or making love with Eva, Melisa Mell, on a giant revolving bed, their lithe bodies swathed in a thick quilt of stolen dollar bills.

he master thief Diabolik is a comic book creation by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani that started back in 1962 and has been in syndication in one form or another ever since. It has even had an animated series and a video game based on it. But in 1968, producer Dino De Laurentiis hired visionary director Mario Bava to bring Diabolik to life in a big budget feature film.

Danger: Diabolik‘s Ennio Morricone-composed soundtrack contains one of the greatest “Spy Fi” songs of that decade, the title theme, “Deep Down.” Obviously this is the maestro’s first run at a James Bond theme, or at least a pastiche of one. With a languid, string-bending Duane Eddy-ish guitar line .

Sadly, the master tapes of Morricone’s Danger Diabolik score were destroyed in a fire. Only a 45 single was ever released.