The Man of Steal

Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968)

Until recently, I had deliberately delayed reviewing Mario Bava’s deliriously, mad cap film Danger: Diabolik (1968) due to not having read any of the comics it was adapted from. The master thief known as Diabolik was created by Italian sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani in 1962. He was more of an anti-hero/villain, given his motivations and actions. From my understanding, the ingenious thief, with a maniacal laugh, would not hesitate to murder any innocent bystander who stood in his way. Hence, the book is allegedly more subversive than traditional comics of that era. Diabolik’s popularity spawned a whole sub-genre of Italian comics known as fumetti neri (dark comics) and gave rise to other notorious characters: Kriminal, Satanik and Sadik; some of which had their own film adaptations.

I found it challenging to locate an English translation of Diabolik . As an alternative, I decided to watch the recent trilogy of films directed by the Manetti Brothers: Diabolik (2021); Diabolik: Ginko Attacks! (2022) and Diabolik: Who Are You? (2024). Fans of the comic consider the trilogy to be more faithful to the source material compared to Bava’s film. After binge-watching all three films, I shan’t bother with the comic books. They are drab, dire and completely lifeless. The complete opposite of Bava's adaptation. All three of them are diabolically bad (I thought I was being clever here, but I'll probably regret typing that sentence whenever I reread this review). Therefore, I can confidently conclude Danger: Diabolik is the superior version; regardless of its deviation from the comic.

Danger: Diabolik is pure bork overload. A visually striking Italian-French co-production, characterised by Bava’s vibrant colour palette and camera wizardry; grandiose and opulent set designs; recognisable European actors in camp mode; and Il Maestro of film composers, Ennio Morricone, creating a distinctive blend of his trademark spaghetti western sounds, ecclesiastical organs, jazzy pop and lounge lizard muzak, furthering the psychedelic experience. The result is a demented Pop-Art film that easily sits between the early James Bond films and the kitsch Batman television series.

The film’s production history was fraught with difficulties. The Nanny’s Seth Holt was the original director when filming commenced in 1965; with Jean Sorel being cast as the titular character. Producer Dino De Laurentiis was dissatisfied with the dailies and production was brought to a halt until Mario Bava was hired to restart the film on a significantly reduced budget. Sorel was out by this time. Having already been familiar with the comic, John Phillip Law secured the lead after impressing De Laurentiis with his dastardly eyebrow expressions; a skill essential when having to wear a latex balaclava while racing around in a speedboat or a sport scar. Bava was unhappy with Catherine Deneuve as Eva Kent, Diabolik's beautiful girlfriend and partner in crime. The Austrian bombshell Marisa Mell was subsequently cast in her place. This proved to be a successful casting decision as Law and Mell exhibited great onscreen chemistry and contributed to the racy scenes in the film.

In terms of the film’s plot, Diabolik’s ingenious and daring heists have driven the nameless European country’s Minister of Interior, played by the gap-toothed, British toff Terry-Thomas, to extreme measures: by enforcing the death penalty on all criminals. His arch-nemesis, Inspector Ginko (Michel Piccoli), is counting on the crime syndicate, led by Ralph Valmont (Adolfo Celi, virtually reprising his villainous role as Emilio Largo from the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball) to rid them of the master thief. Following the kidnapping of his beloved Eva and a free-falling confrontation with Valmont, Diabolik steals the world’s largest gold ingot. Unaware that traces of the ingot were irradiated under Ginko’s orders, thus the objects serves as a homing device. This leads to the law's discovery of Diabolik’s secret lair and the film’s climactic finale.

Bava’s film presents an intriguing dynamic by positioning Diabolik against both law enforcement and the criminal underworld; forcing the master thief into an anti-hero. This is evident when he unleashes a bombing campaign against the state’s tax department after learning of their enforcement of the death penalty. By not permitting Diabolik to steal, he will reciprocate by preventing the government from doing the same. His anti-establishment and individualistic nature comes across as subversive and ahead of its time for a 1960s comic book character.

Danger: Diabolik is an exceptional visual experience for those who appreciate wonderfully eccentric and vibrant cinema. Mario Bava was a masterful filmmaker; renowned for his exquisite cinematic eye, autistic levels of detail to the mise-en-scène and ingenious visual effects. Bava demonstrated his ability to create a wonderfully whimsical and trippy comic book movie with the same care and attention to the sumptuous, atmospheric, gothic Italian horror he became renowned for. A very versatile and capable director, who was unjustly lumped as a poor man's Alfred Hitchcock.

The elaborate sets provide an exceptional playground that are a huge part to the film’s charm. The most notable is Diabolik’s underground lair. An eye-catching, post-modernist structure built within a vast cavern. It’s spectacular enough to rival some of Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s residences. The home is furnished with modern conveniences including his and hers groovy showers and a giant, rotating circular bed (you won’t find one of them in Dreams) where they make passionate love all day amongst all their stolen cash. Not exactly hygienic, but a lifestyle I can respect. The lair is surrounded by a fleet of Jaguar E-Types; the protagonist’s trademark wheels. With a subterranean entrance to the sea, Diabolik’s hideout comes complete with its own submarine. A convenient transport for moving a giant gold ingot. Above all, I’m particularly fond of the giant pipe organ which serves as the lair’s security alarm. A unique, yet very fitting device for any supervillain.

Sources suggest the reason a sequel was never made was that Bava did not enjoy his experience working with De Laurentiis. Alternatively, the film’s commercial failure is a more plausible explanation. If Danger: Diabolik had been successful, a sequel would have been produced even without Bava’s involvement. Regardless of which is true, it is now considered a cult film and often listed amongst the best comic book movies by various media. 

Danger: Diabolik did not leave the same first impression on me as Bava's gothic horror films initially did. The film has greatly grown on me with subsequent revisits. I think it might have been Diabolik’s quintessential European stylings and campiness being not to my taste during my edge lord youth. This was a time when Batman had long abandoned the campiness of the ‘60s television series and embraced the dark and gothic sensibilities as reflected by Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film. Since then, however, I have found Danger: Diabolik deeply refreshing in comparison to the irreverent deconstruction and revisionism committed to familiar comics book characters today. They are trends that have become increasingly tiresome and clichéd for me. Hence, a fictional character who steals for the adrenaline rush and to support his lavish lifestyle with his sexy girlfriend, is both beautifully simplistic and far more appealing to me than the latest Marvel and DC slop.

One of Mario Bava’s greatest films.

Eureka has recently released a superb 4K UHD of Danger: Diabolik as part of its Masters of Cinema series. This is perhaps my favourite boutique film release of the year. Alternatively, I would highly recommend that those who have not seen the film to check it out for free on YouTube. Deep, deep down, you know you want to!

No Flesh Shall Be Spared

Hardware (Richard Stanley, 1990)

2000AD was a weekly comic I would read throughout most of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was a font of creative talent exemplifying the comic book renaissance at the time; some of that talent, would be poached by the Big Two (Marvel and D.C.) and eventually see their works adapted into film.

It's no big secret that Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi classic, Robocop (1987), took blatant inspiration from 2000AD's flagship lawman Judge Dredd during its pre-production.

Similarly, writer and director Richard Stanley tapped into the Dreddverse with his debut feature film Hardware (1990). Evidently, Fleetway Publications, the owner of 2000AD, thought Stanley's film was doing more than just taking inspiration and successfully won a copyright case against it. Despite Stanley denying he ever read, SHOK!, the seven page story which first appeared in the 1981 Judge Dredd annual. Thus, SHOK!'s creators, Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill, were credited subsequent prints of the film.

Hardware is set in a dystopian future ravaged by atomic warfare. Nomads scavenge for scrap in an irradiated wasteland. Ex marine, Hard Mo' Baxter (Dylan McDermott), acquires a robot skull from one particular nomad. He gifts it to his sculptor girlfriend Jill (Stacey Travis) upon his long return home as a Christmas present. (Yes, it's a Christmas movie!) However, both Mo' and Jill are unaware that the skull is part of a deadly M.A.R.K. 13 robot capable of resourcing power, reassembling itself and delivering a fatal toxin. Furthermore, it is later revealed that the M.A.R.K. 13 was programmed by the government to reduce the human population.

The mise-en-scène is central to Richard Stanley’s vision, with the plot serving as secondary.  Dystopian cyberpunk imagery is prevalent. Future tech, metallic junk and urban rubble are everywhere. Computer generated wire-mesh visuals rotate on crummy monitors. Steam is ejected from unknown vents. And colourful lights cast Bava-esque beauty on metallic surfaces. Hardware is an unapologetic film that's all about style over substance. 

This is a nightmarish future. A stark example of the grim state of the human race is a child tied to its deceased mother on a forgotten apartment level. Furthermore, nonchalant media announcements for enforced sterilisations commencing in the New Year are chilling.

The performances are mixed. Stacey Travis and Dylan McDermott are great as the leads, maintaining professional composure throughout Richard Stanley’s avant-garde direction. They do their best with the material that they have available. John Lynch’s character Shades, is both shallow and superfluous. This is largely due to the character’s flat profile rather than Lynch's performance. Additionally, his Ray Bans and aviator jacket would have been more suited on a background extra in Top Gun than here. The character's solo scene, in which he appears high in his apartment, adds nothing to the film and is a time waster.

Mark Nothover plays Alvy, a dwarf junkyard trader whose voice appears to have been dubbed by an American actor. Despite his limited screen time Alvy’s role is more integral to the film than Shades and genuinely serves a purpose. The merchant is the one who discovers how dangerous the M.A.R.K. 13 is; adding urgency to the mix.

William Hootkins, best known for his role as fat X-Wing pilot Jak Porkins in Star Wars, plays Jill’s stalker neighbour. He is memorable as an odious pervert and for his bizarre singing of They All Walk the Wibbly-Wobbly Walk . You’re just praying for him to die horribly.

Given Richard Stanley’s background as a music director (credited for directing Superfly Guy by S-Express and Blue Pearl’s Naked in the Rain), he features several musicians in his film. The aforementioned nomad is played by Carl McCoy of Fields of the Nephilim, while Lemmy of Motörhead is a water taxi driver, crossing a polluted river with Ace of Spades playing on his stereo. However, the most memorable cameo is Iggy Pop as the off-screen DJ Angry Bob, whose over-the-top performance is notably quote-worthy::

"This is Angry Bob, the man with the industrial dick. Coming at you loud and clear on W.A.R. Radio. Rise and shine, folks! It's a beautiful day! Just look at that sky; it's a work of art. Huh! Nature never knew colours like that. And a friendly reminder: when you look at it, be sure to wear your shades! The radiation count's way up in the heatwave and ain't expected to let up, either. Weather Control tell us it'll probably hit 110 down town, before nightfall. As for the good news: there is no fucking good news! So let's rock with one of our golden oldies" - Angry Bob

Elsewhere, Public Image Ltd’s The Order of Death is prominently featured in the film. Soundtrack composer Simon Boswell provides an original score, consisting of loud industrial  and brash synthesisers. It may be considered intrusive by some, but complements the film’s high tech and junkyard metal aesthetic.

The film’s premise, a woman confined to her apartment with a killer robot, may evoke moments from other science fiction films such as Saturn 3 (1980) and The Terminator (1984), but Richard Stanley seems to forgo all that for much of Hardware's run time and spend most of it on the cool cyberpunk world he's realised. Admirable as that might sound, it does come at the expense of a very long wait for some slasher style action. At least forty minutes have to pass by before the M.A.R.K. 13 begins its murderous rampage. 

An example of Stanley's avant-garde approach is the surreal sequence involving the deadly toxin running through the veins of one character. A hallucinatory M.A.R.K. 13 appears like a dance artist on Top of the Pops, followed with acid trip style spiral patterns. Dramatic opera music soundtracks the fatal psychedelic experience.

Hardware did not resonate with me, initially. Despite its connection to my teenage interests at the time, its unorthodox style was too ostentatious for my liking. However, the film has grown on me considerably since then; largely due to its technical merits being so accomplished on a shoe-string budget (less than £1M, believe it or not). It retains a remarkable cyberpunk aesthetic that is both stunning and more stylish than numerous bigger budgeted studio efforts. 

Although not an easy recommendation, it is definitely worth checking out for any sci-fi film enthusiast and fan of cult cinema. Better than Alphaville, that's for sure.

Merry Christmas!

Boardwalk Emperor

Absolutely loathed Matt Reeves's The Batman (2022); an unnecessary and bloated reboot with a dreadfully miscast Robert Pattinson as the titular caped crusader; pitted against Paul Dano's gimp looking Riddler and his army of incels. The only redeemable element about it was Colin Farrell's small part as the waddling master of foul play. A TV spin-off series on the Penguin, conjured preconceptions of typical Disney +/CW style slop and dissuaded my interest in the show. Glad to admit HBO's The Penguin (2024) has defied these notions, as the show is outstanding.

The decision to adapt one of Batman's arch villains into a Machiavellian mob drama, laden with shocking twists and revelations, rather than curse it with the stale millennial writing cringe of other comic book related serials, is ingeniously refreshing and one of the show's greatest assets. The writing lands somewhere in between the rise-to-power bent of Scarface (1983) and multi-layered character depth of The Sopranos (1999-2007). The end result is a uniquely compelling offering which rises well above the rest of its ilk. Witnessing Oswald Cobb (shortened from Cobblepot) scheme or grovel out of an ensemble of predicaments, is incredibly entertaining. It's also fascinating to learn about his strange relationship with his mother which leads to a deeply disturbing finale. My favourite side to Oswald is his mentoring of Victor Aguilar (Renzy Feliz), an orphaned street urchin taken under his wing, displaying an unseen side to the villain.

The Penguin's success can also be attributed to Colin Farrell's glorious performance as the duplicitous and grotesque villain. Not only is Farrell completely unrecognisable under all the make up and prosthetics, but he also sounds completely different; not one trace of his original accent and vocal range gives him away. Farrell isn't the only star of the show, however. Cristin Milioti is equally as great as Sofia Falcone, the unhinged black sheep of her crime family. Make no mistake: these are villains. None of that current day trend of humanising them and turning them into misunderstood anti-heroes. These are dangerous villains and remain that way.

Perhaps the most enjoyable bingewatch of a contemporary show I've had since Cobra Kai: Season One (2018) and Squid Game (2021). Completely hooked from the very first episode. Hopefully future seasons maintain the same level of high quality. Also praying its creators wisely steer away from including overexposed characters like Batman and the Joker etc, as the success of The Penguin is easily attributed to it organically working as a crime drama first and foremost, and its comic book source material is of lesser importance.

Kowloon Ruck

Twilight Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang, 2024)

Director Soi Cheang first came onto my radar with his Hong Kong crime thriller Limbo (2021). Despite its incredible production design and hyper-stylised noir aesthetic, the central core of the film was like every generic crime thriller involving the hunt for a serial killer. It was superficially alluring, at best. His latest film, adapted from a graphic novel known as City of Darkness, is also laced with fantastic visuals, but more importantly, it also has a more interesting plot.

Twilight Warriors: Walled In is set during the eighties in Hong Kong's shanty city of Kowloon. The historical region resembled a post-apocalyptic nightmare rather than an actual urban province. The gargantuan ramshackle is the basis for the film's amazing look. Within its corrugated walls is a densely populated feudal society with triad bosses acting like governing elders.

After being ripped off obtaining a fake ID card by Mr. Big (the legendary Sammo Hung still kicking arse in his seventies), Chan Lok-kwan (Raymond Chan) runs afoul of the triads by mistakenly snatching a bag of drugs thinking it was the money owed to him. The result is an epic chase fight into the Walled City, where the triads are prohibited from venturing in. Lok-kwan finds sanctuary in the urban shit hole to be temporary when he runs into another gang led by the chain smoking, martial arts master Cyclone (Louis Koo). After some more fighting, Lok-kwan goes through the motions of finding acceptance with the inhabitants of the Walled City.

The police free zone has its own laws and politics, which is fascinating during the downtime of not having a violent fight light up the screen. This also benefits the film's world building along with defining its central characters. There's a back story to Lok-kwan, which eventually leads to serious consequences for everyone living in Kowloon.

A refreshing concept is how Mr. Big isn't the major villain in the film. That duty falls to his maniacal second-in-command, King (Philip Ng), who looks like an Asian verison of Paul Calf. Controversially, King the power of invulnerability. He is impervious to lethal machete strikes, a sledgehammer to his skull, and can chew on red hot coal like it's a chicken nugget. This comic book style villain is more than a challenge for Lok-kwan and three of his comrades during the film's epically climactic showdown.

The fight choreography comes somewhere in between Steven Chao's cartoonish action in Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and the brutal grittiness of Gareth Evans' The Raid films. Thus, Twilight Warriors: Walled In does not disappoint with its entertaining action scenes. Did not expect the emotionally effective drama sequences, either. A good example is the brotherhood of Lok-kwan's inner circle: Shin (Terrance Lau), Twelfth Master (Tony Wu) and the masked AV (German Cheung). From playing mah jong to dispensing street justice to a prostitute killer, a tight bond is formed with the foursome, where they're willing to sacrifice themselves to prove it.

The film is superior to the average John Wick-core actioner, which has long outstayed its welcome. Of course, there is the potential of the comic book style combat being a turn off for some, but it more than makes sense considering it's based on an actual graphic novel. A rare win for comic book movies over the last few years.

Overall, Twilight Warriors: Walled In is a quality action film. Not only does it deliver an abundant amount of shit kicking, but it does it with resplendent glee. Apparently, there are another two films (one, a sequel; the other, a prequel) planned and this instalment has managed to get its hooks in, and left me willing to check them out too. Recommended.

Scream! And Scream! Again

The pantheon of British comics which really struck the right notes of interest for your host were 2000AD, Eagle and the very shortlived Scream! Regrettably, the latter only lasted for fifteen issues because of a printers strike. Thankfully, a couple of the stories lived on by continuing in Eagle later on.

Scream! was a contemporary British take on the infamous EC Comics stories which achieved notoriety in the 1950s thanks to Dr. Frederick Wortham's scaremongering book, The Seduction of the Innocent. As a young 'un, Scream! was a great accompaniment to all the Hammer and Amicus films I would stay up late for with stories like The Dracula File, Monster and best of all The Thirteenth Floor.

Would love to grab the new collected hardback celebrating the comic's fortieth anniversary, but the price keeps yo-yoing up and down, putting me off. This time around, I hope it stays in print long enough to cop it.