Diabolik

I can already hear many of you frantically wondering 'when the heck did Mario Bava's much desired Diabolik become available on DVD?' and ''why did no one know about this?!' Well, this is perhaps a slightly controversial one for us to cover but we wouldn't be doing DVD fans of the film justice by not mentioning it. You see this very welcome DVD release of the long sought 'Diabolik' is in a fact a grey market DVD-R release. Now I can already imagine that some grumbling about the fact that this is not an official release but considering just how damn fine this one is I felt it only right that we cover it, but more on the grey market discussion later - let's look at this particular DVD release...

For those of you out there that haven't had the good fortune to see Mario Bava's 'Diabolik' then you really should make plans to do so soon. First off I better make clear that this is by no means a horror movie but in fact a delicious slice of 60's Euro superbaddy eye candy that confidently surpasses anything that luke warm competitors like James Bond or Austin Powers could never dream of matching.

The film opens with a small army of state police escorting a truck full of blank notes to divert the attention of super criminal Diabolik (played with panache by John Phillip Law), but as the real money slips off under the guise of some travelling aristocrats the savvy Diabolik is ready with his own coloured gas cloud bomb diversion and a massive crane magnet to lift the real cash carrying car away. As the gas clears the police look up to see the cackling black masked Diabolik leap into a nearby speed boat only to race away. The chase continues back on dry land as he races off in his lovely Jaguar with a police helicopter in tow and following some traditional secret agent type car switching he soon loses his hunters and slips off to his hi-tech retro underground lair to roll around millions of dollars with his very beautiful blonde beau the stunning Marisa Mell.

And so the scene is set, and I'm sure you get the idea also. Leaving a trail of desperation at every turn our psychedelic super thief goes about his glamorous high action robberies eluding not only the police force but the rest of the criminal fraternity too. Does this sound like fun? Well believe me it is, and damn entertaining fun it is too.

But what is the secret that makes 'Diabolik' so successful and pleasurable to view? I think that there are many reasons why - pretty much faithful to its Italian comic book origins, Mario Bava has proved once again that he is perhaps one of the most stylish film directors out there and even for this film alone will be greatly missed. Capturing the essence of the comic book feel, he delivers a film that moves along at lightning pace and is full of not only great action adventure sequences but gorgeous visual eye candy too with a delightful taste for the absurd and no sense of budgetary restriction - in fact producer Dino de Laurentiis offered a rather sizeable Hollywood type budget but was himself stunned that Bava completed the movie at a fraction of the predicted cost, but still the movie looks stunning - but this is the Bava touch!

'Diabolik' doesn't fall into that trap of not working quite right (as in say later soul less comic book adaptations like the Batman series) and you quickly warm to its stylish fun look and feel. The casting throughout is very well selected and thankfully was not the original cast selection that Laurentiis had wanted but the excellent sinister but way cool John Phillip Law, the retro beauty that is Marisa Mell, the Bond renegade Adolfo Celi as well as a welcome but under-utilised performance by the great Terry Thomas (a stalwart of the classic comedy scene). But it is also the plot that will have you cheering with delight as over and above the high action scenarios there's a great underlying anti-hero theme. The whole set piece where Diabolik blows up all the Tax Office buildings so public funds wont be abused should have had most viewers cheering in the cinemas when it originally screened - I know I laughed out loud at the prospect of such a glamorous anti hero wiping out all the stored government records such as this. And enhancing Bava's delicious visual imagery is a similarly fun but sumptuous score by Ennio Morricone with two repeating themes that you'll be whistling for weeks after viewing. Truly delightful entertainment is the only way to describe this film and essential viewing for anyone with even the slightest interest in either Bava's work or movies with a fun sense of adventure.

But why has a film of such impressive stature never yet been unleashed on DVD? Well you will need to question and petition the folk at Paramount about that one! But while countless fans have been understandable disgruntled about the lack of DVD presence, it has taken a grey market (read 'bootleg') producer going under the name of 'DVD Mondo' to seize the bull by the horns and give fans exactly what they want...'Diabolik' on DVD!

Now I know many insiders complain that 'oh no, we shouldn't encourage these folk' but damn it, personally I'm sick to death of waiting for lazy corporate beasts sitting on product that we movie fans want to see (and therefore product that they could easily sell surely?!) Of course the main worry that fans should rightly have about any grey market release will be 'is the quality any good?' and 'am I going to get my fingers burnt with this thing?'. Well to answer these - first off we're here for the film eh? So we get what looks like an excellent direct transfer of the original widescreen (2.35:1) laserdisc and it looks and sounds great, so much so that I increased the image size to fill a widescreen TV image with no worrying drop out in image quality - so I'm more than happy. And the folk at 'DVD Mondo' even made a little welcome effort by including a couple of bonus Bava trailers which is more than one could really ask for (though sadly a trailer for 'Diabolik' is not included).

So what it really boils down to is whether you want to get this film looking good on a bare bones DVD-R release now or wait until god knows when for Paramount to get their act together and release this title officially. If you're one of those folk that disagrees with the whole grey market scene then it's your freedom to choose not to spend your money on such product. Me? I'm more than happy to spend the �15 that it sells at conventions for, and I know that I'll still happily buy an official release when that appears too (just as long as it's widescreen or I would hope at least anarmorphic?) I never did own a laserdisc player and am not about to buy one now, this is the only option for hard-liners to see the movie officially so this nicely priced well presented DVD-R presentation of this stunning Bava film for now is definitely the way to go. And before folk start asking, sorry I don't know where you can pick this one up - I found it at a local movie fair/convention (via good friend Stephen, thanks mate!) so keep your eyes peeled at those conventions - you'll find it along with some other interesting titles from the canny folk at 'DVD Mondo'. A retro Euro classic - hunt it down now!

Review by Alan Simpson