Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. Today we
Speaker 1: are bringing you an older episode of Weird House Cinema
Speaker 1: on the nineteen sixty eight super crime thriller Danger Diabolic,
Speaker 1: starring John Philip Law and Marissa mel directed by Mario Bava. Ooh,
Speaker 1: this is one of my favorites. So if you haven't
Speaker 1: seen the movie, haven't heard the episode, I think you're
Speaker 1: in for a real treat.
Speaker 2: Bon Voyage, Welcome.
Speaker 3: To Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey you, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.
Speaker 1: And this is Joe McCormick in. Today's movie on Weird
Speaker 1: House is the nineteen sixty eight Mario Bava film Danger Diabolic.
Speaker 1: A movie that straddles many genres. It is a comic
Speaker 1: book adaptation, it is a crime thriller, it's an action movie.
Speaker 1: And I've even seen people refer to it as a
Speaker 1: spy movie or a euro spy thriller. This is sometimes
Speaker 1: also called like spaghetti spy movies. These are all these
Speaker 1: movies that came out in the sixties, I think somewhat
Speaker 1: riding on the success of the first James Bond films,
Speaker 1: that have characters named things like James Taunt or something.
Speaker 1: And while that spy designation does not accurately describe the
Speaker 1: plot of this movie, I can see why people say
Speaker 1: that because Danger Diabolic takes part in a lot of
Speaker 1: the same aesthetic trends you might find in sixties spy stuff,
Speaker 1: like the early James Bond films, in these other continental
Speaker 1: European espionage capers. So Danger Diabolic is about a thief,
Speaker 1: but it feels like it's about a spy. But really,
Speaker 1: more than anything, it's about love.
Speaker 2: That's right. It's ultimately a movie about love. Though our
Speaker 2: heroes are definitely criminals, there's no doubt about it, but
Speaker 2: we'll discuss the flavor of crime that there really involved in.
Speaker 2: I think ultimately you would classify this film as a
Speaker 2: super crime movie. These are super criminals engaging in super crime.
Speaker 2: They're not quite super villains per se, though I'm sure
Speaker 2: that the people they're stealing from see them as such.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's interesting because on one hand, there's not
Speaker 2: a speculative element here like this this is not really
Speaker 2: a sci fi film or a horror, a fantasy, or
Speaker 2: you know, the typical genres we cover here. But it
Speaker 2: is still packed with plenty of weirdness. It reminds me
Speaker 2: in our build up to this, you even brought this up, Joe.
Speaker 2: You were like, I'm not sure it'll be weird enough,
Speaker 2: but I think now that we've both rewatched it, we
Speaker 2: have found there's plenty of weirdness to be had in Diabolic.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess you know, we've always gone intuitively on
Speaker 1: like what counts as weird for weird house cinema. Usually
Speaker 1: it's got to have some kind of major anti realism
Speaker 1: element in the plot. It's either got to be about
Speaker 1: something kind of like magical or supernatural, or something sufficiently
Speaker 1: has enough science fiction distance from reality that it's really weird.
Speaker 1: Diabolic has. It takes place in a world of light
Speaker 1: science fiction possibilities. Actually much like most spy movies, do
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like James Bond or Mission Impossible
Speaker 1: movies have very light sci fi elements, just sort of
Speaker 1: slight exaggerations of what's possible in reality, And this is
Speaker 1: kind of like that, except it has a much CARTOONI
Speaker 1: or style that is free to more free to experiment
Speaker 1: with what would be plausible in terms of like what
Speaker 1: people would actually do, like would people actually make a
Speaker 1: gold ingot the size of a tanker truck because reasoning
Speaker 1: that it will be harder to steal that way.
Speaker 2: Well, this is I love that detail on the plot
Speaker 2: because that particularly feels like folkloric or mythic. It seems
Speaker 2: like the kind of thing that various heroes in you know,
Speaker 2: Sagas and Tales of Old would have engaged in. Oh,
Speaker 2: you know, the trickster was going to steal the gold,
Speaker 2: so we just made an enormous gold ingot. But ah,
Speaker 2: the mighty hero Diabolic stole it anyway.
Speaker 1: So I actually hadn't seen this movie until a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and a good friend of mine has
Speaker 1: been telling me about it for years. I can going
Speaker 1: back probably a decade, him saying this movie is actually great,
Speaker 1: and I think for a long time my expectations about
Speaker 1: it were miscalibrated by the knowledge that this movie was
Speaker 1: featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater three thousand,
Speaker 1: which I've never seen. By the way, the very last episode.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a show I love, But that places
Speaker 1: this movie in strange company because Danger Diabolic is not
Speaker 1: like Soul Taker. It is not like Final Sacrifice or
Speaker 1: Mitchell or most of the kinds of movies that end
Speaker 1: up on Mystery Science Theater. Danger Diabolic is a wonderful movie.
Speaker 1: In fact, I would even say that it possesses a
Speaker 1: kind of genius.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean we could go in into an
Speaker 2: entire tangent on MST three K movies and the fact that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think there are a lot of great movies that
Speaker 2: were riffed over the years, and I think there are
Speaker 2: people out there who take offense sometimes on behalf of
Speaker 2: movies that were riffed. I don't view it like that.
Speaker 2: I think for me in particular, and for a lot
Speaker 2: of people you are Slash were introduced to this whole
Speaker 2: world of weird cinema through Mystery Science Theater three thousand,
Speaker 2: and they taught in different ways to enjoy films. But
Speaker 2: it Yeah, this was a film that I long associated
Speaker 2: with ms th three K because it was episode one
Speaker 2: ninety seven back in nineteen ninety nine. It was for
Speaker 2: a very long time the final episode of MST three
Speaker 2: K before it came back in twenty seventeen, and it's
Speaker 2: still the final mic episode of MST three So it
Speaker 2: was always bittersweet for that reason. Solid riffing but the
Speaker 2: end of an Era. I had never watched Diabolic or
Speaker 2: danger Diabolic as it's known in the West. I'd never
Speaker 2: watched it unriffed until today. And it's, you know, like
Speaker 2: a lot of these films, it's so much fun. It
Speaker 2: certainly holds its own You don't need the riffing to
Speaker 2: experience it. That can't be said of every film that
Speaker 2: was a feature in MST three K. There are some
Speaker 2: that are bad enough that you really need a little
Speaker 2: something extra to get you through. It is a very watchable,
Speaker 2: very fun, very sexy, good time.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all of those things. And also this is a
Speaker 1: movie that I think has special appeal to people who
Speaker 1: are interested in the process of filmmaking because it's one
Speaker 1: of those movies where you can just you can just
Speaker 1: feel the steady hand of a director working with absolute finesse.
Speaker 1: Mario Bava's shadow hanging over this movie is just so powerful.
Speaker 1: It's like, in some ways, I would compare it to
Speaker 1: though I'm not really sports fan, but what I imagine
Speaker 1: it's like to, you know, really appreciate an incredible athlete,
Speaker 1: somebody who just does inhuman things with their muscles that
Speaker 1: would be impossible for other people. To do, but they
Speaker 1: make it look easy. That's what I would compare the
Speaker 1: filmmaking in this movie too. It's just like it is
Speaker 1: such an effortless, feeling display of absolute confidence and finesse
Speaker 1: in how sets and costumes and color schemes are used
Speaker 1: and how shots are framed. You just feel like he
Speaker 1: is taking it easy and making a perfect movie and
Speaker 1: not breaking a sweat.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he makes it seem easy, and at the
Speaker 2: same time you're in awe of some of the shots
Speaker 2: that he puts together and the way he approaches scenes
Speaker 2: that would just be so throwaway in other films. I
Speaker 2: will say that there are plenty of hypnotic shots in
Speaker 2: this movie, but since this this one is more action
Speaker 2: themed compared to the other two Mario Baba films that
Speaker 2: we've talked about on the show, it has a different
Speaker 2: feel overall to it. There may be fewer of those
Speaker 2: like long hypnotizing sequences, but there's still plenty of moments
Speaker 2: like that in the film.
Speaker 1: So I want to formally apologize to my friend Ben
Speaker 1: for taking like ten years or more to watch this movie,
Speaker 1: which he's been recommending to me the whole time. You
Speaker 1: were right, this movie is great. It's great. It's great.
Speaker 1: And this is a caveat I sometimes have to issue
Speaker 1: on the show. I sometimes fear that the more I
Speaker 1: love a movie, the harder it is for me to
Speaker 1: make a good Weird House episode about it. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to try to do my best here and not
Speaker 1: just let this turn into a NonStop, repetitive overt gushing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, please please understand. I feel like I'm working
Speaker 1: with that handicap. I think I like this movie too much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know the feeling sometimes if I come into
Speaker 2: an episode and I'm like particularly attached to the film,
Speaker 2: I worry how that's gonna impact the episode. But I
Speaker 2: think it's going to be great. There's a lot to
Speaker 2: talk about here.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's your elevator pitch for Danger Diabolic?
Speaker 2: I've got to channel a little meat Loaf here, and
Speaker 2: I would say it is I would steal anything for love,
Speaker 2: and I will absolutely steal that because it's all for
Speaker 2: love in this movie, Absolutely all for love.
Speaker 1: Yes, Why else take down the largest shipment of dollars
Speaker 1: in human history unless it's for love?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's why. And that's one of the reasons
Speaker 2: they call him diabolic. They're like we don't understand his motivations.
Speaker 2: Why does he do the things that he does. Well,
Speaker 2: it's because he's operating on a different wavelength from you
Speaker 2: old fogies that are ruling the world on both sides
Speaker 2: of the law. He has his own agenda and we'll
Speaker 2: get into that.
Speaker 1: That's right. They want the money because it's money. He
Speaker 1: wants the money because it's his girlfriend's birthday.
Speaker 2: Yes, all right, let's listen to a little trailer audio here.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we'll listen to the full trailer,
Speaker 2: and I do want to advise anyone out there that
Speaker 2: if you're interested in watching this movie in full, don't
Speaker 2: watch the classic trailer for it, because this is one
Speaker 2: of those trailers that just spoils absolutely everything. Nothing is
Speaker 2: spared visually anyway.
Speaker 1: Warning that much like the trailer, we will get into
Speaker 1: some spoiler territory. And but Diabolic has a lot of
Speaker 1: excellent twists all throughout the movie, so things will be revealed.
Speaker 1: If you want to go into it knowing nothing, you
Speaker 1: should watch it before you finish this episode.
Speaker 2: All right, let's have a listen.
Speaker 4: Me Diabolic a bank Robin Hood battles the cops. He
Speaker 4: robs from the rich to give to the girls. Ask Eva, Oh,
Speaker 4: you shouldn't have done it. She can't get a good
Speaker 4: night's sleep unless she's covered with money. Master Sportscar, Racer, Master,
Speaker 4: Skin Diver, Master Lover Master Askeeper Diabolic the absolute gold
Speaker 4: plated end Askeeper.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, if you want to go out and
Speaker 2: watch Diabolic or Danger Diabolic before proceeding through the rest
Speaker 2: of the episode, well, luckily for you. It's widely available
Speaker 2: in all formats, including a nice twenty twenty Shout Factory
Speaker 2: release on Blu Ray. And if you really like the music,
Speaker 2: we'll get into the score in a bit. The score
Speaker 2: is available on vinyl from Audio Clarity Great Score.
Speaker 1: Should we start by talking about Mario Bava? How many
Speaker 1: Bava films did you say? We've done?
Speaker 2: This would be the third one. So we've watched what
Speaker 2: Black Sabbath, and we've watched Planet of the Vampires Planet
Speaker 2: the Vampires from sixty five.
Speaker 1: Black Sabbath was the anthology horror film that we did.
Speaker 1: Was it last October or maybe the October before?
Speaker 4: It is?
Speaker 1: So that's one that's got like three segments, and one
Speaker 1: of them, the one that stuck with us the most,
Speaker 1: I think is the one that has Boris Karloff as
Speaker 1: the Verduo loc this kind of of Serbian or Carpathian
Speaker 1: mountain vampire type creature, and it has all those beautiful
Speaker 1: shots where he's just like got purple light dripping off
Speaker 1: of his face as he comes in from the cold
Speaker 1: and looks menacingly at his HouseGuest.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And that was kind of a follow up
Speaker 2: to the nineteen sixty black and white film he did,
Speaker 2: Black Sunday. But it is, you know, in many ways,
Speaker 2: it's hard to imagine, you know, Mario Baba working in
Speaker 2: black and white, because when I think of Bob, I
Speaker 2: think of those rich colors, those rich gels, which he
Speaker 2: used with a you know, a master's stroke.
Speaker 1: Well, let me stand up for his black and white films.
Speaker 1: Baba is best once the colors get pumping and he
Speaker 1: can use yeah, the gel lights and all that. But
Speaker 1: his black and white films look very good. He did
Speaker 1: an early proto Jallo film that's kind of a murder
Speaker 1: mystery thriller set in Rome called The Evil Eye or
Speaker 1: The Girl who Knew too Much. Their title I think
Speaker 1: those are titles. Ones for the American cut and ones
Speaker 1: for the Channel cut. And that movie. It's not the
Speaker 1: best of the ones I've seen because of some like
Speaker 1: it's not the best script he's ever worked with, but
Speaker 1: it's a fantastic looking film, even in black and white.
Speaker 1: He uses very high contrast black and white and uses
Speaker 1: makeup to a great effect. So there's always kind of
Speaker 1: eyeliner and shading of the actors' faces and stuff. And
Speaker 1: I assume a lot of that rests on makeup, though
Speaker 1: probably some of it is use of light and shadow
Speaker 1: as well. But that one looks great. Black Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Black Sunday is amazing. I can't remember have you seen
Speaker 1: that or not?
Speaker 2: I haven't seen Black Sunday now.
Speaker 1: Oh that one. It is also in black and white.
Speaker 1: It is one of the most visually striking black and
Speaker 1: white films I have ever seen. Also uses a lot
Speaker 1: of high contrast.
Speaker 2: Well anyway you slice it. Yeah. Mario Bava legendary Italian
Speaker 2: director with an unmistakable obsessive and at times just phantasmagorical
Speaker 2: emphasis on visual composition. Strong still from Abava film is
Speaker 2: often just instantly identifiable. He lived nineteen fourteen through nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty and was the father of director Lomberto Bava. We've
Speaker 2: talked more about him on the previous episodes discussing his films,
Speaker 2: and you know, I have a feeling we'll come back
Speaker 2: for more Bava in the future.
Speaker 1: I just looked it up to check. I thought, so
Speaker 1: Lamberto Bava, his son is the director of Demons and
Speaker 1: Demons too.
Speaker 2: Oh, there you go. Well, one way or another, we'll
Speaker 2: come back to Abava at some point. All right. We
Speaker 2: don't always mention the producer on a film, but this
Speaker 2: one's notable because this is Dino di Laurents, who lived
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen through twenty ten. Delarentis legendary Italian and naturalized
Speaker 2: American film producer, really one of the biggest names of
Speaker 2: all time when it comes to production, both in Italian
Speaker 2: cinema but also international cinema. Started producing in the late
Speaker 2: forties and continued on till his death. Not everything he
Speaker 2: was involved in was golden, but he had a hand
Speaker 2: in the lavish, such lavish productions as sixty eight's Barberrella,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties Flash Gordon, which I would I would argue
Speaker 2: those two films and Diabolic kind of are kind of
Speaker 2: a stylistic trilogy.
Speaker 1: I think you could absolutely say that, Yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of uh, there's a lot of sinew in
Speaker 1: common there also, didn't he Wasn't he the driving force
Speaker 1: between hiring David Lynch to adapt to Dune in the eighties.
Speaker 2: I believe?
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was involved in David Lynch's Dune Conan the
Speaker 2: Barbarian from eighty two, as well as the sequels and
Speaker 2: also the sort of sequel Red Sonia. He was a
Speaker 2: producer on Halloween two and three, so technically we have
Speaker 2: covered one of his productions before, multiple Stephen King adaptations,
Speaker 2: including Maximum Overdrive, and also all of the Hannibal movies
Speaker 2: except for the Silence of the Lambs.
Speaker 1: Oh, so he did all the best ones?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, he did some. He was involved
Speaker 2: with some good stuff. I mean Manhunter. Oh okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: And I actually, you know, I have sort of a
Speaker 1: soft spot for what's it called the sequel to Silence
Speaker 1: of Lambs that had Julian Moore as hannihal Is starling Hannibal.
Speaker 1: Oh it's just called Hannibal. Yes, yeah, that one. I
Speaker 1: understand why critics didn't like it. It's got some flaws,
Speaker 1: but there there's a lot to love about that movie.
Speaker 2: If memory served I'm just going off memory here, but
Speaker 2: I believe his original working title. Harris's working title for
Speaker 2: the novel was The Morbidity of the Soul, which I
Speaker 2: think was ultimately a more fitting title for both the
Speaker 2: book and the film a book. The book I kind
Speaker 2: of hated when it came out, but I have a
Speaker 2: feeling like if I went back and at least watched
Speaker 2: the movie again, I would find a lot to love
Speaker 2: about it. Like it is a very strange movie, it's
Speaker 2: a very strange story overall.
Speaker 1: Agreed, all right.
Speaker 2: The writing credits for Diabolic for Danger Diboic here several
Speaker 2: names involved here, So this movie is based on the
Speaker 2: comic book of the same name by Angela Gusani and
Speaker 2: Luciana Gusani. Angela lived nineteen twenty two through nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: seven and Luciana lived nineteen twenty eight through two thousand
Speaker 2: and one. They were sisters. They also share story credits
Speaker 2: with Dino Mayori, who lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 2: Andreana Baraco who lived nineteen oh seven through nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 2: Screenplay credits go to Bava Mayori, Brian Dagas, who lived
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty five through twenty twenty and Tudor Gates who
Speaker 2: lived nineteen thirty through two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we got a lot of writers going on here,
Speaker 1: and that can often be a bad sign for a film,
Speaker 1: but it turned out great here. And I guess with
Speaker 1: the Jusani sisters, they were they were the creators of
Speaker 1: the character Diabolic, who was a comic book character before
Speaker 1: it was ever adapted to film.
Speaker 2: That's right. They were inspired to create a grown up
Speaker 2: com book for essentially for Italian commuters, something that could
Speaker 2: be printed in in a small format you could easily,
Speaker 2: you know, stuff in your pocket and then pull out
Speaker 2: when you're on the train on your commute and read
Speaker 2: offering kind of a Phantomus inspired crime adventure, that sort
Speaker 2: of thing. So it ended up being a huge success
Speaker 2: in Italy when it debuted in the early sixties, and
Speaker 2: then also enjoyed international appeal afterwards. This was a French
Speaker 2: Italian co production, so, like you know, the Italian popularity
Speaker 2: is obvious, but it would have also been popular in France.
Speaker 2: And I have to say they're still making Diabolic films.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any of them, but I looked up
Speaker 2: some of the stills, and yeah, it's still clearly Diabolic.
Speaker 2: It doesn't look like they're messing with like the basic
Speaker 2: visual chemistry of the thing.
Speaker 1: When I was in Italy in like two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven or so, I bought a Diabolic comic book off
Speaker 1: of a newsstand. Ah, and I knew nothing about it.
Speaker 1: I just saw the art. I was like, that guy
Speaker 1: looks cool. I like the mask, yeah, or the kind
Speaker 1: of anti mask actually, because what Diabolic wears is like
Speaker 1: a it's like the Domino mask in negative. His entire
Speaker 1: head is covered in a skin tight mask except for
Speaker 1: the area around the eyes and the top of the nose,
Speaker 1: which is just his face is revealed.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, it's like the mask is so skin
Speaker 2: tight that it's just ridiculous. It's like a vacuum seal
Speaker 2: to his face.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I was reading a bit about Diabolic. So
Speaker 1: the one I bought was in Italian, so I can't
Speaker 1: read it. But I've been reading a bit about the
Speaker 1: character Diabolic in the comics, and from what I understand,
Speaker 1: he's originally imagined as a master thief who you know,
Speaker 1: can steal anything and is constantly foiling the police and
Speaker 1: their attempts to capture him, and he in a way
Speaker 1: is he can do anything. You know, he knows all
Speaker 1: the sciences, and he can make any kind of gadget,
Speaker 1: and he can solve anykind of problems. So he's he's
Speaker 1: one of these like superhumans, the kind of you know,
Speaker 1: pre Jason Bourne type person who can they can just
Speaker 1: do anything. But then also what I've read is that
Speaker 1: there's an arc, and we've talked about similar arcs in
Speaker 1: films before on this show, where in the early in
Speaker 1: the early Diabolic comics, he is closer to an evil alignment,
Speaker 1: like he does crime and he'll just kill people whoever
Speaker 1: gets in his way to steal the thing he wants
Speaker 1: to steal. From what I've read, there is kind of
Speaker 1: an arc. Where as the series of comics went on,
Speaker 1: Diabolics nature became a little more like chaotic good rather
Speaker 1: than than i don't know, neutral evil or something that
Speaker 1: he became more of a Robin Hood figure who was
Speaker 1: stealing from people who were understood to be powerful and
Speaker 1: bad in some way. You know, he was stealing from
Speaker 1: other criminals and crime lords, rich, rich, dangerous people and
Speaker 1: often doing good along the way. But that was later
Speaker 1: on and you know, there's a kind kind of there's
Speaker 1: a kind of gravity pushing anti hero characters in that direction.
Speaker 1: I think we were talking about this with the This
Speaker 1: is a hilarious comparison with Riddick with Vin Diesel. You know,
Speaker 1: you start off trying to make them look really hard
Speaker 1: and they're really close to the evil designation, you know that,
Speaker 1: the strong emphasis on the anti and anti hero, and
Speaker 1: then over time there's this tendency to just make him
Speaker 1: be like, ah, they're actually pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, coming back to Hannibal, you see that
Speaker 2: with Hannibal Lecter to a certain extent, like by by Hannibal.
Speaker 2: You know, he's he's awful, he's awful, He's he's a
Speaker 2: serial killer. It's it's it's clear he's a cannibal. But
Speaker 2: he's not as bad as Mason Viger. Mason Virger is
Speaker 2: presented as like the ultimate evil in so many other ways.
Speaker 1: Right, So yeah, he mostly kills other killers in that one.
Speaker 2: All right, Well let's talk who on earth do you
Speaker 2: get to play the enigmatic diabolic? Well you get John
Speaker 2: Phillip Law to do it.
Speaker 1: This is a truly inspired bit of casting. John Philip
Speaker 1: Law is perfect in this role.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like just his physicality. He has this this wiry
Speaker 2: kind of spidery body, very muscular, but also yeah, kind
Speaker 2: of like thin, like he's like he's he's grown up
Speaker 2: in orbit or something, you know. And then also key
Speaker 2: is that you could you can find a lot of
Speaker 2: actors of the day and a lot of actors they're
Speaker 2: working in cinema right now to play Diabolic that could
Speaker 2: maybe physically look like Diabolic, but they've got to have
Speaker 2: the eyes. You've got to have these just wide, kind
Speaker 2: of sinister, unblinking eyes that just register from across the
Speaker 2: room but also in close up. And John Philip Law
Speaker 2: definitely has this look down.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to make that Bird of
Speaker 1: Prey v with your eyebrows as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, the Bird of Prey is a good comparison
Speaker 2: here because he is there is a he is dangerous.
Speaker 2: Danger Diabolic is the title, and it is a warning.
Speaker 2: This is a dangerous man. And if he's looking in
Speaker 2: your direction, well watch out. So John Philip Blau lived
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty seven through two thousand and eight American actor
Speaker 2: of stage, screen and television. He did some early Italian
Speaker 2: cinema work which helped establish him there, while at the
Speaker 2: same time attracting the attention of Hollywood director Norman Jewison,
Speaker 2: who cast him in the nineteen sixty six film The
Speaker 2: Russians Are Coming. The Russians Are Coming. This led to
Speaker 2: a co star role in Auto Primager's Hurry Sundown from
Speaker 2: sixty seven. His co star in that Jane Fonda. Jane
Speaker 2: Fonda had a big upcoming role in a movie produced
Speaker 2: by Dino di Laurentez Barbarella. So she said, Hey, I
Speaker 2: met this guy. He's great. You should have him play
Speaker 2: this weird shirtless angel dude that is going to be
Speaker 2: in Barbarella.
Speaker 1: I haven't It's been a long time since I've seen Barbarella.
Speaker 1: I don't remember anything about what he does except that
Speaker 1: he's shirtless and has wings.
Speaker 2: He doesn't. Yeah, he doesn't have a lot to do
Speaker 2: in that. I think if you're only exposure to John
Speaker 2: Philip Blauer that movie, you might think that he's more
Speaker 2: of say the rocky horror level of actor, like because
Speaker 2: he doesn't really do much there. But you know that
Speaker 2: this is a guy who did have stage credentials, like
Speaker 2: you know, he's definitely an experienced actor at this point.
Speaker 2: But there were delays in making Barberella, and those delays
Speaker 2: allowed him to star in the spaghetti western Death Rides
Speaker 2: a Horse from sixty seven with Lee van Cleef in
Speaker 2: addition to this production Diabolic.
Speaker 1: Okay, so while he's working on developing his Bird of
Speaker 1: Prey face, he's also playing a gunslinger in this western movie.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and maybe being trained in the ways of
Speaker 2: eye forward acting by Lee van Cleef. But anyway, after
Speaker 2: a Diabolic, his Hollywood career had a little more steam
Speaker 2: in it, but he had lasting international star appeal, especially
Speaker 2: in Europe. I think he also worked at least on
Speaker 2: a couple of films that were Taiwanese productions. Other films
Speaker 2: of note here, at least for us include seventy one's
Speaker 2: The Last Movie, Roger Corman's The Red Baron in seventy one.
Speaker 2: Seventy three is The Golden Voyage of sinbad Ah, notable.
Speaker 1: For a lot of excellent ray Harry Housen special effects.
Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy six is The Cassandra Crossing. Seventy nine's Ring
Speaker 2: of Darkness. That's a Satanist movie that I have not seen,
Speaker 2: but it has a great poster. Nineteen eighty five's Night
Speaker 2: Train to Terror, nineteen eighty eight Space Mutiny, an MST
Speaker 2: three K favorite, and nineteen eighty eight Blood Delirium, which
Speaker 2: I haven't seen that one either, but I know it's
Speaker 2: recently been re released on Blu Ray and has a
Speaker 2: really eye catching bit of poster art for it.
Speaker 1: John Philip Law plays the villain in Space Mutiny, if
Speaker 1: I recall correct, Yeah, he's what Kalgon I think, hal gone,
Speaker 1: driving those go karts around and sneering. Yeah. To compare
Speaker 1: his two Mystery Science Theater entries, I'm gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and say Diabolic is better than Space Mutiny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a cut above a hefty cutbuff.
Speaker 1: But Space Mutiny might be a better episode of the show.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Space Mutiny is a classic MST three K
Speaker 2: episode for sure. Great riffing in that ridiculous film, but
Speaker 2: still a lot of neat ideas in it that are
Speaker 2: not they don't really come to life, or an interesting
Speaker 2: cast as well.
Speaker 1: But Diabolic would be nowhere without the love of his life,
Speaker 1: Eva Kant, who is a character who apparently also comes
Speaker 1: from the comics and is his partner in crime and
Speaker 1: the love of his life in this movie, played by Marissa.
Speaker 2: Mel That's right, Austrian actor who lived nineteen thirty nine
Speaker 2: through nineteen ninety two. She played a lot of film
Speaker 2: fatale type characters. Her other big films include nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: nine's One on Top of the Other Luccio Folchi thriller,
Speaker 2: in which she plays a dual role, seventy five's Mahogany,
Speaker 2: and also in Berto Lindsay's Seven blood Stained Orchids. In
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two, she also appeared in She appeared in
Speaker 2: Ring of Darkness with John Philip Law, and also she
Speaker 2: pops up in nineteen sixty six's Secret Agent Super Dragon,
Speaker 2: which was also featured on Missus Sence Theater three thousand.
Speaker 1: She and John Philip Law have such great chemistry in
Speaker 1: this movie. We will explore more as we go on,
Speaker 1: but it's this has got to be one of my
Speaker 1: all time favorite screen couples.
Speaker 2: Now. Yeah, in the past, we've talked about occult power
Speaker 2: couples in various movies. This is I would say this
Speaker 2: is a super crime power couple. Yes, all right, But
Speaker 2: of course, since they're doing super crimes, they're running up
Speaker 2: against the law and they're also running up against other criminals.
Speaker 2: So let's hit the law first.
Speaker 1: Well, to fight super crime, you need a super cop,
Speaker 1: and too bad because there aren't any in this movie. Instead,
Speaker 1: get a very underwhelming cop.
Speaker 2: That's right, we have Inspector Jinko, played by the French actor, producer,
Speaker 2: and film director Michel Piccoli, who lived nineteen twenty five
Speaker 2: through twenty twenty, whose other works include seventy four is
Speaker 2: the Phantom of Liberty, Jean lu Goddard's Passion from nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty two, as well as his film Contempt from sixty three.
Speaker 2: He also pops up in the twenty twelve weird movie
Speaker 2: Holy Motors.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I think this guy made. This guy worked
Speaker 1: in some prestige cinema as well, But I didn't mean
Speaker 1: to sell short his performance by saying we have underwhelming police.
Speaker 1: That's how it's written. The police in this movie are
Speaker 1: just not up to the task of capturing Diabolic. In fact,
Speaker 1: they have to outsource their work to other super criminals
Speaker 1: in order to catch him. And so this police inspector
Speaker 1: is very put upon and just he's out there having
Speaker 1: a hard time. And so the actor the cast here
Speaker 1: is interesting. The actor reminds me sort of of Christopher
Speaker 1: Lee in a way, but without the gravitas. I was
Speaker 1: thinking kind of a kind of a stepped down, humiliated
Speaker 1: Christopher Lee, somewhat combined with the Canadian character actor Elias Koteas,
Speaker 1: who was in a bunch of different things. You've seen
Speaker 1: him all over the place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that makes sense. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: he's not a character like, he's not a twisted, corrupt
Speaker 2: copp or anything like he's you get the impression like
Speaker 2: he's a good guy trying to fight the good fight,
Speaker 2: but maybe in a system that is is that is
Speaker 2: is a little corrupt, though he himself is not corrupted. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like you're rooting for him, but you don't really
Speaker 2: want him to win. But then you at the end
Speaker 2: of the day you realize, well, diabolic is a criminal,
Speaker 2: and I'm I guess he needs to be caught. Maybe
Speaker 2: if someone's gonna catch him, it needs to be this guy.
Speaker 1: No, he doesn't need to be caught. He needs to
Speaker 1: get away with all of it. I I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody wants the police inspector to win in this movie.
Speaker 1: You just want to see him get foiled and foiled
Speaker 1: and foiled again and keep going. Demnity.
Speaker 2: You know there is a similar case in Hannibal. Coming
Speaker 2: back to Hannibal, we have remembered the Italian investigator who
Speaker 2: is looking for Hannibal in John Carlo. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: great actor, great role, and also I think one of
Speaker 2: the most interesting characters in that story. You're rooting for
Speaker 2: him to a certain extent because he seems like a
Speaker 2: good guy trying to do his job, and also he
Speaker 2: doesn't want his wife to be killed by the serial
Speaker 2: killer monster. But then ultimately you're also rooting for Hannibal
Speaker 2: to avoid capture.
Speaker 1: Things don't turn out well for him. Inspector Jinko does
Speaker 1: not have things go as bad for him as they
Speaker 1: go for Gian Carlo in Hannibal.
Speaker 2: All right, So anyway, the inspector here is going to
Speaker 2: have to join forces with one of his enemies, a
Speaker 2: crime boss by the name of Ralph Valmont played by
Speaker 2: Adolfocelli who lived eighteen twenty two through nineteen eighty six
Speaker 2: Italian actor and director, best known internationally, I think for
Speaker 2: his turn as Bond villain Emilio Largo in nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: five's Thunderball, which keeps coming up on the show for
Speaker 2: some reason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what we were just talking about this last week,
Speaker 1: for some reason, weren't.
Speaker 2: We Yeah, yeah, I think we were. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think it's just a lot of people worked in Thunderball.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, so he played the villain in Thunderball, the
Speaker 1: guy he's got the really fast driving yacht. I think
Speaker 1: he's trying to steal lost a nuclear warhead that crashed
Speaker 1: on a plane or something. But he's the guy who
Speaker 1: puts sharks in his swimming pool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this actor was. He was also in the
Speaker 2: Phantom of Liberty, as well as nineteen sixty five, The
Speaker 2: Agony in the Ecstasy, seventy two's I in the Labyrinth,
Speaker 2: Gordon Hessler's Murders in the Room Orgue from seventy one,
Speaker 2: Franco Zepharelli's brother Son Sister Moon from seventy two, and
Speaker 2: we absolutely cannot forget nineteen sixty seven's Operation Kid Brother,
Speaker 2: in which he basically rehashes his role from Thunderball, opposite
Speaker 2: the character doctor Neil Connery played by Neil Connery, Sean
Speaker 2: Connery's brother. It's a total cash grab, obviously, and also
Speaker 2: one that was riffed on MST three K. But Shelley
Speaker 2: great Italian actor with a clear knack for playing heavies
Speaker 2: and villains. He has just this great sneer, you know,
Speaker 2: this great sort of sort of stereotypical mob boss physicality.
Speaker 1: I think he had a cigar permanently implanted between his
Speaker 1: teeth surgically, so he would just gnaw gnaw without end
Speaker 1: for the rest of that.
Speaker 2: And his character in this is just a complete brute,
Speaker 2: Like no sympathy for this character like this is just
Speaker 2: a horrible crime boss. He's rude to everyone. You know,
Speaker 2: no method is off the table for this guy. So
Speaker 2: this is exactly the sort of fellow that we're cheering
Speaker 2: on Diabolic to steal, to steal from.
Speaker 1: Well, as we've said, it's always good to have a
Speaker 1: character like this in a movie with a criminal anti hero.
Speaker 1: Diabolic is a criminal, but we love him, we want
Speaker 1: him to win. It's good to be reminded what a
Speaker 1: really nasty, cigar knowing criminal is like. For contrast, that's
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: He has a lot of hinchmen, and I'm not going
Speaker 2: to mention them all, but I am going to mention one.
Speaker 2: This is his henchman, Joe, played by Federico Boido, who
Speaker 2: lived nineteen forty through twenty fourteen. He may stand out,
Speaker 2: and he probably stood out to you, Joe, because this
Speaker 2: Italian actor was also in nineteen sixty five's Planet of
Speaker 2: the Vampires playing Keir. He's in Roger Vadim Spirits of
Speaker 2: the Dead from sixty eight, and he was also in
Speaker 2: seventy two super Fly. TNT just a good background stooge
Speaker 2: or Hinchman, and he has a great Hinchman look. And
Speaker 2: then finally, in terms of the actors, here we have
Speaker 2: the Minister of the Interior and I think his title
Speaker 2: changes later on in the film, but this is played
Speaker 2: by Terry Thomas, who lived nineteen eleven through nineteen ninety. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's Terry hyphen Thomas. You might remember him as the
Speaker 2: dirty movie enthusiast from The Abominable Doctor Fibes, British comedian
Speaker 2: and character actor who excelled at playing bumbling fops. He
Speaker 2: was in a ton of pictures, but you might know
Speaker 2: him from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World from
Speaker 2: sixty three. He also voiced Sir Hiss in the Disney
Speaker 2: Robin Hood film from seventy three. Oh he just cake, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the snake. He has a great hissing voice in general,
Speaker 2: and yeah, he's fun in this. He just Terry Thomas
Speaker 2: is all over the place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he has some really good scenes where he's giving
Speaker 1: press conferences appealing to people's patriotism while while clearly kind
Speaker 1: of squirming like a like a bug under a microscope.
Speaker 2: All right, real quick production design credit goes to Carlo Rombaldi,
Speaker 2: who lived nineteen twenty five through twenty twelve. He's come
Speaker 2: up before on the show. He's involved in a number
Speaker 2: of great productions over the years, including Planet, The Vampires,
Speaker 2: The Never Ending Story. He also had a hand in
Speaker 2: designing et So some wonderful credits assigned to this man,
Speaker 2: sometimes credited just as Rambaldi. And then the music for
Speaker 2: the film, I think we mentioned this already, but it's
Speaker 2: a score by and Neil Morricone, who lived nineteen twenty
Speaker 2: eight through twenty twenty. You know, the huge name Italian composer,
Speaker 2: soundtrack master. He was responsible for many amazing scores. But
Speaker 2: the two films that we've talked about previously that had
Speaker 2: a Morricone score were probably not that great as far
Speaker 2: as examples go. They were nineteen seventy nine The Humanoid,
Speaker 2: which I think had its moments in nineteen eighty three's
Speaker 2: Treasure of the Four Crowns, which soundtrack wise was nothing special.
Speaker 1: Well, I think diabolic breaks that streak. This is an
Speaker 1: excellent score. I love the theme music here, or the
Speaker 1: music that's used all throughout, has got these great these
Speaker 1: kind of there are there are themes that are tagged
Speaker 1: to specific types of emotional moments in the movie. So
Speaker 1: like anytime there's a big twist, there are these these
Speaker 1: voices that I they're the ones I was thinking of
Speaker 1: is going backwards up a slide, So these like choir
Speaker 1: of voices going.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, there's some there. I think some of
Speaker 2: this music has like a sitar kind of a vibe
Speaker 2: going on yeah that I really liked. There's also there
Speaker 2: also some tracks that really lean into the groovy fun
Speaker 2: angle of the thing, which is totally totally valid, totally
Speaker 2: you know, on point for this picture. And then there
Speaker 2: are some great suspenseful moments as well. So I agree,
Speaker 2: I think this is a great score. It's certainly head
Speaker 2: and shoulders above the previous Morcone scores that we've talked
Speaker 2: about here.
Speaker 4: H oh.
Speaker 2: And he also wrote the theme song deep Down that
Speaker 2: we hear I feel like two or three times in
Speaker 2: the film.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite Morconey score.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, as I've I've mentioned before, I think
Speaker 2: you know, the mission is amazing, you know, of course
Speaker 2: I love eighty two's John Carpenter is the thing, and
Speaker 2: you know, and that The Good, the Bad, and the
Speaker 2: Ugly from sixty six is a classic as well. But
Speaker 2: so many scores, and the Lord knows I haven't heard
Speaker 2: them all.
Speaker 1: Well, are you ready to talk about the plot?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's dive into the life and times.
Speaker 1: Of Diabolic Reminder again, this movie is full of surprises,
Speaker 1: so if you want to see it without having any
Speaker 1: of those surprises spoiled, please watch it before we spoil
Speaker 1: them all here.
Speaker 2: Well, there's no surprise how this is going to start.
Speaker 2: This is a movie in which money or valuables are stolen,
Speaker 2: so you have to begin with some unstolen valuables.
Speaker 1: That's right, We're going to start with the prologue heist,
Speaker 1: the largest shipment of dollars in human history. So there
Speaker 1: we come up on like the sound of sirens, engines gunning.
Speaker 1: There is a massive procession of police motorcycles riding in
Speaker 1: double file through the gates of a big, austere looking
Speaker 1: building complex. It's all concrete and corners and walls, and
Speaker 1: there are snipers lining the roofs, and guards with machine
Speaker 1: guns that are standing along the alleyways within, and we
Speaker 1: see a shipment of yellow bags being loaded into an
Speaker 1: armored transport vehicle. One thing to go ahead and mention
Speaker 1: here is that there is something really inspired about the
Speaker 1: braiding in and out of different color themes in different
Speaker 1: sequences in the movie. So, for example, everything with the
Speaker 1: police and the opening sequence here has these flourishes of
Speaker 1: yellow and black, kind of like the stripes on a
Speaker 1: bee or on a yellowjacket, which could put you in
Speaker 1: mind of like hives and workers and mindless drones all
Speaker 1: carrying out orders, or it could put you in the
Speaker 1: mind of something that can sting or something that can
Speaker 1: harm you. So I don't know, maybe I'm putting reading
Speaker 1: too much into it, but I see a kind of
Speaker 1: genius in the way color is used throughout the whole film,
Speaker 1: like that there are colors elections that resonate thematically with
Speaker 1: what's going on on screen and kind of interesting and
Speaker 1: oblique indirect ways.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean Bob is a master of color,
Speaker 2: among other things.
Speaker 1: So we see several of the officials who are overseeing
Speaker 1: this truck transport. Having a private conversation. One of them
Speaker 1: loads up taped stacks of blank paper into one of
Speaker 1: the yellow bags and says, you know, I wonder how
Speaker 1: security would feel if they knew they were guarding waste
Speaker 1: paper instead of ten million dollars. That got me thinking
Speaker 1: how much would it cost to simulate ten million dollars
Speaker 1: with blank paper? Like how much does the paper you
Speaker 1: would use for that cost?
Speaker 2: I mean significantly less than ten million dollars, one would hope, Like.
Speaker 1: I'm going to spend five thousand dollars on paper to
Speaker 1: simulate ten million dollars.
Speaker 2: If it keeps you ten million dollars from being stolen
Speaker 2: by supercriminal, then I guess it totally works out.
Speaker 1: Too bad. It's not work anyway, So secretly, you know,
Speaker 1: we got a trap being set up. This armored vehicle
Speaker 1: is full of bags of fake money, so somebody's trying
Speaker 1: to set up a trap. And then looking on from
Speaker 1: a window above is the decoy truck motors away, we
Speaker 1: see one of the main characters of this movie. It
Speaker 1: is Inspector Jinko, the police detective who is involved in
Speaker 1: the planning of this operation, and he is stern lawful.
Speaker 1: He's driven to catch his mark, but there's all there's
Speaker 1: also something a little bit weary in the eyes and
Speaker 1: kind of pitiful about him, and you kind of wonder
Speaker 1: is he finding fulfillment filling up armored trucks with blank paper?
Speaker 2: Yeah, one suspects not so.
Speaker 1: Inspector Jinko is talking to an ally in the scheme,
Speaker 1: who says to him, I've never seen such precautions just
Speaker 1: to get a shipment to the port, And Jinko says,
Speaker 1: the whole underworld worries me less than a single man.
Speaker 1: And then the other guy, he gets very quiet and
Speaker 1: whispers the name Diabolic. So Jinko goes into the other
Speaker 1: room where the police are loading the real ten million
Speaker 1: dollars into different yellow bags which are being hidden inside
Speaker 1: a chauffeured luxury car. And this thing, wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: better to hide it inside a cheap car?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah, yeah, because they're kind of fixing
Speaker 2: it up like like this is a a chauffeur gride
Speaker 2: with swells in it. So it seems like that might
Speaker 2: attract a super criminal's attention.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Yeah, I guess so. But they've got a whole
Speaker 1: system here So they've got a bunch of tough police
Speaker 1: or government operatives, some kind of tough guys who are
Speaker 1: disguised as diplomats with top hats and cravats, very formal,
Speaker 1: and they're going to ride along with the money. So
Speaker 1: the convoy of cars carrying the real money, those cars
Speaker 1: depart the police station and they head toward the port
Speaker 1: while we get a taste of one of the sweet
Speaker 1: musical themes. This is the one that the kind of
Speaker 1: nervous sounding descending guitar riff. And also there's some kind
Speaker 1: of wind instrument warbling in the background, maybe a saxophone
Speaker 1: or something. I'm not sure what it is. Can we
Speaker 1: get a taste of that theme? JJ nice? And then
Speaker 1: following the convoy, we catch our first glimpse of what
Speaker 1: Jared Harris might call the Jaguar. I'm not a car guy,
Speaker 1: so I don't usually get excited about cars in movies
Speaker 1: or fancy sports cars in any context really, but for
Speaker 1: some reason this broke through to me. Diabolics Jaguar is
Speaker 1: so cool.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, this is a cool looking car. And I believe
Speaker 2: he buys them by like the dozen, yeah, because they're
Speaker 2: just completely disposable to Diabolic. Diabolic is a very successful
Speaker 2: super criminal. He has super riches, so he's operating with
Speaker 2: a budget well beyond any other criminal you've seen in
Speaker 2: another film.
Speaker 1: I think this might be present in the original comics
Speaker 1: as well, but it's definitely here in the movie where
Speaker 1: Diabolic and Eva both have their own jaguar. I think
Speaker 1: it's a Jaguar E type, and he drives a black
Speaker 1: Jaguar and she drives a white one.
Speaker 2: Oh nice.
Speaker 1: So the police and the money shipmen arrive at the port.
Speaker 1: I guess it's going to be loaded on a boat,
Speaker 1: and they're driving under the giant cranes and monstrous equipment
Speaker 1: used to unpack container ships. And as they pass underneath
Speaker 1: these rusting technological archways, suddenly another musical theme strikes. This
Speaker 1: is the eerie chorus of voices going backwards up the slide.
Speaker 1: I love it. It makes me want to run with scissors.
Speaker 1: Can we hear a sample of this? So we've got
Speaker 1: these evil fairy voices ringing out on the soundtrack. Suddenly
Speaker 1: the convoy of cars is enveloped in a haze of
Speaker 1: multicolored smoke. We've got yellow, green, purple smog. They can't
Speaker 1: see anything Inspector Jenko and the others get out of
Speaker 1: their cars to investigate. When we finally realize what's going on,
Speaker 1: the car stuffed with all the money is being hoisted
Speaker 1: away on a crane. It's up in the air, and
Speaker 1: then there is a silhouette barely visible through the smoke.
Speaker 1: It is a tall, dark, lean figure climbing on the
Speaker 1: rigging of the crane. And then there is a fast
Speaker 1: zoom or a fast pull focus. I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: the terminology is, but the camera just charges in for
Speaker 1: a close up on his face and it is danger diabolic.
Speaker 1: We get the title. It says danger diabolic. We see
Speaker 1: his eyes glowering out from the kind of butterfly shaped
Speaker 1: gap in his mask, and he laughs. So he's got
Speaker 1: a sinister laughter and he's beaten them again.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love the sinister laugh or laughter to him
Speaker 2: to remind you that, yes, there is a fun evil
Speaker 2: to diabolic. He is diabolical.
Speaker 1: Did you want to do a thing about his costume?
Speaker 1: This like skin tight suit he wears?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, yeah, I think we talked a little bit
Speaker 2: about the mask. Yeah. The whole outfit is basically, I
Speaker 2: think supposed to be kind of like a cat suit
Speaker 2: as it's realized in the film, it's maybe like a
Speaker 2: little less catsuit and more like leather pants and then
Speaker 2: some sort of a kind of a turtleneck type thing.
Speaker 2: It varies, but but yeah, he has this this this
Speaker 2: black outfit that he's like a ninja ninja with, but
Speaker 2: with a mask that just clings to every detail of
Speaker 2: his face.
Speaker 1: I did like when you said it was like his
Speaker 1: face was vacuum packed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like if you vacuum sealed the face. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the face mask into the face.
Speaker 1: Yeah, souv diabolic?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. And I do have to add, I don't
Speaker 2: know that we ever see him blink. I think, uh,
Speaker 2: I mean, he's not always wide eyed. Sometimes he's looking
Speaker 2: at things or reading things, et cetera. But I didn't
Speaker 2: I didn't think to watch the whole movie with this
Speaker 2: in mind. But it's very possible that Bava does not
Speaker 2: include a single frame of John Philip Law blinking.
Speaker 1: I think you're about that. So Diabolic removes the money
Speaker 1: from the car while the cops are shooting at him,
Speaker 1: by the way, but Diabolic doesn't care, not afraid of bullets,
Speaker 1: he throws the money down into a speedboat waiting below,
Speaker 1: dives into the water to escape, drives the speedboat away.
Speaker 1: We get credits, so the credit sequences, you know, we
Speaker 1: see the credits running while there's like a spinning glass
Speaker 1: colored painted glass thing. I don't know exactly what's going on.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a groovy sixties Italian party song playing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this would be this would be the Marconi theme
Speaker 2: somewhat deep down.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, So he escapes with the ten million dollars.
Speaker 1: So he's in the boat, and then he just transitions
Speaker 1: to now he's in a car. He's driving the Jaguar,
Speaker 1: and then there's a helicopter on his tail. Oh no,
Speaker 1: there's a machine gun fire coming from above. So what's
Speaker 1: he going to do? Well, he kind of bobs and weaves.
Speaker 1: He eludes them for a while by like driving under
Speaker 1: some some greenery, some foliage, but they find him again,
Speaker 1: and then oh no, maybe it seems like they're going
Speaker 1: to catch him. But there's a brilliant twist. Diabolic drives
Speaker 1: into a tunnel where there is already waiting the love
Speaker 1: of his life, his perfect partner in crime. Eva can't
Speaker 1: she's here with her white Jaguar while he was driving
Speaker 1: the black one and they do a car swap. So
Speaker 1: he sends his car speeding in reverse back out of
Speaker 1: the tunnel and it or maybe he sends it out
Speaker 1: of the front I don't know. Anyway, his car goes
Speaker 1: out of the tunnel, goes speeding over a cliff, so
Speaker 1: the police see it crash and they think, oh, Diabolic
Speaker 1: has been killed. Meanwhile, he and Eva speed away to
Speaker 1: their secret hideout, probably furiously kissing the entire time. They
Speaker 1: do not respect the eyes on the road rule.
Speaker 2: There is a lot of screen time in this movie
Speaker 2: devoted to Diabolic and Eva making out. It's great. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's what you're here for.
Speaker 1: I think it's time to talk about Diabolic and Eva's
Speaker 1: secret layer.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, it is amazing. It's like the It's
Speaker 2: like the Batcave, except on some sort of groovy cocktail
Speaker 2: of sixties hallucinogens.
Speaker 1: Yes, so maybe before we get inside, I want to
Speaker 1: mention the door that opens to let them inside. So
Speaker 1: it's supposed to look like a hidden trap door in
Speaker 1: the earth, you know, so like they're just like rocks
Speaker 1: and earth. And then it opens up, pops up like
Speaker 1: the top of a pedal bin to allow them to
Speaker 1: drive down the ramp and then it closes behind them.
Speaker 1: And this is achieved in the movie by I think
Speaker 1: a very simple force perspective effect. It's you know, little
Speaker 1: things popping up in the foreground, A little miniature door
Speaker 1: in the foreground pops up, and then they drive the
Speaker 1: car behind it. In the background, it looks like they're
Speaker 1: driving down into the earth. And the movie is full
Speaker 1: of effects like this that seem relatively cheap and easy
Speaker 1: to accomplish, and they're kind of the word might be
Speaker 1: kind of stagy. Like you can tell they're obviously not
Speaker 1: real if you're looking out for it, but if you're not,
Speaker 1: I don't know, if you're not applying a critical type
Speaker 1: of attention to it, they just wash right over you.
Speaker 1: Like so they fit into the action and the aesthetic
Speaker 1: of the film perfectly. And I would not want these beautiful, cheap,
Speaker 1: simple little effects replaced with higher budget counterparts, like they
Speaker 1: actually build a giant, you know door in the ground
Speaker 1: and drive into it, or replace it with you know,
Speaker 1: really realistic looking cgi or any of that. There there's
Speaker 1: something about these cheap, simple effects that is so nice
Speaker 1: and feel so good. It's like a real sense of
Speaker 1: confidence and finesse and playfulness in Bova's filmmaking instincts here. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Plus, I think we've mentioned before with Baba, there's a
Speaker 2: structural completeness to everything, so that when you have a
Speaker 2: lower budget effect in place, or you know, or even
Speaker 2: something that is that is maybe like that, the writing
Speaker 2: is a little subpar, et cetera. Like everything else is
Speaker 2: positioned just so that nothing feels out of place. And
Speaker 2: I think that definitely applies here as well. Yeah, now
Speaker 2: once we get down into the headquarters themselves, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: it's it's it really has a sci fi feel to it.
Speaker 2: It feels like this is something that was built by
Speaker 2: aliens that were primarily interested in futuristic romantic interior design.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a it's like a Bond villain layer
Speaker 1: in a way. It's a giant underground cavern with all
Speaker 1: these elaborate structures and oh god, I wish I knew
Speaker 1: more of the terminology of style. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a kind of a mod decorse style.
Speaker 1: It's that cool, hip sixties looking decor with you know,
Speaker 1: weird choices about shapes and colors and all that. So
Speaker 1: it's just gorgeous, and so what we do next really
Speaker 1: is we spend some time at home with Eva and Diabolic.
Speaker 1: And I mean this in all seriousness. Diabolic and Eva
Speaker 1: are so sweet. I already said, one of my favorite
Speaker 1: screen couples of all time. They are absolutely mad about
Speaker 1: each other. And really the whole elaborate crime plot is
Speaker 1: just about them being in love and trying to have fun,
Speaker 1: which in a way makes this kind of a perfect
Speaker 1: date movie. Couples should watch Danger Diabolic together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, because it is. I mean, it is a
Speaker 2: movie about the power of their love and how that
Speaker 2: their love can be is tested but cannot be overcome
Speaker 2: by these other forces in the world. And then on
Speaker 2: top of that though, it's just extremely groovy. It's outrageous,
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's never too serious, you know, these
Speaker 2: two never getting into arguments or squabbles about anything. And yeah,
Speaker 2: we spend just a lot of time with them here
Speaker 2: at home in their super sexy sci fi luxury underground
Speaker 2: pad that feels like it must have been I don't know,
Speaker 2: built by again ancient aliens under neat the surface of
Speaker 2: another planet. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was built by the aliens from two thousand
Speaker 1: and one of Space Odyssey and Buckminster Fuller and I
Speaker 1: don't know the members of the who like it's how
Speaker 1: would you like their bedroom and their bathroom. Their bedroom,
Speaker 1: they have a giant like ring shaped bed that rotates
Speaker 1: on a motor, and then next to it, they've got
Speaker 1: these things that are just stacked polygons. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what to call them. I don't think they're functional.
Speaker 1: They don't look like shelves. They're just polygons that are
Speaker 1: lit from behind, so they kind of glow with the
Speaker 1: soft white through all their corners. And then in their
Speaker 1: bathroom they have his and hers glass shower enclosures with
Speaker 1: planters full of living plants in the showers. That's a
Speaker 1: choice I've never seen before, but I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And also each shower has like a blurry circle
Speaker 2: bit that covers them up from the cameras, though it's
Speaker 2: certainly in Eva's case like only barely.
Speaker 1: You can just tell that. As much as these two
Speaker 1: love to go out and get into dangerous adventures together,
Speaker 1: they also love chilling at home. You know, they have
Speaker 1: a great time, like putting on a movie or something. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's nineteen sixty eight. I don't know
Speaker 1: about home video yet, but they you know, they watch
Speaker 1: the news on TV and make cracks about how we're
Speaker 1: going to steal that necklace.
Speaker 2: So we spend a long time with them, but then
Speaker 2: we have to cut out. We have to see what's
Speaker 2: going on in the rest of the world.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, time to check in with the squares. No,
Speaker 1: we got consequences for the cops. Inspector Jenko is in
Speaker 1: trouble with Terry Thomas, who is playing some kind of
Speaker 1: bureaucrat who's been deeply embarrassed by all of the crime
Speaker 1: and the theft of the ten million. He says, it's
Speaker 1: absurd that one man can make a laughing stock of
Speaker 1: the entire police force. And Terry Thomas says, you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, logically, diabolics next move is
Speaker 1: going to be to find a way to get the
Speaker 1: money out of the country, So maybe we can catch
Speaker 1: him that way. Inspector Jenko says, logical, sir, but not
Speaker 1: helpful in this situation. Diabolic, he plays by his own rules.
Speaker 1: He will find some other way to put that money
Speaker 1: to use, and then cut straight to Diabolic and Eva
Speaker 1: using the money as a bed as sort of a
Speaker 1: love nest.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. It turns out presumably they stole all
Speaker 2: that money just so they could make love on it. Yes,
Speaker 2: because again, yeah, it's that you can't you can't approach
Speaker 2: Diabolic like any other criminal. His motives are not the same.
Speaker 2: He is not like the rest of them. But it's yeah,
Speaker 2: it completely is a great sequence, very tastefully done, and
Speaker 2: just completely outrageous. So again something that elevates this film
Speaker 2: into the sort of the flash Gordon Barbarella realm of
Speaker 2: just you know, outrageous cinema.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, there's a very funny scene with a press
Speaker 1: conference where Terry Thomas comes out to announce that in
Speaker 1: order to crush the current wave of crime sweeping the country,
Speaker 1: the government has mercifully restored the death penalty, and at
Speaker 1: this press conference, Diabolic and Eva show up in hilarious disguises.
Speaker 1: Diabolic looks like it's that Will Will Ferrell character on
Speaker 1: SNL where he had the tiny, the tic tac sized
Speaker 1: cell phone.
Speaker 2: Oh I don't remember this character.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what Diabolic looks like. Here. He's got these
Speaker 1: square sunglasses and a turtleneck under a blazer. He looks great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they do a lot of this, showing up really
Speaker 2: close to the heat in disguise as the most fashionable people,
Speaker 2: and nobody blinks an eye.
Speaker 1: But he Diabolic decides to humiliate Terry Thomas and Inspector
Speaker 1: Jinko by by releasing laughing gas in the room while
Speaker 1: the press conference is going on. He pretends I guess
Speaker 1: to be a reporter, and he's doing like you know,
Speaker 1: flashbowl camera photography, and when the flash bul goes off,
Speaker 1: it releases a kind of puff of stuff, and it
Speaker 1: turns out that is laughing gas, and everybody starts laughing, except,
Speaker 1: of course Diabolic and Eva, who took antidote pills before
Speaker 1: they did it.
Speaker 2: They have everything figured out.
Speaker 1: Terry Thomas says, he's certainly not going to make a
Speaker 1: fool of me. Then I can't stop laughing. Yes, he
Speaker 1: looks in It looks very foolish. Great Terry Thomas sequence.
Speaker 1: All right, So after this, Inspector Jinko he's got to
Speaker 1: come up with a plan to stop Diabolic once and
Speaker 1: for all. So here the movie introduces the character Valmont.
Speaker 1: We learned about him through newspaper headlines linking him to
Speaker 1: a bunch of crimes Jim theft, drug dealing, all that stuff,
Speaker 1: and he seems to be kind of the ultimate crime kingpin.
Speaker 1: And now Inspector Jinko is looking for him. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: that's maybe somehow he can use Valmont to get to Diabolic.
Speaker 1: And here we get you know, somebody comes to Jenko
Speaker 1: and Inspector you know, we have a lead at one
Speaker 1: of Valmont's nightclubs. So here we're gonna go see a swinging,
Speaker 1: switched on sixties nightclub. I guess the movie isn't set
Speaker 1: in Italy, but I see some Italian sensibilities in how
Speaker 1: this hippie nightclub is realized.
Speaker 2: As best I can tell, this movie takes place in
Speaker 2: the country of Europe, Like it's never really clear, and
Speaker 2: I guess you're not supposed to think too long and
Speaker 2: hard about it. But yeah, the nightclub sequence is amazing.
Speaker 2: We got go go dancers, medieval troubadours, blurry lighting, dope,
Speaker 2: smoke gels, just an overall miasma of just hippie grooviness
Speaker 2: all through the Mario Bava lens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the club seems to be part chemistry lab because
Speaker 1: there are glass beakers and tubes everywhere, but also a
Speaker 1: little bit secret Commonwealth themed, like there's over on in Titanya.
Speaker 1: They're dancing in the corner. And this is a club
Speaker 1: where if you're not careful and elf is going to
Speaker 1: make your cows sick. So we see various elfin and
Speaker 1: fairy looking people around. But then also there is a
Speaker 1: pirate playing guitar for good measure.
Speaker 2: Well't you lady chills out on a bed wearing flowers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think she's sort of the one of
Speaker 1: the one of the elf or fairy themed people. Like
Speaker 1: she's got the garlands of leaves and flowers all around her.
Speaker 1: She seems like a hidden folk of the forest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: But also the guy. So there's like loud music playing
Speaker 1: at the club because it's a dance club, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like deafening. And this guy's sitting here playing an
Speaker 1: acoustic guitar in a pirate hat. He can't hear himself
Speaker 1: play in this set. Why is he playing?
Speaker 2: You know? I guess it doesn't mean you can't noodle
Speaker 2: little bit. He's probably he's probably on the wacky.
Speaker 1: Weed, that's true. Also, this place has xylophone stairs. I've
Speaker 1: never seen xylophone stairs in reality before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is great, and then all we get the
Speaker 2: greatest blunt passing scene in the history of sen as well.
Speaker 1: Within the rotation is a guy who looks like William H. Macy,
Speaker 1: but then also a sequence of people who look like
Speaker 1: Mozart's Bad News Vienna Party friends in Amadeus.
Speaker 2: So anyway, this is Valmont's club. But you know, we
Speaker 2: don't get a sense that the club is bad. The
Speaker 2: club seems hip and groovy and so forth. But uh
Speaker 2: uh oh, something's about to happen. Here come the fizz.
Speaker 1: I think there's some drugs in this club. In fact,
Speaker 1: I know there are because we saw that that blunt rotation.
Speaker 1: So there there's a police raid on the club and
Speaker 1: this this gets the attention of Valmont, who again this
Speaker 1: is the largo from Thunderball Adolphocelli. So Valmont is finding
Speaker 1: out that the police are onto him and he does
Speaker 1: not like that. So we come. We go see Valmont
Speaker 1: on his boat. And as we said before, you Valmont
Speaker 1: is just he's the worst. You know, he makes Diabolic
Speaker 1: look great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just a complete pick.
Speaker 1: So Valmont calls up Inspector Jinko with a proposal in
Speaker 1: exchange for leniency in his own police troubles. Valmont offers
Speaker 1: to help Jinko catch Diabolic. After all, it takes a
Speaker 1: thief to catch a thief, and Jinko is intrigued. So
Speaker 1: we get a scene on Valmont's airplane where he's meeting
Speaker 1: with the other members of his criminal syndicate and they're
Speaker 1: going to vote on whether to proceed with the plan
Speaker 1: to catch Diabolic. And you can tell there's some descent.
Speaker 1: There are those who vote against the plan because you
Speaker 1: don't want to mess with Diabolic.
Speaker 2: That's right. I mean, this is a dangerous guy. Not
Speaker 2: everyone wants wants to toy with him. You know, let's it.
Speaker 2: Let him do his thing. We just hope he ignores
Speaker 2: our stuff.
Speaker 1: So several members of the criminal syndicate vote against the plan,
Speaker 1: and Valmont responds by shooting them, and he also he
Speaker 1: shoots He accidentally shoots a hole in the fuselage of
Speaker 1: the plane, which one of his henchmen plugs with chewing gum.
Speaker 2: Yeah this is Joe, I believe cool Joe is henchman.
Speaker 1: Yes, Valmont. Also he tries to shoot one guy but
Speaker 1: I think he misses, and then the guy is begging
Speaker 1: for mercy. He's like, please, please, don't shoot, and Valmont says,
Speaker 1: since you said please, I won't shoot. So instead he
Speaker 1: presses a button on his desk which opens a trapdoor
Speaker 1: beneath the guy's feet and drops him out of the airplane.
Speaker 1: Ten out of ten bond villain trapdoor deployment. Here love
Speaker 1: a villain with a trap door. Absolutely, that's key villain infrastructure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's going to come. It's gonna be important
Speaker 2: later on as well.
Speaker 1: That's right. So you know, now what's going on is
Speaker 1: we've got a dangerous and ruthless collection of violent crime
Speaker 1: bosses who are working together under Valmont's command to capture
Speaker 1: Diabolic and turn him over to the police. So on
Speaker 1: to the next act. We gotta have another heist. It's
Speaker 1: been a bit since we had a heist. So Diabolic
Speaker 1: and are watching TV together and he's like, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: your birthday is coming up. What do you want for
Speaker 1: your birthday? And right then we see a news report
Speaker 1: there are visiting diplomats i think from the UK coming
Speaker 1: to Europe wherever this is, uh, and one of them
Speaker 1: is going to be wearing the world famous Axon emerald necklace.
Speaker 1: And if this is a necklace with eleven totally unique
Speaker 1: giant emeralds in it. It's one of the most valuable
Speaker 1: pieces of jewelry in the world. And they'll be staying
Speaker 1: at Saint just Castle. So the news report is like,
Speaker 1: here's where you can find them if you would like
Speaker 1: to steal these emeralds, and ava she sees them, She's like, ooh,
Speaker 1: those emeralds, and you can just see Diabolic. He squints.
Speaker 1: He's working it out already in his mind.
Speaker 2: Again, he will steal anything for love, and he will
Speaker 2: absolutely steal that.
Speaker 1: That's right. So next we see Diabolic and Eva doing
Speaker 1: some kind of role play outside the castle. He like
Speaker 1: drives up in a car. She apparently he has disguised
Speaker 1: herself as a sex worker and done some recon inside
Speaker 1: the castle and it's full. She reports, Okay, here's what
Speaker 1: she figured out. Is full of police. They're disguised as waiters,
Speaker 1: many of them wearing wigs. Uh. There are guards outside
Speaker 1: with rifles. There are CCTV cameras everywhere. Looks basically impossible,
Speaker 1: but not for Diabolic.
Speaker 2: Yep. They just love the challenge. They're in it for
Speaker 2: the fun. They're they're they're in they enjoy their.
Speaker 1: Work, that's right. And uh he oh. She says, I
Speaker 1: didn't see Inspector Jinko there, and he says, if you
Speaker 1: didn't see him, that means he's there.
Speaker 2: M the reverse is also true, I guess, I.
Speaker 1: Guess so uh but so uh oh. It's not just
Speaker 1: the police who are involved in this trap. Valmont has
Speaker 1: recruited women who saw Eva snooping around snooping around the castle,
Speaker 1: and he knows that this woman they saw must be
Speaker 1: the infamous Eva can't partner in crime to diabolic himself,
Speaker 1: he figures that out. So he's like, if we can
Speaker 1: find her, we can get to him. So he wants
Speaker 1: the women who saw her to describe her, and then
Speaker 1: we get this bizarre looking, amazing animated scene where they're
Speaker 1: doing like a forensic reconstruction of Eva's face with the
Speaker 1: help of this computer.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I didn't remember this sequence from the MST three
Speaker 2: K episode, which I haven't seen in a very long
Speaker 2: time anyway, so I don't know if it was in
Speaker 2: there or it was cut, but I was when they
Speaker 2: started rolling this out. I'm like, Okay, we're going to
Speaker 2: have a forensic sketch sequence and whatever. I mean, maybe
Speaker 2: I'll check my notes, but no, it's amazing. It's like, whoever,
Speaker 2: I don't know whose decision this was and everything, but
Speaker 2: like they this is great. This is a great use
Speaker 2: of what would otherwise be a throwaway sequence.
Speaker 1: Totally fast cuts, mixing and matching different facial elements. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like rapidly clicking the randomized button on a
Speaker 1: video game character creator mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But then finally they zero in on a drawing of Eva.
Speaker 1: That's her and Valmont's the next part. I've seen this
Speaker 1: couple times recently and I still never caught exactly how
Speaker 1: he does this. Valmont manages to somehow get in contact
Speaker 1: with Eva's doctor, and he's going to use Eva's doctor
Speaker 1: to find Eva and then use Eva to catch diabolic Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what the connection here is. Like there's
Speaker 2: did he go to every doctor in town and say, hey,
Speaker 2: I'm looking for this lady. Have you seen this lady?
Speaker 2: You're a doctor, right, you see lady patients. I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's not explained. There's a lot that's not explained in
Speaker 2: this movie, but most of it you don't really pause
Speaker 2: to question. Don't worry about it. Yeah, and I guess
Speaker 2: this you might as well just roll with it. But
Speaker 2: somehow he's able to make some connection and he starts
Speaker 2: knocking on who turns out to a guy who turns
Speaker 2: out to be her doctor, and ask, hey, have you
Speaker 2: seen this lady?
Speaker 1: He tries to cover for her. He tries to lie
Speaker 1: and say no, I don't know her, but that'll come
Speaker 1: back to bite him.
Speaker 2: I think maybe the idea is he's a doctor who
Speaker 2: only works with criminals.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Oh that might be it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but even then this is a tenuous connection at best.
Speaker 1: Okay, Meanwhile, the heist has got to go on, so
Speaker 1: we got to check back in with Diabolic and Eva
Speaker 1: as there. You know, he's gonna Diabolic is going to
Speaker 1: be trying to get into the Just Castle. And there
Speaker 1: was a cool moment I don't know if you caught this,
Speaker 1: where there's like a juxtaposition of showing Eva in the
Speaker 1: car with her eyes reflected in the rear view mirror,
Speaker 1: and there's like all this dark shadowy stuff outside of
Speaker 1: the windshield ahead of her, and it's kind of framing
Speaker 1: her eyes the same way that diabolics suit frames his eyes,
Speaker 1: and then it like cuts between them. So I thought
Speaker 1: that was cool.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that that was cool. And then also, I
Speaker 2: mean it also bears mentioning that Mario Bava, you know
Speaker 2: you're in a Mario Bava film when you have a
Speaker 2: lot of these shots of things seen through other portals
Speaker 2: or windows, a lot of shots of things seen in reflection.
Speaker 2: He really makes great use of these effects.
Speaker 1: All right, So Diabolic swims up to the shore outside
Speaker 1: the castle and he goes onto the beach. He takes
Speaker 1: out some of the guards, and here maybe we should
Speaker 1: discuss the morality of Diabolic in this movie, because Diabolic
Speaker 1: does kill people who are not necessarily like criminals or
Speaker 1: people trying to kill him. This is a harder edged
Speaker 1: criminal anti hero than we might be used to. So
Speaker 1: he throws knives into guards throats to and kills them
Speaker 1: just to get past them to get to the necklace.
Speaker 1: And in this scene, with like the framing and the costume,
Speaker 1: he looks absolutely evil, and clearly he is supposed to.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, I feel like the tendency now
Speaker 1: for anti heroes is to is to have them be
Speaker 1: less anti you know, to be they wouldn't kill somebody
Speaker 1: who wasn't in the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they wouldn't shoot first, right, that's yeah.
Speaker 1: But he does. He does. He's just like, these are
Speaker 1: just people in his way and he's throwing throwing knives
Speaker 1: into their necks.
Speaker 2: Was like your observation earlier. Yeah, he's a bird of prey.
Speaker 2: He is dangerous. He's a loner though outside of his
Speaker 2: life mate, you know, no one else really means anything
Speaker 2: to him.
Speaker 1: That's right. So this Diabolic is not Robinhood yet.
Speaker 2: Right, and he'll only kind of later on the film.
Speaker 2: He may get into some Robinhood territory, but not because
Speaker 2: he really just wants to help everybody. There are other
Speaker 2: motives and situations that lead to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe he wants to help people, maybe he just
Speaker 1: wants to get revenge.
Speaker 2: M oh, but this is when we get limited edition
Speaker 2: white Diabolic. He's in the black suit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think that was supposed to be functional?
Speaker 1: Like he blends in better with the wall that he's
Speaker 1: going to be climbing in the white suit.
Speaker 2: I think that's the idea. But also, of course it's
Speaker 2: just visually appealing. It's like it's just snazzy.
Speaker 1: Okay, here we are at the heist. He comes to
Speaker 1: the tower where the diplomats are staying at the top,
Speaker 1: and the emeralds are on the table in their room.
Speaker 1: But the emeralds have been placed in a very special location.
Speaker 1: Inspector Jinko is in there and he's he places them
Speaker 1: right in front of a police CCTV camera. So how
Speaker 1: is diabolic going to get them? Well, first, how's he
Speaker 1: going to get up that wall?
Speaker 2: Well, he pulls out some suction cup devices. We were
Speaker 2: just talking about this in our episodes on stickiness. He
Speaker 2: has these suction cup things that are you hold with
Speaker 2: your hands and they allow him to stick to stone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. I think the stone looks
Speaker 1: a little too rough for a suction cup to work.
Speaker 2: But within the context of the film, it works, and
Speaker 2: he's able to scale that the sheer surface of that tower.
Speaker 1: He's diabolic, he can do anything. So, yes, the suction
Speaker 1: cups work. He climbs the tower. He goes in through
Speaker 1: the window. He hears the diplomats argue is the it's
Speaker 1: the husband and wife who are the diplomats and they're
Speaker 1: in the bedroom arguing. The old guy says like, have
Speaker 1: you arranged my toy soldiers again? Where is my general
Speaker 1: under the bed? And she goes, you can play with
Speaker 1: your general in the morning.
Speaker 2: I don't know why he brought his minis on a trip.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's always tempting, but you gotta you got
Speaker 2: to scale back.
Speaker 1: So Diabolic goes into the room with the emeralds, but
Speaker 1: he realizes that the necklace is being monitored by CCTV camera.
Speaker 1: So how's he gonna get him? Obviously he's going to
Speaker 1: be seen if he goes to get it. What's he
Speaker 1: gonna do?
Speaker 2: Photo trickery? Sneak up there, get it, take a polaroid,
Speaker 2: and then use a little dou dad to position the
Speaker 2: polaroid in front of the camera. I feel like this
Speaker 2: is this is a scheme that has been utilized in
Speaker 2: some other films as well. I just can't remember which
Speaker 2: ones off hand.
Speaker 1: Oh they do the same thing in all the modern
Speaker 1: Mission impossible movies.
Speaker 4: Oh they do.
Speaker 2: Ok.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll put like a video, a video playback or
Speaker 1: a picture or something in front of a of a
Speaker 1: security camera and it works every time. All right, So
Speaker 1: Diabolic gets the necklace, but then soon after he gets it,
Speaker 1: the police are onto him and a chase breaks out.
Speaker 1: He is pursued up the spiraling stairwell to the roof
Speaker 1: of the castle and then he gets there, he's cornered.
Speaker 1: The police are they'll be there any see. He's on
Speaker 1: the roof. What's he gonna do? How will he escape?
Speaker 1: And then suddenly we see Diabolic lock eyes on a catapult.
Speaker 1: For a moment, I was like what, And so the
Speaker 1: police rush up on a rush up onto the roof.
Speaker 1: We see the catapult fling out something that looks like
Speaker 1: Diabolic and they shoot at it and they they're like,
Speaker 1: I think I got him. But then they as they
Speaker 1: leave the roof, we get a catapult fake out where
Speaker 1: a naked Diabolic now peeks up from behind the catapult
Speaker 1: and he apparently launched his limited edition white Diabolic catsuit
Speaker 1: by itself in the catapult and they just shot his clothes.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, perfect perfect master of strategy.
Speaker 1: So Diabolic and Eva escape by car. I guess they
Speaker 1: got a new black Jaguar after they blew up the
Speaker 1: last one.
Speaker 2: Oh they have, Yeah, they have, Like they buy him
Speaker 2: by the dozen. We saw a whole rows of them
Speaker 2: in the Layer.
Speaker 1: The vibes in this movie and in this scene are
Speaker 1: so good. The feeling of freedom and fun as they
Speaker 1: are escaping with the emerald necklace in the scene and
Speaker 1: as they like put up a this like mirror across
Speaker 1: the roadway to fool the cars that are chasing them.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, all the wonderful technology they utilize. And yeah,
Speaker 2: the youthful rebellion energy of this film is really strong,
Speaker 2: because you know, certainly there's the hippie vibe and all
Speaker 2: of the late sixties, but also at heart, we have
Speaker 2: a pair of young lovers, our power couple here for
Speaker 2: whom all this crime is mere for play, for whom
Speaker 2: money is a mere tool in their romance. While at
Speaker 2: the same time money is just the all consuming and
Speaker 2: all corrupting power of the elder authorities on both sides
Speaker 2: of the law. So their enemies, law and crime, now
Speaker 2: united and maybe not that dissimilar, are coming after their love.
Speaker 2: But I think we'll find that they underestimate the power
Speaker 2: of their love. So very strong our love versus the
Speaker 2: world vibes in this movie.
Speaker 1: I think that's an excellent, correct and profound interpretation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what's going on. So the only real threat
Speaker 1: to Diabolic and Eva is a threat to their integrity
Speaker 1: as a couple. So here we get the next attack.
Speaker 1: The next act, Eva is kidnapped.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole doctor's angle thing pays off, and he
Speaker 2: shows up with his goons. They murder the doctor and
Speaker 2: they kidnap Eva.
Speaker 1: That's right, Valmont personally shows up at the doctor's office
Speaker 1: to kill the doctor by shooting him with a machine
Speaker 1: gun in an ex pattern. And I think he says,
Speaker 1: like I told you, I would mark your name off
Speaker 1: of the human register. And so, of course, now Eva's
Speaker 1: been kidnapped, Diabolic will do anything to save her. So
Speaker 1: he calls Valmont. Apparently Velmont placed like an ad in
Speaker 1: the classifieds trying to sell her jaguar, her jaguar, and
Speaker 1: that is how Diabolic knows who to contact. He calls
Speaker 1: him up. He says, what do you want? And Valmont says,
Speaker 1: I want ten million dollars plus an emerald necklace, and
Speaker 1: so Diabolic says, I will pay. So Valmont lures Diabolic
Speaker 1: onto his private airplane, the one, the one with the
Speaker 1: trap door in the floor that'll launch you out of
Speaker 1: the fuselage. So Diabolic brings the money, he brings the necklace.
Speaker 1: But but what happens here? We get another great reversal?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because you know Valmont could shoot him right
Speaker 2: there on the plane, right he could drop him out
Speaker 2: of that that that trap door, and it looks like
Speaker 2: that's where it's going. But then no, I mean, he's
Speaker 2: Valmont's too cruel and evil for this. He has some
Speaker 2: other kind of scheme in mind, it would seem. But
Speaker 2: on the other level, we also know he's working with
Speaker 2: the police. He this whole thing, this whole this whole
Speaker 2: cooperation is about turning Diabolic over alive to law enforcement.
Speaker 2: So he's like, no, if you want Eva, you need
Speaker 2: to take this parachute and jump out of the trap door.
Speaker 2: He opens the trap door, but then oh crap, Diabolic
Speaker 2: has he has the the parachute on and he grabs
Speaker 2: Valmont and then pulls him with him as they both
Speaker 2: fall out of the airplane and then as they're plummeting,
Speaker 2: the airplane explodes above them.
Speaker 1: That's right, so Diabolic says, I brought a magnetic I
Speaker 1: guess a bomb with him to blow up the airplane.
Speaker 1: And now he's got Valmont. He's like interrogating Valmont as
Speaker 1: they're plummeting through the air about like, you know, who's
Speaker 1: are the police down there? And he admits, yes they are.
Speaker 1: Is Eva down there? And he says, yes, she is,
Speaker 1: So they parachute into this trap, and Diabolic does manage
Speaker 1: to rescue Eva, but the police are waiting for him,
Speaker 1: so he sends Eva off on her own to escape
Speaker 1: while he draws the fire of the police. And then
Speaker 1: there's a big shootout the police and the Valmont, the Valmont.
Speaker 1: The police and Valmont on one side, Diabolic on the other.
Speaker 1: They've got him surrounded and at one point Diabolic seems
Speaker 1: out of ammo or something maybe, but he has an idea.
Speaker 1: You see him look at like the clip on his
Speaker 1: machine gun, and then the voices going backwards up the
Speaker 1: slide play and ooh, you know, the hair is raised
Speaker 1: on the back of my neck. Something good's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Diabolic pops out and he shoots Valmont dead, and then
Speaker 1: you see him take some kind of pill. So the
Speaker 1: police come and find him, and Diabolic himself appears to
Speaker 1: be dead when they find him, and we see Inspector
Speaker 1: Jenko later he's talking to a colleague of his saying,
Speaker 1: in a way it says, though he's become part of
Speaker 1: my life. I can't believe he's really dead. And you
Speaker 1: know what, Inspector, I can't believe it either. I don't
Speaker 1: think he is.
Speaker 2: We thought he was dead at least one other time
Speaker 2: in the film. It seems like it's probably something that
Speaker 2: happens every time he pulls off Highes.
Speaker 1: That's right. So we later we're in the morgue and
Speaker 1: we see doctors preparing Diabolic's body for an autopsy. But
Speaker 1: just as the scalpel is about to go in, his
Speaker 1: eyes pop open. Oh, Diabolic is still alive, and one
Speaker 1: of the doctors is Eva in disguise, and we get
Speaker 1: a whole explanation. Diabolic says he used a pill that
Speaker 1: was I think originally used by Tibetan lamas to enter
Speaker 1: a state of apparent death, and he says, if you
Speaker 1: let it go for twenty four hours without the antidote,
Speaker 1: the death becomes permanent and real. But Eva delivered the
Speaker 1: antidote just in time to save him. She got there
Speaker 1: just like with seconds to spare.
Speaker 2: They like to play it close to the edge. Oh.
Speaker 1: But then he gets back on the table and they
Speaker 1: cover him up with the cloth and she wheels him
Speaker 1: out through the crowd of police and reporters, which was hilarious.
Speaker 1: Then if that wasn't a good enough twist, a second twist,
Speaker 1: which is just amazing. So there's a moment where the
Speaker 1: police are talking about Valmont's death as well. They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got the reports from his autopsy. Turns out he
Speaker 1: died of eleven gunshot wounds. And then Inspector Jenko, you see,
Speaker 1: if we get like his inner monologue, he says, eleven bullets,
Speaker 1: eleven emeralds, there were eleven emeralds on the necklace, and
Speaker 1: then cut to Diabolic, already at the morgue, pretending to
Speaker 1: be a relative of Valmont's, talking to the funeral director,
Speaker 1: saying like he was really a good ploy Valmont's. He's
Speaker 1: there to collect Valmont's ashes, which now contain the emeralds
Speaker 1: that Diabolic I think somehow used as bullets to shoot
Speaker 1: into Valmont's body back in the desert that they parachuted into.
Speaker 2: And now I think, I think that's the idea. As
Speaker 2: ridiculous as that is, I think that's what happened.
Speaker 1: That is that's an all time like top five movie twist.
Speaker 2: We don't understand it, but we're not as good with
Speaker 2: guns as Diabolic, Like he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1: He used the emeralds as bullets. So wait a minute,
Speaker 1: the main villain is dealt with, and there's like a
Speaker 1: whole other act of the movie to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a lot of film's going to just
Speaker 2: call it here, and but it's clearly not presented with
Speaker 2: that kind of like movie capping finale kind of a
Speaker 2: feel to it. Yeah, clearly there's more to go.
Speaker 1: There's also a great lovely scene back at the hideout
Speaker 1: where Diabolic and Eva are, you know, they're reunited. They're
Speaker 1: hanging out by the pool and Diabolic like like sticks
Speaker 1: all of the emerald to Eva. I guess he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the necklace part, but he has all of an emerald,
Speaker 1: so he just like sticks him to her skin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tells are happy birthday, and then they start kissing,
Speaker 2: and then they like fall into the water and presumably
Speaker 2: all those emeralds just fall right off of her chest
Speaker 2: and sink to the bottom of the pool, which is
Speaker 2: totally in keeping with their vibe, because those emeralds have
Speaker 2: no intrinsic value to our power couple outside of their
Speaker 2: role in enhancing their romance.
Speaker 1: Right, They're not going to sell these on a secondary market.
Speaker 1: They don't care about the cash value of the emeralds.
Speaker 1: They only matter as a token of love.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: So the last tist I am going to cover in
Speaker 1: less detail, but this one has a really fun, ludicrous
Speaker 1: premise as well. So the new plan to catch Diabolic
Speaker 1: is there's a one million dollar reward for his capture,
Speaker 1: and in response, Diabolic destroys all of the government's tax
Speaker 1: offices and records. And then we see Terry Thomas coming
Speaker 1: on TV actually kind of again squirming and saying, I
Speaker 1: appeal to your sense of national pride. Please pay your taxes.
Speaker 1: You know we don't have any record of what you
Speaker 1: owe anymore. I know you will not turn your back on.
Speaker 2: Me, he says, absolutely hilarious. Yeah, we're on the honor
Speaker 2: system now right.
Speaker 1: And for some I don't remember the mechanics they explained,
Speaker 1: but this leads to the creation of the ingot, one
Speaker 1: of the funniest plot devices I can think of any movie.
Speaker 1: They say they're going to create a single giant ingot
Speaker 1: of gold. It's like the size of a tanker truck.
Speaker 1: I think the idea is that it will be harder
Speaker 1: to steal this way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just too big to steal. He could steal
Speaker 2: a lot of little gold bars, or maybe some amount
Speaker 2: of the gold bars but if we just made one
Speaker 2: gigantic gold bar, surely he would not be able to
Speaker 2: steal this. Again, this is just like almost folkloric and
Speaker 2: mythic qualities to it.
Speaker 1: Can Diabolic steal it? Of course he can. Diabolic and
Speaker 1: Eva together they do some great tag teaming. They work
Speaker 1: together to this one involves like car chases and submarines.
Speaker 1: There is some underwater stuff, but it's not it's not
Speaker 1: too much underwater stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they keep it to sub thunderball levels to maintain
Speaker 2: our interest.
Speaker 1: Right, So eventually Diabolic and Eva get the gold and
Speaker 1: get back to the secret hideout. But how are they
Speaker 1: going to get the gold out of the steel case
Speaker 1: that it has been enclosed in? So the plan is
Speaker 1: they like drill a hole in the case and they're
Speaker 1: going to melt the gold out of there, so it'll
Speaker 1: like run out through the hole. And Diabolic is going
Speaker 1: to do this using a suit he says, with such
Speaker 1: thermal protection that it would allow you to walk on
Speaker 1: the surface of the sun.
Speaker 2: No questioning that.
Speaker 1: But uh oh, police raid on the hideout. They finally
Speaker 1: discovered Diabolic and Eva's right.
Speaker 2: They radiated part of the gold, yes, or the container
Speaker 2: won so that they could track him, and so now
Speaker 2: the gig is truly up, Like the police are starting
Speaker 2: to raid the bat cave.
Speaker 1: That's right. So the police come there, they're they're shooting
Speaker 1: at him and all this there's a big final showdown
Speaker 1: with the police in which the molten gold from the
Speaker 1: ingot gets like splattered out of the case all over
Speaker 1: Diabolic in his thermal protection suit. So the gold is
Speaker 1: like flung over him like ribbons that sort of harden
Speaker 1: in place, and he is frozen in this pose with
Speaker 1: his arm up over his head and apparently dead. Eve
Speaker 1: has distraught.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we see part of the face that the glass,
Speaker 2: you know, the clear face plate of the suit there,
Speaker 2: and we see his eye just staring out his face,
Speaker 2: you know, totally totally still seemingly dead. And yeah, then
Speaker 2: they start doing a press conference around this, and you know,
Speaker 2: the inspector Jinko is like a you know, it feels
Speaker 2: feels weird to parade his body like this. You know,
Speaker 2: this was an honorable foe and so forth. But then
Speaker 2: we get you know, the final twist, and it's absolutely
Speaker 2: great because in this moment, it seems like, you know,
Speaker 2: like their love has been defeated, you know, the powers
Speaker 2: that be seem victorious. Diabolic is entombed in gold, and
Speaker 2: as the crowd begins to depart, Eva arrives dressed all
Speaker 2: in black to grieve. But even this separation is temporary
Speaker 2: because if she's looking up, what does she see? She
Speaker 2: sees suddenly there's movement, and he winks at her.
Speaker 1: I knew it was coming, but still it felt like
Speaker 1: as such a pleasing surprise.
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, And of course if you take it literally,
Speaker 2: this is quite outlandish and unbelievable, but you know, it
Speaker 2: really takes on this almost supernatural air. Death cannot separate
Speaker 2: them and defeat their love. Only instead of this being
Speaker 2: presented in kind of like a religious manner or certainly
Speaker 2: a horror themed flavoring, we see this kind of thing
Speaker 2: occurring with like our occult power couples a lot, but
Speaker 2: instead it's cloaked in style and super science, super crime,
Speaker 2: super science. You know, where our anti hero has been
Speaker 2: turned into art by splattering gold. But no, he's still
Speaker 2: alive in there, and even as that Eva is taken
Speaker 2: away then by the inspector, it's clear they're still hope.
Speaker 2: Not only hope, there's certainty in.
Speaker 1: Fact, you just know she's going to find a way
Speaker 1: to get him out, that's right. And then they'll steal more.
Speaker 1: They'll steal more, by god.
Speaker 2: Yes, they'll just keep stealing and then that's the end.
Speaker 2: And it's not at the end with the question mark.
Speaker 2: I've thought they were going to show the question throw
Speaker 2: this question mark in there. But I think we do
Speaker 2: get one last diabolical laugh, don't we.
Speaker 1: I think so. I couldn't be sure, but yeah, that
Speaker 1: sounds right.
Speaker 2: If it's not there, it's implied because yeah, he I
Speaker 2: think he looks at the camera, he winks again. He
Speaker 2: will be.
Speaker 1: Back danger diabolic. This has got to go on my
Speaker 1: best of list. This is one of my favorite films
Speaker 1: we've covered on Weird House Cinema. And yeah, it may
Speaker 1: not have that sci fi or supernatural speculative element, but
Speaker 1: it's also just for style reasons, one of the weirdest
Speaker 1: films we've done. It's pure joy.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's a really fun one. So I highly recommend
Speaker 2: you check it out. All Right, as we close out here,
Speaker 2: we're just gonna remind everybody that, yeah, as usual, stuff
Speaker 2: to blow your mind. As a science podcast with core
Speaker 2: episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set
Speaker 2: aside most serious concerns to just talk about a weird
Speaker 2: film here on Weird House Cinema. If you want to
Speaker 2: see a list of all the movies we've covered over
Speaker 2: the years, I blog about these movies at Summuto music
Speaker 2: dot com. But also you can go to letterbox dot com.
Speaker 2: It's l E T T E r box d dot com.
Speaker 2: You'll find our profile there weird House and there's a
Speaker 2: whole list of all the movies we've covered over the years,
Speaker 2: and you can do lots of neat things like divide
Speaker 2: them up by year and genre and so forth and
Speaker 2: see what we've talked about.
Speaker 1: Huge thanks as always to our regular audio producer Jjposway
Speaker 1: and to our guest producer today Chandler Mays. If you
Speaker 1: would like to get in touch with us with feedback
Speaker 1: on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic
Speaker 1: for the future, or just to say hello, you can
Speaker 1: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
Speaker 1: dot com.
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