Greetings Spy Vibers! Readers in the Bay Area have a rare chance to see Danger Diabolik tonight on the big screen! Mario Bava's cult classic will be screening at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco at 7:30. I'm still nursing a back injury, so I'm not sure I'll be able to attend. But I hope it gets a good crowd! Known for its stunning fashion, set design, and score by Morricone, Diabolik looms large here in the Spy Vibe lair. In fact, a still from the film has been the Spy Vibe banner since day one! If possible, I may try to host a double feature screening when my non-fiction book comes out in winter 2017. The 10th Victim and Danger Diabolik would be cool! Find out how Danger Diabolik did in our Top-10 of Best Set Designs here. Related posts: Danger Diabolik Soundtrack, Verner Panton Design, Diabolikal Villain Image Archive, Set For Adventure. Enjoy!
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Ennio Morricone's soundrack to the 1968 cult classic, Danger Diabolik, has long been one of those holy-grail scores from the sixties lost to time. The original tapes are apparently missing, and the only releases fans have seen over the years are recorded directly from the film track (complete with dialog and sound effects). A company called Recording Arts just released a new project to re-record the score faithfully with contemporary musicians. The results sound really cool from what I've heard so far. A digital download album was made available in March and can be purchased on both Amazon and iTunes. Check it out! Amazon page here. Find out why Danger Diabolik scored first place in Spy Vibe's countdown of best set designs here.
Recent Ian Fleming posts on Spy Vibe: new Fleming books, SE Asian 007, Cumberbatch as Ian Fleming, Fleming Jamaica Book, Bond Japanese Editions, Fleming Chinese Edition, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 50th, Ian Fleming: Mt. Demon Hell Japan, Collecting Fleming, Live and Let Die 60th, new poster announced, 007 Audio Books Update, Appropriating Bond Exhibit, Fleming Letters Mystery, The Goldfinger Variations, Double 007 Book Designs, Double 007 designs II, rare Ian Fleming edition, Book Design Dopplegangers, Turkish Bond design, Ian Fleming Letters, Erno Goldfinger, Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, Jon Gilbert interview, Double 007 Designs, Bond audio book reissues, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, rare View to a Kill, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, Spy Vibe's Ian Fleming image archive.
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Marisa Mell invites Spy Vibers to transition now to the weekend. Red-hot pantsuit or space gear is optional, but encouraged.
Danger Diabolik (Mario Bava 1968) Underground Lair. Art Director/Flavio Mogherini (Satyricon, Mamma Roma, The Thief of Bagdad), Costume Designer/Production Designer (La Dolce Vita, Juliet of the Spirits, 8 1/2). Imagine clicking your garage door opener on a mountain road, engaging a giant clam-shell door, and driving into a series of electronic hatches and elevators down (deep deep down) to a cavernous lair that sports a fleet of E-type Jaguars, Sci-Fi gadgets, a Habitrail-like network of tubes and chambers, glass "see-through" showers, and a giant revolving bed with futuristic technology and television monitors. I’ll give you a moment to recover. You’re right- it’s simply the coolest pad any spy, criminal mastermind, or lounge cat could crave (they had me at Jaguars). Add Marisa Mell, John Phillip Law, and a score by Ennio Morricone to the mix and you can see why this Mario Bava cult classic jumps right to the #1 spot on the list. There are wonderful adventure conventions in the film, including a trap door... in an airplane!
The film is based on the popular Italian comic Diabolik, created in 1962 by two sisters from Milan. Diabolik is an anti-hero, a kind of Fantomas-meets-Golgo 13-meets 007 in a Sci-Spy crime adventure, and he is a great example of the European tradition of weaving adventure stories around master criminals-as-heroes. Comic and film maestro Steve Bissette suggests that this reflects a post-war skepticism of authority and a spirit of late-60s counter-culture. Where 007 works for queen and country, Diabolik relishes in high-stakes heists and acts of destruction against the state. His other passion is to enjoy a life of pleasure with his partner Eva. Celebration of the individual perhaps taken to the extreme, yet Diabolik remains empathetic and ultra-cool. One infamous scene shows Diabolik and Eva making love in piles of money on his giant revolving bed. As the detective mentions just before this image hits the screen, Diabolik has a use for the money that only a mind like his can conceive of:
The counter culture influenced not just the notion of the hero, but notions of aesthetics, lifestyle, and values. Somehow, I don't see the Rat Pack generation choosing a Lair like this. Designer Verner Panton is once again an influence. His "total environment" installation exhibits, such as Visiona (1968) and Visiona II (1970), were room constructions of fluid, organic forms. Here is Panton's design followed by Diabolik's vault room.
The sets have a fantastical feel of the late 1960s and the dynamics of a comic page. Originally given three million dollars to make the film, Bava stuck with his familiar bag of budget-conscious tricks to create one the greatest comic book adaptations in movie history for a mere... $400,000. Actor John Phillip Law recalls seeing most of the sets piled up in a corner of the studio. Steve Bissette adds, "Bava did it with collage of photos glued to glass! He was a magician! Bava really understood the magic of "the frame" as the essential cinematic illusion, and within that frame worked wonders." Like all of Bava's work, Danger Diabolik crackles with atmosphere, imagination, and sensuality. The director (a former cameraman himself) made great use of wide-angle lenses, forced perspective, mattes, and foreground design to create a stylized look- one which Video Watchdog founder, Tim Lucas, says shows "a fantastic view of the 1960s that only existed in the movies and in Playboy magazine perhaps." It's groovy, stylized, smart, sexy, and action-packed; I call it the Spy Vibe!
For more info about Danger Diabolik, see Steve Bissette's excellent documentary, "From Fumetti to Film" on the 2005 Paramount DVD release (which also features John Phillip Law and Roman Coppola), and this review from DVD Verdict.
NOW STAY TUNED FOR THE TOP-5 SETS FROM SPY AND MOVIE WRITERS AROUND THE GLOBE!
Check out Spy Vibe's production set series, an event that gathered together many writers to celebrate the best spy sets from cold war-era film & TV. Guest Set Lists: Lee Pfeiffer, Jeremy Duns, Armstrong Sabian, Steve Bissette, Roger Langley, Matthew Bradford, Wesley Britton, David Foster, Matt Kindt. Spy Vibe's Set For Adventure here, Set Countdown #10, #9, #8 ,#7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1.
