Reception
From contemporary reviews,
Howard Thompson of
The New York Times gave a brief negative review of
Danger: Diabolik referring to the film as "infantile junk."
[23] Film critic
Roger Ebert gave the film a two and a half star rating out of four, stating that he felt it was better than the other Dino De Laurentiis production
Barbarella, but that it was "long and eventually loses track of itself."
[24] Variety gave the film a negative review, calling it a "dull Dino De Laurentiis programmer" whose "izarre sets, poor process work, static writing and limp direction spell pure formula fare for lowercase grind bookings."
[25] The
Monthly Film Bulletin gave the film a positive review, noting that: "Bava's superb visual sense stands him in good stead in this comic-strip adventure which looks like a brilliant pastiche of the best of everything in anything from
James Bond to
Matt Helm."
[26]
In a 2012 issue of
Film International, John Berra described the film's contemporary reception, noting that the film had initially "been left to languish in obscurity since its staggered international release at the end of the 1960s" and that it "mostly existed as a kitsch reference point or as an easy target for tongue-in-cheek parody."
[27] Examples of this are seen in the Beastie Boys
music video for "Body Movin'" (1998) and the film being featured on the final episode of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 shown on
Sci-Fi Channel on August 8, 1999.
[27][28][29] The television show provided mocking commentary over a film interspersed with sketches while Beastie Boys member
Adam Yauch found the film to be "campy in a way, but not in a bad way" and describes the acting and direction as "ridiculous" but with the set design being "so over the top the acting is appropriate."
[27][30] The film's status as a
cult film grew gradually as studies of Bava's career began, and with its 2007 DVD release which explored the film's relation to its comic book roots.
[31] Berra described the film as being "warmly received" by the Internet community, who routinely embraces comic book adaptations and seeks to adopt films that have been neglected by popular audiences.
[31]
Glenn Erickson discussed
Danger: Diabolik twice on
DVD Talk (in 1998 and 2005);
[20][22] describing the film as a
guilty pleasure, he praised Bava's stylized visuals, noting his use of bright colours, elaborate sets and wide lenses, "giving almost every shot a distorted depth that lends the film a consistent
comic book dynamism".
[22] While noting the minimal characterization of Diabolik himself (describing him as "the final distillation of the idea that we love criminals because we secretly admire the transgressions they represent"), he felt that Marisa Mell's portrayal of Eva presented her as loving Diabolik "on a romantic plane of surprising believability. [...] [Her] adoring faithfulness is so physical and pure that the sincerity of their farewell ("You'll not be alone while I live!") is tenderly affecting."
[22] Erickson also admired Terry-Thomas' campy portrayal of the Minister of Interior, describing his news conference as "easily outdo[ing] TV's
Batman." Thematically, he has noted that Diabolik's desire to steal for himself and Eva "represent the ultimate end of materialist consumerism", as well as "the rollercoaster Italian politics of the time, which seemed to flip-flop from
conservative to
socialist and back again on a weekly basis;" Erickson also mentions that "Diabolik's world stresses strangely
fetishistic surfaces and textures, backing up film theorist
Raymond Durgnat's assertion that the psychic land of
pulp fantasy is fundamentally a sexual one."
[22]
Video Librarian noted that the film was "guaranteed to delight viewers whose tastes run to the outré", praising
Ennio Morricone's score, Law and Mell's acting, and noting that the "real star is Bava" stating that "the film is colorful almost to the point of garishness."
[19] Cinefantastique also discussed the film's visuals, noting that: "[Bava's] color rich, brilliantly artificial-looking compositions were the cinematic equivalent of comic book art even before he tackled the form." The magazine also found that the special effects rivalled those of
Ken Adam, who worked on the
Bond films.
[18] The review also praised Law's work in the film noting his "amazingly expressive eyebrows" and declared the film as "1960s pop-culture heaven."
[18] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (
The A.V. Club) compared the film to
Barbarella, opining that
Diabolik had "a sense of infectious, amoral fun" which
Barbarella lacks.
[21] He declared the film to be among "the definitive touchstones of Euro pulp."
[21] Empire included the film on its list of the top 500 greatest films. They described the movie as "thin as a poster, but still amazing cinema – a succession of striking, kinetic, sexy, absurd images accompanied by a one-of-a-kind Ennio Morricone score that revels in its casual anarchy."
And the Theme Song... "DEEP DOWN"
