What sort of a supervillain has his secret lair in his girlfriend’s back garden? Why not his own turf? While we’re about it, why does Diabolik – the title of the film and the name of its antihero – lift so much of its plot from Fantomas, another European masked villain?
If those are the sort of questions you’re asking while watching this film then it probably isn’t working for you. A stew, a pastiche, Diabolik is bits of Bond stirred together with a sliver of The Pink Panther and then spritzed with Italian glamour. We are not here for originality, but for cars and girls, mid-century modernism and split screens, hot women and hairpin mountain roads. All ticking along thanks to a heist plot that’s just enough to keep things moving.
Two Milanese sisters created Diabolik in 1962, borrowing much of the look and ethos from the similarly anti-heroic master villains Fantômas (French, created 1911) and Arsène Lupin (also French, created 1905). The Diabolik stories are still being published as it write – so Angela and Luciana Giussani’s graft flourished and is clearly a trick the brothers who made this film and its sequels hope to copy.
When not borrowing from Fantomas, Antonio and Marco Manetti give us the story of the first meeting of Diabolik, played here by Luca Marinelli, and Eva Kant, his partner in crime and style. The other vital part is Inspector Ginko (Valerio Mastandrea), who enters the story after the Manettis’ spectacular opening sequence – a black E type Jaguar gunned through gorgeous Italian streets by Diabolik, who eventually evades capture with a bit of eyebrow-raising trickery. Ginko, enraged but engaged, believes he has found a worthy adversary. And so the game is afoot.
Eva (Miriam Leone) arrives later, when Diabolik tries to rob a famous pink diamond from her and ends up instead losing his head. He’s wowed by Eva’s beauty and lack of fear, as she is by his audacity and air of mystery. The would-be target instead becomes Diabolik’s ideal partner.
What to do with the existing girlfriend though – Elisabeth Gay (Serena Rossi), the woman who is about to discover a supervillain lair beneath the lawn at the back of the house? Some coughing and re-arranging of the filmic furniture here as the Manettis plough on regardless, reverting back to the Fantômas plot as Diabolik is arrested for murder and appears to be heading for the guillotine. If only his new girlfriend could help him.
Everything leads to a concluding heist from an impenetrable vault carved from a single block of steel, where a priceless piece of art is waiting to be lifted by a light-fingered masked man and his new accomplice. “There isn’t anything I haven’t taken into consideration,” says Diabolik, who explains how the heist will go to Eva, so the audience can follow along as the plan is put into action. It’s a good heist, it must be said.
The lack of audience empathy for Diabolik would be a problem if that was what the Manettis were about. They’re more interested in conjuring the 1960s vibe, and laying on the style, in particularly the gorgeousness of Miriam Leone – whose mocking cat eyes appear to have been borrowed from Kristen Stewart. If only Luca Marinelli had brought his considerable charisma to the role. He isn’t in the two sequels (whereas Leone and Mastandrea are) so maybe he was never that committed in the first place. Or maybe he is being true to the performance of John Philip Law, who was Diabolik in the 1968 movie and was also a bit flat.
Mario Bava directed the 1968 version, Danger: Diabolik, with Ennio Morricone providing the music so the Manettis need to aim high. Their film is cinéma du look in many respects, and though the Manettis don’t quite have as much polish and ingenuity as Bava or Morricone – who does? – they get a long way before running out of inspiration towards the end.
I enjoyed this but I preferred The Arrival of Wang, the Manettis’ brilliant low-budget, high-concept sci-fi from 2011. That said, I liked Diabolik enough to want to go back and have a look at the handful of films the Manettis made between Wang and Diabolik. As for the Diabolik sequels (Diabolik: Ginko Attacks! and Diabolik: Who Are You?), I’ll probably be washing my hair.
Diabolik (as part of the Diabolik trilogy) – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
