They Don’t Make Trailers Like That Anymore: DANGER: DIABOLIK! (1968)

This Mario Bava-directed, Dino DiLaurentiis-produced joint is one of the coolest movies to come out of the late 60‘s, and an essential film if you want to understand the two 60‘s trends of psychedelic cinema and spy culture.  Unfortunately, it’s gained an unjust reputation as one of the worst films of all time due to it being the subject of the last experiment on the original run of MST3K (you screwed the pooch on this one, guys) and I will fight anyone who tells me it is.  It’s truly a comic book movie before comic book movies became codified, and is an extremely satisfying experience.

I think you should watch it right now and come back here; I’m not sure, but I think there’s a version of it floating around on YouTube you could be grooving on now instead of hearing me bang on about it.  It’s okay; I’ll wait.

indistinct humming

Okay, you back?  Now check out this trailer, which starts with an explosion.  Okay, it’s an explosion of a miniature, but it still sets the stage for what is to come--some crazy visuals, some action and more Marisa Mel than any man could handle.  The editor of this trailer knew there were two things he needed to sell--the expressiveness of leading man John Phillip Law’s eyes and the hotness of Mel, who may very well be the sexiest thing ever to stride across the silver screen (and I’ll fight anyone over this opinion as well), and tragically died of throat cancer in 1992.  The narrator comes out selling, and doesn’t stop for a moment in this two minute pitch to convince you this is the Coolest Thing Ever.

Now this trailer commits a sin that was very common of trailers of its time and takes far too much of its second half from the end of the film.  But I’m almost willing to forgive it, as the final shot of the trailer, with Law winking at us, followed by his maniacal laughter, is an awfully compelling place to end.

Oh, and for a bonus, here’s Spike Jonez’ video for The Beastie Boy’s ‘Body Movin’.  Apparently, Spike and I share a similar taste in movies.  Just saying is all.