I’ve been watching a lot of these Italian cine-fumetti films recently, and so here’s a rundown of my top five films from the genre. But cine-fumetti, I mean films that were either based on the Italian comic strips of the 60s or were influenced by them in some way (it’s quite a hard filone to define, to be honest…) In reverse order:
5. Argoman the Fantastic Superman. Bit of a toss up between this one and Flashman for the fifth spot, but Argoman the Fantastic Superman just about wins out. It’s an incredibly silly film – Roger Browne stars as a masked superhero-stroke-jewel thief, Dominique Boschero as a sexy villain intent on the usual world domination thang – but it’s also extremely good fun. Sergio Grieco really knew how to direct these 60s style action films.
4. Hypnos follia di massacro. This is an unusual one, it doesn’t feature a masked superman, any elaborate heists or, quite frankly, anything you normally associate with the genre. What it does have is Robert Woods investigating subliminal messages on TV, which cause certain viewers to commit homicidal acts (I think The X Factor has a similar effect on me). The villain of the piece wears a weird mask and seems to have been modeled on Santo and / or Diabolik. It’s been claimed that David Cronenberg was influenced by this for Videodrome, and it’s a strange, moody film that’s worth watching. I don’t know if it ever came out in English, it’s certainly worthy of a fansubbing job.
3. Superargo vs Diabolicus. The first real genre entry, this came before Diabolik and was possibly just as influenced by the Mexican Santo movies. Ken Wood (Giovanni Cinafriglia) stars as Superargo, a masked wrester, spy and general superhero, trying to save the world from crazy genius Diabolicus (Gerard Tichy) and another sexy villain (Loredana Nusciak). Colourful, wildly entertaining and well made, this is a good one, and available with English audio options on lovely DVD from Pulp Video.
2. Three Fanstastic Supermen. Oh boy, this is a silly film. Directed by Gianfranco Parolini, it follows the adventures of FBI agent Brad Harris and two thieves (Tony Kendall and Nick Jordan), who are – you got it – trying to save the world from another crazy genius, in this case Jochen Brockmann, who’s so nasty he even shuts small orphans in a giant freezer. Boo hiss! It’s typical Parolini stuff, full of acrobatics and energy, and just demented enough to make it stand out. It did so well there were about fifty sequels, most of which were bad, some of which were just abominable.
1. Diabolik. The daddy of the bunch, this is the best known of the cine-fumetti, and the best as well. John Philip Law stars as the titular character, a prolific jewel theif and general trickster who has to deal with a mafia boss (Adolfo Celi) and an incompetent politician (Terry-Thomas) amongst others. Mario Bava directs it all with his usual flair, making for a quite wonderful film.
What do you think? Any objections or differences of opinion? Please post your own lists!
