Trivia for
Diabolik (1968) More at IMDbPro »

• Featured in the final episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988).
  
  
• The movie is based on "Diabolik", one of the longest running - and most successful - Italian comic strips. It was created by Angela Giussani and Luciana Giussani, two Milan sisters who built a small and very profitable publishing empire out of the "King of Terror"'s success. In the paper version, "Diabolik" is much more sinister than its cinematic counterpart - he's a criminal fighting evil with evil, often resorting to murder to "punish" the evildoers he meets. The movie was made assuming some knowledge of the comic strip, thus explaining the negative reaction it gets outside Italy.
  
  
• According to John Phillip Law, the first choice for the role of Ava Kent was an unknown model from New York, who was a friend of Charlie Bluhdorn, the CEO of Gulf & Western, the conglomerate that owned Paramount Pictures (which had contracted to distribute the film in the US). Second choice was Catherine Deneuve, who lasted for about a week, until director Mario Bava decided she just was not right for the part. He finally found the perfect Ava Kent in Marisa Mell.
  
  
• DIABOLIK was designed by producer Dino De Laurentiis (later responsible for the infamously mammoth remakes of KING KONG and HURRICANE), and enabled Bava to work with a much larger budget ($3,000,000) and a more prestigious cast than he was accustomed to, but he remained true to his principles, relying on imagination rather than money, and brought the film in massively under budget at a mere $400,000. De Laurentiis was so thrilled, in fact, that he offered Bava the opportunity to make a sequel with the left over money, but Bava had by then tired of working with the producer and decided to pass.
  
  

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