Being a European boot of the motion picture score, this album quite naturally is stocked full of dialogue and sound from the film itself. NOT A DRAWBACK!
Possibly Morricone's most fantastic score, sadly the original master tracks, conductor's notations, and sheet music were lost in a vault fire in 1971. Believe me, the producers and Mr. Morricone recognize the huge, private demand for this score to reach print, it just isn't possible without re-recording the score. What with the differences in production technology, not to mention the sheer scope of the difficulty in (from Mr. Morricone's memory) reassembling the score right down to the sheet music is almost impossible if not so. Compounding all of this, the original conductor, Bruno Nicolai, is long dead and he was an integral part of the production in the first place.
So, the best we peasants can come up with are bootlegs like this one, or, using CD-R technology, lifting the score from the laserdisc ourselves.
The boot does include, however, the original 45 tracks for "Deep, Deep Down" sung in English on the A-side and Italian on the B-side.
The score itself is a jangly mixture of lush, symphonic melancholies punctuated by brutish guitar tracks and the odd psychedelic interlude, making this a classic of film scores and Euro-Trash sensation. Anyone who hasn't heard it has an empty hole tucked neatly into their chest cavity. Such maladies demand remedying.
UPDATE, YO!
Diabolik is set to finally get the official Paramount DVD treatment later this year. Hopefully, the usual decrepit Paramount template for DVD is abandoned as it was with the splendid Italian Job and Once Upon a Time in the West DVDs (two great special editions) and Diabolik gets the full service it deserves. I envision...
... commentary by Lamberto Bava, De Laurentis' daughter, John Philip Law, and absolutely no TIM LUCAS. Lucas is dedicated, sincere, knows every last detail of every Bava film, but... BIG BUT... is a nauseatingly dry speaker who could lull to sleep the most severely afflicted insomniac.
... optional score only audio tracks.
... trailers, of course.
... a featurette or two.
... some lame, half-assed, thrown-together doc on Bava that needlessly recites information a Bava fan will already know, mispronounce just about everything, and insist on calling Diabolik "Danger: Diabolik", the goofy American title, known as such nowhere else.
Yeah, that would be beautiful.
One of the early filmworks from Mario Bava (best known for his horror flicks), Danger: Diabolik is a spectacular, unusual and campy romp of a movie. From 1967, it's an Italian comic book come to life complete with wonderfully mad leaps of logic, a bevy of foxy ladies, and a suitably sexy musical accompaniment. Move over Batman! James Bond, step aside! You're no match for Diabolik who we should mention is no super-hero. He's a super-criminal wrapped in skin-tight black leather and latex. This soundtrack offers up a smattering of gleefully stilted dialogue snippets including Cup's fave, the "Dry up, stupid!" line, but the seemingly relentless revisiting of the main track "Deep Down"- slinkily kitten-crooned, perky horns, slow'n'wistful, sly Peter Gunn-esque and oh so many more - may quickly wear on your nerves without D:D's swoonful eye candy. FYI: Even if you've yet to see the film, you might already be familiar with its kitschful flair. Mike Patton (in Fantomas) and the Beastie Boys have both plundered this amazing film for it's seriously astounding set designs and stunningly sleek wardrobe.
Ennio Morricone: "Danger Diabolik"
* CD, Pallottola Foro OTHR-1968, Italy, 2001
CD, Sycodelic, Italy, 2002
* comment:
o Johan: My rating: 3 points on 5. Pallottola = Limited edition CD with dialog tracks, was available once from Intrada for $30 and has poor sound quality. haven't heard the new Sycodelic release yet, but according to Dusty groove (who HAD it) "it is a real reissue done professionally by an Italian label"
o Br. Cleve: There was never a soundtrack album for Danger: Diabolik; only the 'Deep Down' theme was released as a single by Cristy. The film was released on laser disc a few years ago, but is now out of print. The CD is just excerpts from the actual movie and has that pre hi-fi stereo tinny character. It's kind of a nifty little collector's package, but be warned, it is not a "real" soundtrack album.
o BasicHip: I picked up Diabolik just the other day from Intrada. I don't buy many CD's - about 1 to every 25 records - especially pricey imports! Or is this "limited edition" a bootleg? Probably. Anyway, I had heard alot of good things about this movie, and I love 60s soundtracks so I got it. Now it's up for grabs on ebay. I would not say I was disappointed, but I was not thrilled either. Not because of poor sound quality which i really did not notice. sound quality is never very important to me, unless it is really bad, like borderline defective. about 10 minutes of the 48:00 minute disc are dialogue, which I can do without. Unless they are original trailers or spots! There are a number of variations on the main theme, Deep Down, some with vocals by Christy, some instrumental. I'm not sure about the reference to the nifty collector's package, as the front booklet is a single insert, there are no liner notes at all. Very similar in packaging quality to the exotica bootlegs that hit the shelves a few years back. I regret getting it now mainly because I'd rather put that kind of money toward vinyl originals and I'm not as thrilled as I should be. So, off to the auction block it goes...
o F. Cobalt: The reason that Danger Diabolik CD has poor sound, and is a bootleg, and is promoted as some sort of hokey "collectors" deal is because the masters of the soundtrack were destroyed in a garage fire. Unless Morricone re-scores the film for an official release, anything else is going to be something recorded from a print of the film with dialogue edited out in some way. You can find old copies of the theme on 45 floating around with a nice sleeve, but otherwise, you're most likely spending your money on something with questionable quality -- which is sometimes the best you can hope for with some things though, like jazz music documentaries.
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