Cut-troats nine (1972) and Diabolik (1968)

Neville · January 06, 2007, 02:27:56 PM

Recent viewings... both contain spoilers.

Cut-throats-nine (1972)

I watched this one after being asked by Scott if I had seen it. To be honest, I hadn't even heard of this movie. It's your typical euro-western, with its trademark bleak vision over the west and human nature in general. I found it far better than its reputation suggested, it's a rather good movie, albeit extremely violent, but ultimately director Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent abandons any pretension to tell a cohesive history -the violence on most of the movie serves a purpose- and tries to make every violent scene more gorier and stupid than the previous one. He succeeds, but it completely derails the film.

Diabolik (1968)

Having read several reviews before watching it, I expected an even zanier film, but it's still a lot of fun. Criminal mastermind Diabolik and his girlfriend have the thrill of their lives comitting robbery after robbery in some European country, not for the profit but for their wn amusement. Their antics are not as hysterical as, let's say, the Joker's, but the film is lots of fun nevertheless, if only because they're the heroes.

Watch out for some real subversive stuff here, such as Diabolik sabotaging the press conference of his latest crime with laugh gas, or some music and production design that would feel right out of any Austin Powers film.

Now, if you excuse me, there's something I saw in the movie I must really try...

the ghoul · January 06, 2007, 03:37:15 PM

Cut Throats Nine is OK, but it doesn't live up to the hype. There are probably at least 200 eurowesterns that are better.

Yaddo 42 · January 07, 2007, 07:02:22 AM

Danger: Diabolik was a major influence on Austin Powers, IMO. Along with the Derek Flint movies and the Harry Palmer British spy flicks, among others. Pretty enjoyable in it's own groovy way. When it was the "lost" episode of MST3K, I enjoyed lots of the jokes, like the one about his raccoon mask suntan giving him away, but felt they were picking on a pretty good genre film rather than a truly bad film. Clips from it also formed the core of a pretty cool Beastie Boys video.Neville, have you seen the recent film CQ? It's a knowing riff on euro-spy/adventure films like this one, a very fun take off of a fun genre.

As I've said elsewhere Cutthroats Nine is one of my wish list films I need to see.

Came back to fix spelling.

Neville · January 07, 2007, 07:43:05 AM

"CQ" sounds interesting. I'll see if I can get a copy. I wonder what the riffs on that MST3K episode were about, as the film is already zanny enough to work without the added commentary.

zombiedudeman · January 07, 2007, 07:35:47 PM

I read Cut Throats was pretty gory for a Western, I still need to check that one out myself.

Scott · January 07, 2007, 08:35:51 PM

Looking back at CUT-THROATS 9......... I can say that is was a good Spaghetti Western in the top 40. The story is ok, but it's more about the scenes. If you like your Spaghetti Westerns then you have to take a look. Actually you don't need to like Spaghetti Westerns to watch this one. Creepy haunting images set in the mountains.

(6 out of 10 Stars) An odd Spaghetti Western entry.

R-T-C Tim · January 08, 2007, 06:32:06 AM

I've not yet seen Cut throats nine (1972), I've been slowly working through the pre-1970 Westerns myself, after that point the genre just became exploitation IMHO, so random nudity or gore, or just daft comedy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the quality generally dropped.

As for Diabolik (1968) - a fantastic film. I'm not a big Mario Bava fan, finding his horror films often well directed but poorly written, but this was a superb film, probably the best comic book adaptation ever made.

Joe · January 08, 2007, 08:45:35 AM

yaddo, i think the point of austin powers was to spoof them along with other spy flicks. at one point austin turns on "in like flint" and exclaims that its his favortie movie.

Yaddo 42 · January 09, 2007, 01:21:35 AM

True, Joe, Myers said that Austin was born out of his late father's love of those kinds of movies. To spoof something you have to be aware of the conventions and tropes of the genre, even if you are planning to tear them apart. Maybe "influence" is the wrong word, but I'd still guess Myers watched Danger: Diabolik when working on the Austin Powers films.

I got annoyed when they came out and people said they were spoofing the Bond films. They were but they had more in common with the copies, spoofs, and takoffs like the films we all have mentioned in this thread plus the Matt Helm movies, Modesty Blaise, The President's Analyst, the Dr. Goldfoot films, the non-canon Casino Royale, and various TV series like The Avengers, The Saint, Danger Man/Secret Agent, the Man/Girl from UNCLE, The Prisoner and probably others I've forgotten or never heard of.

Neville · January 09, 2007, 02:28:57 AM

Now that oyu mention it, Austin's car is very similar to the one Patrick MacGoohan drives in the opening of "The Prisoner". BTW, that's some weird show. I got the entire series some months ago and can't get past episode 5-6. Too weird for me.

Yaddo 42 · January 10, 2007, 05:23:20 AM

It's one of my all time favorite shows, keep meaning to pick it up on DVD. One of the few I could see watching over and over on a regular basis. I love the disorienting nature of the show, and the various No. Twos and their different personalities as they put Six through new methods of trying to get him to break. Kind of Kafka-lite

I'd say give it another shot or take it in small doses, only a few of the episodes are central to the overall story. Some like "Living in Harmony" (the western episode) are there only to flesh out the episode order, and "The Girl Who was Death" was made as a dig at viewers who complained the show didn't have enough action, he gave it to them as a story told to a group of children in the episode. "Hammer into Anvil" and the last two episodes are personal favorites.

McGoohan originally only wanted to do six, Sir Lew Grade wanted more, around 20 so it could be sold overseas, the number made was a compromise.

BeyondTheGrave · January 10, 2007, 12:32:29 PM

I love the Prisoner. I first saw a couple of episodes, oddly enough, on PBS couple of years ago and I was hooked. The DVDs are on my Amazon wishlist.

Anyone see the Simpsons spoof of it? Funny stuff.

"What is your number?"

Homer:I'm not a number I'm a ma...........Oh number 4"

or when Homer pops the "escape orb".

"Its just a bubble"

Yaddo 42 · January 11, 2007, 06:20:26 AM

Probably one of the last Simpsons eps I watched all the way through, I had been losing interest for a while. It was fun for a Prisoner fan like me to see that they spoofed the show so well, despite most of the audience having little or no idea just what they were mocking, unlike say a Star Trek spoof.