Superargo contro Diabolikus |
  • Italy / Spain • 1966 • 88m •    • Directed by: Nick Nostro. • Starring: Giovanni Cianfriglia, Gérard Tichy, Loredana Nusciak, Mónica Randall, Josep Castillo Escalona, Emilio Messina, Valentino Macchi, Geoffrey Copleston, Giulio Battiferri, Artemio Antonini, Fortunato Arena, Bruno Ariè, Omero Capanna. • Music by: Franco Pisano.      After accidentally killing an opponent on the ring, masked wrestler Superargo quits wrestling and, following the advice of his friend Col. Alex Kinski of the Secret Service, becomes a secret agent, using his superhuman abilities to stop villain Diabolicus' plans to wreck global economy by turning uranium into gold.
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Review:
Sadly his opponent in this film, Diabolicus, is no match for our masked hero, although he does have a cool name. Instead Diabolicus is simply an unmasked middle-aged guy who can turn uranium into gold and plans to flood the world's supply from his island stronghold. He sends out a squad to destroy Superargo, and they mistakenly believe that they have done so by shooting him and setting up the scene of a fake car crash. Superargo is now free to go undercover and paddles to the island retreat by dinghy.
Of course, seeing as this only makes up the first half of the film, Superargo is far from successful and gets captured, and is then tortured by fire and ice. And just like in a Bond film, Diabolicus explains his entire scheme of world domination to both Superargo and the audience! It's not long before Superargo escapes, battles loads of guards, "eliminates twenty men" and escapes back to the mainland. Hanging around waiting to get kidnapped is his irritating girlfriend, Lidia, who has to be one of the most passive, uninteresting female leads in a movie. Her counterpart, Diabolicus' mistress, is much better and at least has a will of her own.
After a brief car chase, Superargo is thwarted when he discovers the girl he is chasing is really a man in drag! This means he must trek back to the island for the finale, where he kills loads of people and escapes with the girl. The bad guys attempt to escape and blow the island up; they succeed with the latter but not the former, and Diabolicus is caught in the explosion. Superargo takes off his mask and retires, at least until the next movie, SUPERARGO AND THE FACELESS GIANTS.
Well, where to start? First of all, SUPERARGO VERSUS DIABOLICUS is an admirably light-hearted tale which doesn't take itself too seriously like some of the MexicanEuropean films it copies. It's also packed with action, wrestling moves and shoot-outs, which make it very entertaining to watch. The film is colourful, with good photography and an appropriate soundtrack. The acting won't win any awards but I've seen a lot worse in Italian movies, and even the dubbing is just about passable and doesn't distract the viewer from watching the movie. There are lots of cool impossible gadgets to behold (like Geiger counters hidden inside olives) and stunts involving helicopters, flame throwers, electrocuted bars, and the hilarious ending in which Superargo holds the shutters of a launch pad closed, thus preventing Diabolicus from leaving! A supremely enjoyable slice of escapism and one of the bestfunniest I've seen yet.
Review by Leofwine_draca from the Internet Movie Database.
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