An unlikely cross between two of the hottest crime-fighters of the '60s – TV's Batman and cinema's James Bond – KRIMINAL is in fact a film based on a popular Italian comic strip. The twist is that our hero isn't a hero at all, instead a fully-fledged bad guy, a thief whose ideal pastime is to steal jewels and make tons of money from his criminal exploits. Along the way, there's time for plenty of romance a la Bond as Kriminal wanders around and takes advantage of a succession of beautiful women. It all sounds pretty good and, being made in the '60s, it's absolutely loaded with style in everything from the music to the fashions on display. But there's something detached and routine about this film that stopped me from enjoying it one bit.
I'll admit that the genre of Italian spy movies left me somewhat cold. I didn't mind early Bond films – GOLDFINGER is a classic – but the slavish devotion of the countless rip-offs I found utterly boring. Now the Italian superhero movies of the late '60s – this was much more to my liking. Outlandish good guys like Argoman, Superargo and the Three Fantastic Supermen would bound around on screen and tackle waves of bad guys with knowing smirks and plenty of panache. I was hoping KRIMINAL would be like the latter films, but this is really a Bond-style movie masquerading as a superhero flick. It's an interesting precursor to Mario Bava's DANGER DIABOLIK but that's all.
My biggest regret is that this film has virtually no action to recommend it – I can't remember our hero fist-fighting a single villain! He kills a few off but it's all very stately and routine. One of the biggest sells is that he dresses up in a cool skeleton outfit to commit his robberies, but even these admittedly fun scenes are few and far between (although the house climb is a highlight). Glenn Saxson is the Hungarian hero, and he's very Aryan and good-looking, but he's also without charisma and it doesn't help that his character is pretty vicious, unpleasant and self-motivated. Helga Line – who I ADORED in HORROR EXPRESS – plays a dual role and is fairly attractive in an icy way, while Ivano Staccioli is a suitably greasy villain-type. Best of all is Andrea Bosic, playing the Scotland Yard inspector hot on Kriminal's heels, who has an absolute ball in his comic relief supporting performance.
The action shifts from London to Istanbul, with time for sightseeing on the way, but it's all very dated and routine. The film feels overlong and the ending is a damp squib – some nice train stunts but that's it. More action, less po-faced seriousness and KRIMINAL might have been good; as it is, the Turkish rip-off films featuring skeletal hero Kilink had the right idea purely because they were sillier. Umberto Lenzi is a fantastic cult director and he puts in good work here, but this is middling stuff. A sequel, THE MARK OF KRIMINAL, followed in 1968.
I'll admit that the genre of Italian spy movies left me somewhat cold. I didn't mind early Bond films – GOLDFINGER is a classic – but the slavish devotion of the countless rip-offs I found utterly boring. Now the Italian superhero movies of the late '60s – this was much more to my liking. Outlandish good guys like Argoman, Superargo and the Three Fantastic Supermen would bound around on screen and tackle waves of bad guys with knowing smirks and plenty of panache. I was hoping KRIMINAL would be like the latter films, but this is really a Bond-style movie masquerading as a superhero flick. It's an interesting precursor to Mario Bava's DANGER DIABOLIK but that's all.
My biggest regret is that this film has virtually no action to recommend it – I can't remember our hero fist-fighting a single villain! He kills a few off but it's all very stately and routine. One of the biggest sells is that he dresses up in a cool skeleton outfit to commit his robberies, but even these admittedly fun scenes are few and far between (although the house climb is a highlight). Glenn Saxson is the Hungarian hero, and he's very Aryan and good-looking, but he's also without charisma and it doesn't help that his character is pretty vicious, unpleasant and self-motivated. Helga Line – who I ADORED in HORROR EXPRESS – plays a dual role and is fairly attractive in an icy way, while Ivano Staccioli is a suitably greasy villain-type. Best of all is Andrea Bosic, playing the Scotland Yard inspector hot on Kriminal's heels, who has an absolute ball in his comic relief supporting performance.
The action shifts from London to Istanbul, with time for sightseeing on the way, but it's all very dated and routine. The film feels overlong and the ending is a damp squib – some nice train stunts but that's it. More action, less po-faced seriousness and KRIMINAL might have been good; as it is, the Turkish rip-off films featuring skeletal hero Kilink had the right idea purely because they were sillier. Umberto Lenzi is a fantastic cult director and he puts in good work here, but this is middling stuff. A sequel, THE MARK OF KRIMINAL, followed in 1968.