MST3K 1013 - Diabolik

1013 - Diabolik
Air/Release Date	August 8, 1999
Running Time	100 min.
AKA	Danger: Diabolik
Movie Director	Mario Bava
Year	1968
Cast	John Phillip Law Marisa Mell Michel Piccoli Adolfo Celi
Preceded by	1012 - Squirm

“	I'll take a picturing using THE LARGEST CAMERA IN THE WORLD!	”
	- Mike

The real series finale. As the SOLers and Mads end their 10-year mission, they must suffer through Diabolik, an "international intrigue"-type movie that has a mad posh for killing innocent people.

The Movie

Synopsis

In psychedelic swinging 60s style, the dreaded thief Diabolik (Law) wreaks havoc on a generic European country for his own financial gain and amusement. He shares an extravagant underground lair (and a giant bed of money) with his curvaceous, superficial girlfriend (Mell), who uses her awesome powers of wig-wearing to help Diabolik kill innocent people and steal billions from the government.

Trivia

• The movie is based on Diabolik, one of the longest running -- and most successful -- Italian comic strips. In the paper version, Diabolik is much more sinister than his 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.
• Footage from this film was used in a Beastie Boys music video for their song "Body Movin'". The video is a parody of the movie and roughly follows the films sequence of events, with a more deliberate comedic twist.
• Actress Marissa Mell had previously appeared in Secret Agent Super Dragon.
• John Phillip Law is perhaps better known to movie-goers as the blind angel Pygar in Barberella. He would go on to play the antagonist Kalgan in Space Mutiny.
• Ralph Valmont (Adolfo Celi) also appeared in Thunderball and Operation Double 007.
• While this is the series finale of MST3K, the last original episode that aired was Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, on Sept. 18, 1999 (the airing was delayed by problems with rights clearances).  The final episode to air in reruns was The Screaming Skull, on Jan. 21, 2004.  
• In a sense, this is the second series finale, as the final episode of the Comedy Central era (Laserblast) was written to serve as the final episode if the show was not picked up by another network.

The Episode

Host Segments

Pearl pulls the plug

Final Credit

• Prologue: Mike & the Bots discover the SOL employee handbook, which seems not entirely progressive.

• Segment One: Mike toys around with the handbook; Crow asks about dental coverage. "Shut up, you have no right to ask." While looking through the ship tips to the side! Pearl has a new joystick to mess with the SOL, but it breaks, accidentally causing the SOL to begin landing. Mike & the Bots are thrilled (though Crow is nauseous); Pearl is less thrilled.

• Segment Two: Crow and Mike are packed; while Servo begins disposing of the many extra hims on the ship.

• Segment Three: In Castle Forrester, everybody is lining up new gigs: Pearl has accepted an offer to be dictator for life of Qatar, Bobo has a great new position at the zoo and Brain Guy has...um...lots of stuff going on.

• Segment Four: Crow has become fearful of returning to Earth, so Mike sings a little reassuring song, which helps, but also succeeds in scaring Servo.

• Segment Five: The SOL nearly disintegrates during re-entry, but Mike & the Bots survive the crash. We leave Mike, Crow and Servo (Gypsy has launched ConGypsCo) happily sharing a small apartment, and settling in to watch a bad movie--"The Crawling Eye"--on TV. As they begin to riff on it, it occurs to Crow that the movie seems familar.

• Stinger: "Is that stud coming?"

Obscure References

• "Oh no! Is someone gonna tell us that something is "shagadelic, man?""

Referencing the catch phrase of Austin Powers , a character other than Shrek who was the zenith of Mike Myer's acting career. (Boy was THAT a long time ago.) 

The last scene of MST3K

• "Looks like the Two Fat Ladies have their own gang now!"

A reference to the British cooking show Two Fat Ladies.

• "If Hitler had won and hired Stu Sutcliffe as his fashion designer."

Stu Sutcliffe was a member of the Beatles before their rise to fame. He was apparently fond of leather jackets.

• "A young Alan Greenspan."

Alan Greenspan was the chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.

• "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"

A line spoken by the title character in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

• "George Jones tours Italy." "George Jones drives a truck."

Country singer George Jones was involved in a heavily publicized drunk-driving accident in March 1999.

• "Oh no, abandon ship!  Sebastian Junger wrote a book about us!"

Junger's best known book is The Perfect Storm, about a fishing boat trip that did not end so well.

• "It's a long way to Tipperary"

Referencing the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and quite possibly to Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.

Trivia

• The series finale.
• Crow's comment about The Crawling Eye looking familiar is a reference to the first broadcast episode the show did for The Comedy Channel. Interestingly, neither Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, nor Bill Corbett had yet taken over their respective on-screen roles when the episode had originally aired (though Nelson and Murphy were part of the writing staff).
• Tom Servo gives the last riff in the theater. Mike gives the last riff ever on the show, while the gang is watching TV in his apartment.

Goofs

The green screen error (look to the right)

• At the end of the first theater segment when Cambot goes back through the doors, there is a brief green screen goof where part of the movie bleeds through the grey hatch.

References

MST3K - The Final Promo - Diabolik

preceded by: Season 9		MST3K Season 10					followed by: Season 11
		1999
1001	Soultaker	1999-04-11	1006	Boggy Creek II	1999-05-09	1011	Horrors of Spider Island	1999-07-25
1002	Girl in Gold Boots	1999-04-18	1007	Track of the Moon Beast	1999-06-13	1012	Squirm	1999-08-01
1003	Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders	1999-09-18	1008	Final Justice	1999-06-20	1013	Diabolik	1999-08-08
1004	Future War	1999-04-25	1009	Hamlet	1999-06-27
1005	Blood Waters of Dr. Z	1999-05-02	1010	It Lives by Night	1999-07-18