Bad Guys Have More Fun

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Kriminal
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Genre: Crime, Thriller, Adventure
Year Released: 1966, 2026 4K
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writers: Umberto Lenzi, David Moreno Mingote, Luciano Secchi
Cast: Glenn Saxson, Helga Liné, Andrea Bosic, Ivano Staccioli, Esmeralda Ruspoli, Mary Arden
Where to Watch: available now; order your copy here: www.cultepics.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: The skeleton suit is almost a trick. KRIMINAL puts one of the most immediately recognizable costumes of 1960s European comic-book cinema front and center, only to discover that its real weapon is Glenn Saxson walking into a room with complete confidence and convincing everyone that he belongs there. The costume matters, but the man wearing it turns out to be much more interesting.

That makes Umberto Lenzi’s 1966 adaptation a slightly odd pleasure. Based on the Italian fumetti neri character created by Max Bunker and Magnus, KRIMINAL arrives with the ingredients of something far more outrageous than the movie Lenzi actually made: a masked master criminal, a skeleton-patterned bodysuit, elaborate thefts, beautiful women, international locations, hidden identities, and police officers who can never quite get their hands on him. Instead of pushing every ingredient to the limit, Lenzi keeps the film surprisingly light.

Kriminal isn’t introduced as someone we should root for in the traditional sense. He’s a thief, manipulator, and killer who survives because he is usually smarter than everyone around him. Glenn Saxson plays him with the ease of a movie star who knows the audience came to watch the criminal get away with things, and that confidence carries scenes that could have been much flatter with a less charismatic lead.

The opening escape establishes the basic relationship between Kriminal and Inspector Milton, played by Andrea Bosic. Milton is capable enough to remain a legitimate threat, but the movie is far more interested in watching Kriminal slip around him than in building a serious police procedural. Their back-and-forth gives the story a playful chase structure, with Milton forever trying to close the distance. At the same time, Kriminal changes identities, moves to another location, or turns someone else into a piece on his board.

That structure is why KRIMINAL often feels closer to a spy caper than the darker comic imagery might suggest. Crimes and deaths happen, but the film moves through expensive rooms, casinos, trains, cars, hotels, and international settings with a looseness that owes as much to the era's spy craze as it does to crime cinema. Lenzi enjoys movement, and the movie keeps finding another place for Kriminal to appear before the authorities can catch up.

This approach gives the film plenty of personality, though it can make the story more complicated than it needs to be. Diamonds move from one set of hands to another, people double-cross each other, Kriminal works his way into new situations, and several supporting characters enter primarily because they’re useful to his next move. I enjoyed following the scheme, but there are stretches where the mechanics matter more than the people involved.

Saxson smooths over a lot of that. He has a relaxed, almost amused presence that keeps Kriminal from becoming exhausting even when the character is several moves ahead of everybody else. He can be threatening when the movie needs it, but his strongest quality is how naturally he sells Kriminal’s nerve. He behaves as though there’s always another exit, another disguise, or another person he can fool, and after a while you start believing him.

That also creates one of my frustrations with the film: I wanted more of the actual costumed Kriminal. The skeleton design is too good to use as selectively as the movie does, especially when the promotional art makes it look as though a masked criminal is going to spend 100 minutes scaling walls and committing increasingly ridiculous crimes. He gets his moments, but much of the film prefers Kriminal out of costume and working through ordinary disguises and social manipulation.

Strangely, that restraint makes the costume even more memorable whenever it appears. It looks handmade enough to belong to the pulp world that inspired it, yet it photographs beautifully against the film’s brighter locations and polished interiors. The contrast between a walking skeleton and all that colorful 1960s design is exactly the kind of visual clash I wanted more often.

Cult Epics’ new 4K presentation makes those visual qualities especially easy to appreciate. The restoration lets the film’s colors, clothing, architecture, and location photography stand out without sanding away the image's age. For a movie that gets so much mileage out of surfaces and style, the upgrade feels meaningful, not cosmetic.

Kriminal’s independence separates him from the usual heroic comic-book lead. The movie is built around the simple pleasure of watching someone who absolutely should not succeed keep finding ways to do exactly that. It doesn’t ask for moral approval, and it doesn’t waste time manufacturing a noble excuse for his behavior. He’s entertaining because he’s Kriminal, and Saxson makes the character’s confidence seductive enough for us to follow him despite knowing exactly who he is.

Helga Liné, Esmeralda Ruspoli, Mary Arden, and the rest of the supporting cast move through a story that frequently treats romance, attraction, and trust as tools rather than lasting relationships. That fits Kriminal’s worldview, but it also keeps some of the supporting characters at a distance. They can be colorful and useful without always becoming memorable beyond their role in the latest scheme.

Andrea Bosic gets a little more room as Milton because persistence itself becomes part of the joke. He isn’t portrayed as an idiot, which is important; Kriminal beating a completely incompetent inspector wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying. Milton understands the kind of man he’s chasing, but understanding him and actually stopping him are two very different things.

The movie’s playful attitude also keeps it from becoming as nasty as its premise could allow. There’s violence, betrayal, and a protagonist with very flexible limits, but Lenzi rarely lets the material become grim for long. That makes KRIMINAL easy to enjoy as a stylish crime adventure, though it also means the danger sometimes feels lighter than it should when the story suddenly wants a betrayal or death to carry more weight.

I can understand anyone wishing the movie were meaner, faster, or simply stranger. The source material and the skeleton costume promise something almost unhinged, while Lenzi delivers a comparatively controlled crime caper with comic-book decoration. At times, I wanted him to stop being so well-behaved and let the movie become as ridiculous as its most memorable image suggests.

Yet that restraint never killed the fun for me. KRIMINAL has that particular 1960s European genre energy where style, location work, music, and a shamelessly confident lead can keep a picture moving even when the plotting gets tangled. The score adds to that playful momentum, giving the caper a lighter pulse than the skeleton imagery might suggest.

The new two-disc Cult Epics release also gives the film a stronger historical frame than a bare-bones presentation would. Alongside the restored feature are a commentary, interviews, an isolated score, and a feature-length documentary on Lenzi, making this feel like an attempt to preserve the movie as part of his much broader career rather than simply sell an obscure title on the strength of a fantastic costume.

That context suits a director who would become associated with very different kinds of genre filmmaking. KRIMINAL shows how comfortable Lenzi could be with something lighter and more playful, and he never pretends the caper is deeper than it is. He keeps looking for another deception, another location, and another opportunity for his criminal lead to grin his way out of trouble.

At 3.5 out of 5, I’m landing a little higher than I expected when the film began. I wanted more skeleton-suited madness, a little less plot machinery, and supporting characters who could compete with Kriminal instead of mostly orbiting him. Those shortcomings are real, but so is the enjoyment of watching Saxson glide through a movie that knows exactly why its villain is the star.

KRIMINAL may not fully exploit the visual insanity that costume promises. Still, it understands the more important attraction: sometimes the bad guy is simply the most entertaining person in the room. Lenzi lets him have that room, the next one, and usually the entire building, and the film is at its best whenever everyone else realizes too late that they were playing Kriminal’s game all along.

Bonus Materials:
4K UHD BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K Transfer (from the original negative) & Restoration + HDR
Original English & Italian 2.0 Mono
Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani & Troy Howarth
Original Theatrical Trailer

BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K Transfer (from the original negative) & Restoration
Original Stereo English & Italian 2.0 Mono
Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani & Troy Howarth
Armed to the Teeth: The Cinema of Umberto Lenzi – Feature-length documentary
Camera Nostalgia – Interview with actor Glenn Saxson
The Sound of Krime – Interview with Pierpaolo De Sanctis
Isolated Score
Original Italian Credits
Original Theatrical Trailer
Promotional Gallery
Trailers

INCLUDES:
Slipcase
Reversible Sleeve w/Original Italian Poster Art

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[photo courtesy of CULT EPICS]

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