With the rise of sexy, envelope-pushing Italian genre comics or fumetti neri in the '60s, it was only natural for movie producers to jump on the material as quickly as possible. While the most famous of these, Diabolik, took longer than planned to reach the screen courtesy of Mario Bava and Dino De Laurentiis in 1968, Umberto Lenzi (who went on to glory with a string of violent crime and cannibal films) delivered one of the very first with 1966's Kriminal, a very loose adaptation of the character introduced by Magnus and Max Bunker two years earlier. As with Bava's film, this one tones down the murderous, vengeful nature of the source material, instead delivering a rakish, thieving anti-hero who happens to wear a crazy skin-tight outfit. However, he does still take the time to arrange facial disfigurement via shaving cream, so the sadistic elements do still creep through here. With its jazzy score by Romano Mussolini and Roberto Pregadio and wild plot turns, it's a colorful, splashy crime romp that points the direction things would be heading for the rest of the decade.

Sent to the gallows, Kriminal (Django Shoots First's Saxson) escapes when the rope miraculously breaks and bolts for his usual hideaway in London. However, it's all a plan concocted by Inspector Milton (Bosic) to track the criminal and find out where he's hidden the stolen Crown of London, which of course goes awry when his prey gets away anyway. Deciding the Crown is too much of hassle, Kriminal switches his attentions to his ex-wife, Margie (Rispoli), who works as a secretary for the widowed, wealthy, and treacherous Lady Gold (Footprints' Ruspoli). As it turns out, Lady Gold is in the process of protecting her investors' large cache of diamonds by enlisting doppelgangers Inge and Trude (both played by Spanish horror favorite Liné) to take part in a travel ruse to Istanbul with a fake-out suitcase. Of course, when Kriminal intervenes he finds out there's an even more complicated plot involved between the lookalikes, Lady Gold, and her even more devious lover, Alex (Staccioli), with numerous double crosses and jewel shenanigans ensuing.

Though that eye-catching skeleton outfit associated with the Kriminal character only shows up for a few minutes here, Lenzi keeps the proceedings moving briskly with a major shift in location or adversary every fifteen minutes or so. The fact that our main character is also a master of disguise who can infiltrate the offices of Scotland Yard with very little effort allows Saxson to throw on some amusing facial appliances several times, too. The London setting even manages to convince more or less thanks to some coverage of our star crossing the real city's streets at the beginning, at least until the action shifts to Turkey where everyone wears what appears to be a thousand gallons of bronzer (especially Liné). The decision to shoot this in Techniscope is questionable one, as Lenzi wouldn't really grasp what he could do with widescreen compositions until a little later with Paranoia; here it's almost all wide master shots, a far cry from what Bava would achieve with similar material after this.

Available on Italian home video in a variety of formats but only in English usually via the gray market, Kriminal looks excellent in its U.S. home video debut from Cult Epics on UHD and Blu-ray. The UHD (with HDR) in particular looks striking with blazing colors and natural film grain that looks better the larger your display; since this is Techniscope it's not as visually detailed or sleek as big Hollywood anamorphic processes though. The negative here features English credits with the title Kriminal: A Phantom in the Flesh and English text for those comic book speech bubbles throughout the titles; the alternate Italian credits are included as an extras. Amusingly the Spanish version of the film (which can be readily seen sans subs on services like Tubi) didn't bother to put any text at all in those bubbles, which makes the opening very confusing. The film was shot with the two leads speaking English but dubbed after the fact, while just about everyone else seems to be speaking Italian; both options are included are as DTS-HD 2.0 mono options with English subtitles. The Italian version is definitely a better mix with more convincing voice actors, but the goofy English dub has its charms, too.

A new audio commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth juggles production info from the studio files in Rome with plentiful observations about how the film fits in with Lenzi's output and its effectiveness as a fumetti adaptation, plus thoughts on even the smallest character actors who pop up throughout. Ercolani's very thorough feature-length Armed to the Teeth: The Cinema of Umberto Lenzi (88m40s) compiles a wealth of interview footage including multiple ones with Lenzi himself and colleagues like Ugo Tucci, Ernesto Gastaldi, Martine Brochard, Alessandra Lenzi, Franco Micalizzi, Corrado Solari, Nino Celeste, and Ovidio G. Assonitis, with Ercolani himself turning up at intervals to provide additional context and linking material. In "Camera Nostalgia" (37m34s), Saxson is interviewed at length about his life and career including his early years in Holland, his move to Italy where he became a familiar fotoromanzo fixture, his shift to acting, and his pursuits since Lenzi's film with lots of anecdotes along the way about his crews and co-stars. Finally in "The Sound of Krime" (24m48s), Four Flies Records' Pierpaolo De Sanctis examines the film's swinging '60s place in Italian cinema, its unique status in Lenzi's filmography, the competing fumetti films, the confusing "Raymond Full" composing credit and the career of Mussolini (yes, son of Benito), Pregadio and vocalist Nora Orlandi, the jazz influence, and more. Also included are a 50m58s isolated score program, the Italian trailer with subtitles, a 2m37s gallery, and bonus trailers for The Key, P.O. Box Tinto Brass, Don't Play with Fire, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Reviewed on September 26, 2026