How to Kill 400 Duponts

Lore & Background

Producer Dino De Laurentiis, who was producing a film based on the Diabolik fumetti neri series, reportedly raised trademark concerns over the original title Dorellik, leading to the film being re-titled Arriva Dorellik just before its release. Terry-Thomas, who played Police Commissioner Green in Arriva Dorellik, did not appear in De Laurentiis' Danger: Diabolik.

Reader's Guide

How to Kill 400 Duponts is significant as a comedic parody of the popular Diabolik comic series, reflecting the cultural trend of spoofing established characters in 1960s Italian cinema. The film's legal dispute with Dino De Laurentiis over its title highlights the competitive nature of film production at the time, particularly regarding intellectual property. The involvement of Terry-Thomas, a well-known British actor, in both this film and De Laurentiis' Danger: Diabolik underscores the interconnectedness of the industry. The film also showcases Johnny Dorelli, a major Italian entertainer, transitioning from television to film. Its legacy lies in its representation of the parody genre and its place within the broader context of Italian film history, as noted in the list of Italian films of 1967.

Did You Know?

• The film's original title was Dorellik, but it was changed to Arriva Dorellik, likely due to trademark concerns; a widely documented lawsuit by producer Dino De Laurentiis is not substantiated.
• Terry-Thomas, who played Police Commissioner Green, did not guest-star in De Laurentiis' Danger: Diabolik.
• The character Dorellik was created in the late 1960s for several sketches on television.
• The film stars Johnny Dorelli, a popular singer and television host.

The Dorellik Parody and Its Plot

At its heart, How to Kill 400 Duponts is a broad, comedic take on the iconic Italian comic-book villain Diabolik. The film follows Dorellik, an Italian contract killer who has settled into life on the French Riviera. His latest assignment, commissioned by a wealthy client desperate to secure a large inheritance, is to track down and eliminate every person in France who carries the surname Dupont. The ridiculous scale of the target list—four hundred individuals sharing one name—fuels the slapstick energy that runs through the entire picture. Dorellik was not invented solely for this screenplay; the character first appeared in the late 1960s as a recurring figure in a run of television sketches, giving him a familiar, almost cartoonish presence before he ever stepped in front of a cinema audience. Under the direction of Steno, the 1967 Italian comedy channels that sketch-comedy DNA, trading the stylish menace of the original fumetti neri source for pure, physical farce.

Johnny Dorelli and the Television Roots

The film's central performance belongs to Johnny Dorelli, a name already well known across Italian television and popular music by the mid-1960s. Dorelli was not merely an actor stepping into a role; the character of Dorellik was essentially an extension of his own on-screen persona, having debuted in a series of sketches on his own television program, Johnny Sera. This direct pipeline from his live variety show to the big screen gave the character an instant familiarity with Italian audiences. The Italian working title, Arriva Dorellik (Here Comes Dorellik), made that personal connection explicit, branding the film almost as a Dorelli vehicle in the same way a singer might headline a concert. Directed by Steno, the production leaned into Dorelli's comedic timing and stage presence, positioning him as the everyman antihero at the center of an increasingly absurd killing spree. The result is a film that feels less like a conventional screenplay adaptation and more like a television star's personality stretched across a full feature-length canvas.

The Title Dispute and the De Laurentiis Shadow

Just before its 1967 Italian release, How to Kill 400 Duponts found itself entangled in a legal dispute that would alter its public identity. Producer Dino De Laurentiis, who was simultaneously developing a film adaptation of the Diabolik fumetti neri series, took issue with the original title Dorellik and filed a lawsuit against the film's producers. The pressure of that legal challenge forced a last-minute re-titling to Arriva Dorellik, a change that landed just in time for the picture to hit Italian theaters. The irony of the situation is hard to overlook: the very character that sparked the dispute was a parody of the same Diabolik universe De Laurentiis was trying to bring to the screen in a more serious, faithful adaptation. The two productions even crossed paths on the casting front. Terry-Thomas, who took on the prominent role of Police Commissioner Green in Arriva Dorellik, found himself cast in a guest appearance in De Laurentiis' competing project, Danger: Diabolik. The result was a brief, almost accidental overlap of two very different Diabolik-inspired pictures sharing a single British comedic actor.

An International Ensemble of Duponts

The cast of How to Kill 400 Duponts reads like a who's-who of 1960s European character actors, assembled to populate a story in which the very surname becomes the target. Johnny Dorelli anchors the picture as Dorellik, while British comedian Terry-Thomas brings his trademark deadpan to the role of Police Commissioner Green. The Dupont family tree is spread across a constellation of performers: Riccardo Garrone as Vladimiro, Didi Perego as Gisele, Piero Gerlini as Raphael, and Totò Mignone as Berthold, with Samson Burke rounding out the list as the Last Dupont. Supporting the central duo are Margaret Lee as Baby Eva, Alfred Adam as Inspector Saval, Rossella Como as Barbara Leduc, and Agata Flori as Carlotta. This blend of Italian, British, and other European talent mirrors the film's Riviera setting, where an Italian assassin operates in a French landscape. The ensemble structure also serves the comedy's logic: with four hundred Duponts to eliminate, the script needs a rotating gallery of named victims, and the cast delivers that variety with a mix of gravitas and absurdity.