and Bava, the director exclaimed "Ah, questo Diabolik!" ("This is Diabolik!"), indicating to Law that he had won the role. Budgetary changes led to established actors being cast in smaller roles, including Michel Piccoli — who was recommended to De Laurentiis by Vadim — as Ginko, Adolfo Celi as Valmont, and Terry-Thomas as the Minister of the Interior (later the Minister of Finance). Because of his busy schedule, which precluded his ability to dub his own performance (in the typical manner of production for Italian films), Terry-Thomas' scenes were shot in a single day and his dialogue was recorded as live sound. Several minor members of the film's cast had appeared in Bava's earlier films, including Federico Boido (Planet of the Vampires), Francesco Mulè (Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs) and Walter Williams (The Girl Who Knew Too Much). Renzo Palmer, whose character Mr. Hammond usurps Terry-Thomas in the Minister of the Interior role, was also an experienced dubbing actor who had provided voice work for Planet of the Vampires and Knives of the Avenger; for the Italian version of the film, he looped not only his own lines, but those of Terry-Thomas'. Casting Eva Kant proved particularly troublesome. The role was originally going to be played by an unidentified American model who was cast at the behest of her friend, Gulf+Western (the-then parent company of Paramount) President Charles Bluhdorn. Law noted that the model was "gorgeous, but couldn't say 'Hello' on film", and was eventually fired a week into filming. Vadim then suggested to De Laurentiis that he cast his ex-fiancée Catherine Deneuve as Eva. Law believed that Bava was against this idea, and felt personally that Deneuve was wrong for the role: "There was no chemistry between us. She was very sweet, and a very good actress, but she was simply not right for the part"; he also stated that "Catherine may not have been ready for the part. She had not yet done Belle de Jour. I think if she had done Diabolik after Belle de Jour, she might have been more relaxed, and things might have worked out a little differently." After examining production photographs of Law and Deneuve, Lucas corroborated Law's assessment by noting that the actress was "unable to subdue her own persona to inhabit the character of Eva Kant. Standing beside her clearly enamored co-star in her white vinyl boots and mini-dress, she