Spirits of the Dead (1968)

Histoires extraordinaires (1968), dubbed Spirits of the Dead for English and Tre Passi Nel Delirio for Italian, is an "omnibus" film comprising three segments. In the UK the film was released as Tales of Mystery (for cinema), Tales of Mystery and Imagination (for VHS) and Spirits of the Dead (for DVD). The French title Histoires extraordinaires (translated to English as Extraordinary Stories) is from the first collection of Poe's short stories translated by French poet Charles Baudelaire; the English title Spirits of the Dead is from an 1827 poem by Poe.

American International Pictures distributed this horror anthology film featuring three stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by European directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini. Jane Fonda, Alain Delon, Peter Fonda, Brigitte Bardot, and Terence Stamp are among the stars. The English-language version features narration by Vincent Price.

The film received a mixed critical reception, with the Fellini segment widely regarded as the best of the three. Reviewing the picture under its English language title Spirits of the Dead, Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that "Toby Dammit, the first new Fellini to be seen here since Juliet of the Spirits in 1965, is marvelous: a short movie but a major one. The Vadim is as overdecorated and shrill as a drag ball, but still quite fun, and the Malle, based on one of Poe's best stories, is simply tedious."

In 2008, Toby Dammit was separately restored under the personal supervision of its renowned cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno. A new 35mm print was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it was widely acclaimed by the press as a lost Fellini masterpiece.

Synopsis

Les étranges rapports d'amour que la comtesse Frederica, débauchée notoire, mais cavalière émérite, entretient avec un superbe étalon noir en qui elle voit la réincarnation de son vertueux cousin Wilhelm qui l'a dédaignée et dont elle se culpabilise de la disparition dans l'incendie de son écurie qu'elle a commandité par vengeance…

Actors