gavin6942 Three directors each adapt a Poe short story to the screen: "Toby Dammit" features a disheveled drugged and drunk English movie star who nods acceptance in the Italian press and his producers fawn over him. "Metzengerstein" features a Medieval countess who has a love-hate relationship with a black stallion - who, it turns out is really her dead lover. "William Wilson" tells the story of a sadistic Austrian student with an exact double whom he later kills.Samuel Z. Arkoff offered the producers $200,000 for American International Pictures to have the US and Canadian rights, but was knocked back as Arkoff wanted to cut a scene from the Fellini sequence. A year later the producers had not been able to find another buyer so when Arkoff made the same offer they took it. (I am not sure what he wanted cut.) What is interesting to me is the different audiences this film might have depending on your source. Certainly fans of European cinema would eat this up, and it is no wonder it is now distributed by Janus Films. But when AIP had it and put the Vincent Price narration in, it was probably directed more towards the fans of their "Poe cycle", despite this film being quite different in tone. Although I love AIP, I have never seen their version... and oddly was not really aware of this film's existence. It is not as championed as the (real) Price films...Vincent Canby 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." Now, I would disagree with that. Although I enjoyed all three segments, I would have to say the "Toby Dammit" segment was the most tedious. Clever ,well-acted, but in some ways overly long...

airynellie I didn't care for "Metzengerstein" that much at all (in a nut-shell: Jane Fonda's character walking around in strange, skimpy outfits, chasing after her cousin whenever she wasn't at an orgy), but the next two were great. "Toby Dammit" was definitely the most disturbing movie of the trio, but the cinematography was incredibly beautiful; I'd give it a 10 just for that. But I liked the "William Wilson" segment the most, and I would (and have) watched it again and again just to see Alain Delon, who was at the peak of his exotic beauty in this film. A plus is that, in "William Wilson," he didn't have the regulation tan all the good-looking actors of the time seemed to maintain. I personally always thought that the tan detracted somewhat from his looks, making him look less unique, less refined. Come to think of it, there are actually two pluses when it comes to Delon -- he looks like a porcelain, icy angel, and he gets to put that expressive face to work for a very welcome change, instead of going through almost the entire movie with a stony expression (think "The Sicilian Clan").

Michael_Elliott Spirits of the Dead (1968) *** (out of 4) Three directors come together to tell three different stories from the work of Edgar Allan Poe but the end results are quite mixed. The first film, "Metzengerstein", has Jane Fonda playing an evil countess who spends her life for orgies and various cruelties. She comes across her cousin (Peter Fonda) who eventually dies in a barn fire that she had set and soon afterwards her whole personality begins to change. The second film, "William Wilson", by Louis Malle, tells the story of a soldier (Alain Delon) who is being stalked by a man who looks just like him and has the same name. The final film, "Toby Dammit" from Federico Fellini, features Terence Stamp as a drunken actor who arrives in Italy to do the story of Christ as a Western. His drunken and drug fueled state leads to him seeing all sorts of strange things including the Devil who might be posing as a little girl.The first film is certainly the weakest of the three as there's very little European flavor to it let along anything else. Vadim's direction is also all over the place as the entire film never seems to know where it's going. One second the film seems like a drama then it mixes to a more Gothic tale and by the end I wasn't really sure what to think. The film, clocking in at forty-minutes, runs way too long as it becomes very boring early on and doesn't get any better. Peter is wasted in his small role and Jane doesn't come off too well either. She walks around in tight clothing the entire time so at least she treats us to that.The second film is a very strong one and manages to be quite eerie in a low key way. The movie travels along pretty slowly but that's not a put down but instead a major praise because Malle handles the story so well that the slowness just builds up a lot of atmosphere and that there brings a certain eerieness to the story. I loved the way the film tries to show the good and dark side of a human and Delon does a wonderful job at bringing this through his character. I think one could debate what was actually happening in the story but it's examples of good and evil were done very well on both the visual and storytelling levels. Having Brigitte Bardot playing the central female character is never a bad thing. Her beauty certainly shines through on top of her very strong performance, which requires her to do a lot with just her eyes.This third film is certainly a bizarre and surreal one and on that level the movie works, although anyone could come up with a different idea of what the director is trying to do with the material. I can only imagine what Poe himself would have thought sitting through something as wild and over the top as this thing. Stamp's wild performance matches the wild direction perfectly and it's was a lot of fun seeing what the two men would come up with next. The spoof of the awards show was certainly the highlight of the film but those seeking anything from Poe's story will probably be lost until the very end.

The_Void Spirits of the Dead is an anthology based on the writing of the great Edgar Allen Poe; but anyone going into this expecting something as entertaining as Roger Corman's Poe films is liable to be sorely disappointed as entertainment was clearly not high on the filmmakers' list of priorities. The film is split into three stories; each of them directed by one of the 'greats' of international cinema. While I'm a big fan of any film that bears his name in the writing credits; I do have to admit that aside from a couple of poems, I have not read anything by the great writer. However, from the films I have seen; I do have a very good idea of Poe's style - yet this film really doesn't encompass that at all and in fact, I was really surprised to find that this film is often labelled as 'horror', as while some of the stories in this anthology are slightly unsettling; the film is more of an arty drama on the whole and despite the fact that it's based on Poe's writings; it's not a must see for horror followers.Apparently, there's an American and International version of this film; and unfortunately I saw the International version so I missed the narration by the great Vincent Price. The first of the three stories is entitled "Metzengerstein" and directed by Roger Vadim; from whom the disappointing Blood and Roses is the only film I've seen. The most interesting thing about this story is the casting; with the director's then wife Jane Fonda starring alongside her brother Peter Fonda. The story concerns a cold and unflinching baroness falling in love with cousin. The story doesn't get boring really; but it is very slow. The second story is the most disappointing; directed by Louis Malle; it's a weird story of dual identities, made interesting only by the ending and the casting of Brigitte Bardot. Fellini's segment is the final one and probably the best of the three, although it's not the director's best work by a long shot. Terence Stamp gives a chilling portrayal at least. Overall, this film may appeal to art house fans; although there's better art house films than this and horror fans will get their kicks elsewhere too.