SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

 

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968) is an adaptation of three Edgar Allan Poe tales, but it has little in common with the Roger Corman/Vincent Price/AIP series featuring that author's work. The film can also be defined as a horror anthology, but it isn't in the class of the Amicus productions of multi-story chillers. SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (original French title HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES) is a perfect definition of 1960s art house cinema, with three acclaimed directors (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini), and an international main cast made up of trendy, beautiful young stars (Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane & Peter Fonda). 

The first story, "Metzengerstein", directed by Roger Vadim, stars Jane Fonda as the cruel and capricious Countess Frederique Metzengerstein, a gorgeous and powerful young aristocrat who spends her time pursuing pain and pleasure with her debauched followers. The Countess becomes obsessed with her estranged cousin Baron Wilhelm (Peter Fonda), even more so after he rejects her advances. In revenge, the Countess orders a servant to burn down the Baron's barn, which contains his beloved horses. The Baron dies in the blaze, while at the same time a wild, untamed black stallion finds its way onto the Countess' estate. The woman transfers her obsession to the animal, and she rides it to a fitting end. 

"Metzengerstein" is a very simple tale--the symbolism of the horse is very obvious--and its best attributes are Claude Renoir's cinematography and Jane Fonda's outrageous costumes (despite the story being set sometime in the Middle Ages, the Countess seems to have had access to Barbarella's wardrobe). Jane Fonda is quite sexy (in a lethal way) as the Countess, but the story is one-dimensional, and it goes on too long. (One could make that same observation about the other two tales in this picture.) 

"William Wilson" (directed by Louis Malle) deals with a sadistic man (Alain Delon) who is constantly thwarted in his depravities by a mysterious double. Wilson eventually learns that the double is far closer to him than he thinks. 

This story is highlighted by the malevolent handsome looks of Alain Delon, who ably portrays Wilson, a man who can hurt and torture others without so much as a flicker of movement upon his attractive face. Brigitte Bardot appears in this tale as a desirable woman Wilson plays a mammoth card game with, in order to take all her money and force her under his control. The card game isn't as exciting as it should have been, and it is too lengthy. What makes "William Wilson" stand out is that it is an "evil twin" story in which the evil twin has actually been the main character all along. With cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli. 

"Toby Dammit" (directed by Federico Fellini) has Terence Stamp as a famous British actor taking a nightmarish trip to Italy, and sitting through a surrealistic awards ceremony. The troubled actor (who looks as if he's mentally & physically ill, or on drugs) escapes by driving away in a new Ferrari, given to him by the producers of a "Catholic Western" that he has agreed to star in. No matter how fast Toby speeds away, he can't escape the image of a creepy little girl who carries a white ball--an image that ends the actor's troubles. 

The "Toby Dammit" segment is the most famous part of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, due to Fellini's typical bizarre imagery and use of discordant editing techniques and disturbing faces. The whole thing comes off as an alcoholic or drug-addled hazy dream of Toby's, while also serving as a satire on the Italian film industry. One way of looking at it is to assume that the plane bringing Toby to Italy has crashed, and the actor is now in Hell or purgatory. (More literal-minded viewers will see the episode as being pretentious.) The creepy girl with the ball is an image taken straight from Mario Bava's KILL BABY KILL, and one wonders what Bava himself could have done with this story (heck, one wonders what the film would have been like if Bava had directed the whole thing--it probably would have turned out a lot better). The music for this episode was provided by Nino Rota. 

The version I watched of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD had a French voice track, with English subtitles. AIP obtained the American distribution rights to the film, slapped on a short voice over of Vincent Price reciting a few lines of Poe, and made a few cuts to it. (The international trailer for SPIRITS goes out of its way to mention the three cult directors involved in it, while the American trailer doesn't mention the trio at all!)

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD feels like three different short films attached to each other, but the trio of stories do have some similarities. The title characters of each tale are all arrogant and misanthropic, and they all get exactly what they deserve (in this way SPIRITS does recall the Amicus anthologies). The trio are also all physically attractive, while at the same time spiritually dead inside. SPIRITS is beloved by a number of astute film experts whose opinion I respect, but its languid pacing and unsympathetic characters will put many off. All three stories have some arresting moments, but there's also a lot of shots that go out of their way to say "This Means Something". If you're looking for something off-beat to watch for Halloween, SPIRITS OF THE DEAD is an apt choice, particularly for those who haven't seen it before. While I didn't dislike the movie, when it comes to horror film anthologies my tastes run toward something like THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD.