Spirits of the Dead

Spirits of the Dead
French film poster by Georges Allard[3]
Directed by	Roger Vadim Louis Malle Federico Fellini
Screenplay by	Roger Vadim Pascal Cousin Louis Malle Clement Biddle Wood Federico Fellini Bernardino Zapponi[1]
Dialogue by	Daniel Boulanger[1]
Based on	"Metzengerstein" "William Wilson" "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"[b] by Edgar Allan Poe
Produced by	Raymond Eger Alberto Grimaldi
Starring	Brigitte Bardot Alain Delon Jane Fonda Terence Stamp Françoise Prévost James Robertson Justice Peter Fonda Carla Marlier Philippe Lemaire Serge Marquand
Cinematography	Claude Renoir Tonino Delli Colli Giuseppe Rotunno[1]
Edited by	Hélène Plemiannikov Franco Arcalli Suzanne Baron Ruggero Mastroianni[1]
Music by	Jean Prodromidès Diego Mason Nino Rota[1]
Production companies	Les Films Marceau-Cocinor Produzioni Europee Associati (P.E.A.)[1]
Distributed by	Cocinor (France)[5] P.E.A. (Italy)
Release dates	June 1968 (1968-06) (Paris) September 12, 1968 (1968-09-12) (Italy)
Running time	121 minutes[1][c]
Countries	France Italy[1][a]
Languages	French Italian English[5]
Box office	946,137 admissions (France)[7] ₤512 million (Italy)

Spirits of the Dead (French: Histoires extraordinaires, lit. 'Extraordinary Tales', Italian: Tre passi nel delirio, lit. 'Three Steps to Delirium'), also known as Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Tales of Mystery,^[8] is a 1968 horror anthology film comprising three segments respectively directed by Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini, based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. A French-Italian international co-production, the film's French title is derived from a 1856 collection of Poe's short stories translated by French poet Charles Baudelaire; the English titles Spirits of the Dead and Tales of Mystery and Imagination are respectively taken from an 1827 poem by Poe and a 1902 British collection of his stories.

Vadim's segment, "Metzengerstein", tells the story of the debauched Countess Frédérique de Metzengerstein (Jane Fonda), who devotes herself to taming a wild horse that once belonged to her cousin, Baron Wilhelm Berlifitzing (Peter Fonda). Malle's entry, "William Wilson", follows Wilson (Alain Delon), who is hounded throughout his life of cruelty and deception by a doppelgänger, whom he challenges to a fatal duel. Fellini's short, "Toby Dammit", a loose adaptation of "Never Bet the Devil Your Head", deals with the title character (Terence Stamp), an alcoholic Shakespearean actor, whose trip to Rome to make a Spaghetti Western in exchange for a Ferrari is complicated by multiple encounters with the Devil, who appears as a little girl with a white ball.

Spirits of the Dead was released in the United States by American International Pictures in an English-language version featuring narration by Vincent Price.^[9]

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