Roger Vadim starts off with Metzengerstein - starring the dreaded Jane Fonda and her brother Peter Fonda - a film of unbearable boredom (concerning Jane's character believing her dead cousin's ghost has entered a horse). If it weren't for the beautiful Brigitte Bardot I don't think I would have been able to stomach any of Vadim's film works.

Louis Malle comes next with the artless William Wilson. This one stars Bardot and Alain Delon and I can barely remember what happens in this tripe. Someone gets murdered and the killer commits suicide. Blah.

Fellini comes to save the day with his Toby Dammit, a film so bizarre and insane it makes Spirits of the Dead a must have. I have to give credit to Vadim and Malle, after watching Fellini's film and comparing it to their own works, lesser men would have thrown in the directing towel and become Fellini PA's. It had to be devastating to be so thoroughly outclassed.

The wonderful Terence Stamp plays Toby Dammit - a sweaty, drunken, vile British actor hired by an Italian film crew to film a religious western. With the promise of the latest Ferrari, Toby arrives in Italy throwing tantrums, drinking heavily, and embarrassing himself on Italian television. As he travels by plane and car we are subjected to his mad point of view - nuns run by in a terminal bathed in a sickening red light - strange, extreme people follow and pester him at every turn - and to make matters worse he is being plagued by visions of a smiling, blonde haired girl playing with a ball - a vision he believes to be Satan.

At a surreal party (as only Fellini can do it) to introduce star Toby to various film players, he gets drunk and gives a rambling speech before running off to his new Ferrari. At breakneck speeds Toby navigates a maze of Italian roads, becoming more lost at every turn. These exhilarating scenes make the crash and burn films of Bruckheimer and Bay seem dead on arrival. The film concludes with Toby squaring off against the creepy girl apparition in a drunken, high speed rage.